## Facts

- Austin G. Weldon served as city clerk and tax collector for the City of Talladega and also acted as clerk and collector for the Talladega light and water commission.
- His duties included collecting money owed to the city and to the commission and depositing commission funds into a designated bank account.
- During the charged period, evidence indicated a shortage of about $2,300 between amounts collected for the commission and amounts deposited.
- The prosecution’s evidence tended to show Weldon appropriated the money before depositing it into the designated bank account.
- The City of Talladega had a special property interest in the commission funds sufficient to allege ownership in the city for charging purposes.
- Weldon was indicted on four counts of embezzlement and one count of grand larceny.
- The jury convicted Weldon on the larceny count.

## Issues

1. Whether an agent who lawfully receives money from third parties for a principal can be convicted of larceny when the principal never had actual or constructive possession before the agent’s alleged conversion.
2. Whether the trial court erred by refusing to give a directed verdict (general affirmative charge) for the defendant on the larceny count.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals of Alabama reversed and remanded.
- The court held the evidence could not support larceny because the funds had not come into the city’s actual or constructive possession before the alleged conversion.
- The trial court erred by refusing the defendant’s requested general affirmative charge as to the larceny count.

## Legal Principles

- Larceny requires a trespassory taking: a felonious taking from the owner’s possession (actual or constructive).
- When an agent receives money directly from third parties for the principal, the agent holds lawful possession until the money is delivered into the principal’s possession (including through deposit into a designated account).
- A fraudulent appropriation by the agent while the principal lacks actual or constructive possession constitutes embezzlement rather than larceny.
- Ownership (or a special property interest) sufficient for pleading does not establish the possession element necessary for larceny.

## Conclusion

Because Weldon lawfully obtained the funds from third parties and the city had not yet obtained actual or constructive possession when the alleged conversion occurred, the larceny element of a trespassory taking was missing; the larceny conviction was therefore reversed and the case remanded.


Weldon v. State, 17 Ala. App. 68, 81 So. 846 (Ala. Ct. App. 1919)