STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
IVA MAY SCARBOROUGH ALIAS IVA MAY WILHELM, APPELLEE
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The State of Florida appealed a trial court order quashing an information charging Iva May Scarborough with obtaining narcotic prescriptions by fraud and misrepresentation under Florida's Uniform Narcotic Drug Law. The appellate court reversed, holding that the information adequately stated an offense because knowledge or scienter is implicit in the statutory language describing the prohibited conduct and need not be separately alleged.
The court held that scienter is not required to be separately alleged in an information charging obtaining a narcotic prescription by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and concealment of material fact because knowledge is implicit in such language and redundant to allege separately. The information was therefore sufficient to state an offense.
“An allegation of scienter with reference to this crime would merely be redundant. It is difficult, if not impossible to conceive of a situation where a person could obtain a narcotics prescription by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and concealment of a material fact, and yet not have scien-ter.”
Establishes the court's holding that scienter is implicit in fraud-based crimes and need not be separately alleged in the information.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceScarborough was charged with unlawfully obtaining prescriptions for demerol (a narcotic drug) by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation, and concealment of …
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The State charged the defendant with a violation of Fla.Stat. Sec. 398.19(1) (a) and c), F.S.A., which is part of the Uniform Narcotic Drug Law. The defendant entered a plea of not guilty and at trial, after the opening statement by the prosecutor, the defendant made a motion to quash the information. Prior to this a motion to quash or a motion for a bill of particulars had not been filed. The court reserved ruling and, at the conclusion of the State’s case, granted the motion to quash on the grounds that the information failed to allege that the acts committed by the defendant were done knowingly and that the information failed to state an offense upon which a conviction could properly be based. The State has appealed this order.
The information charged that the appel-lee :
“ * * * did unlawfully and feloniously obtain a prescription for a narcotic drug, to wit: isonipecaine also known as demerol, by fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation, in violation of Section 398.19(1) (a), Florida Statutes, 1961.”
And
“ * * * did unlawfully and feloniously obtain a prescription for a narcotic drug, to wit: isonipecaine also known as demerol, by the concealment of a material fact, in violation of Section 398.19(1) (c), Florida Statutes, 1961, * * *"
It is evident that the information was copied almost verbatim from the statute, which does not mention a requirement of knowledge or scienter.
The Uniform Narcotic Drug Law has been adopted, with local modifications, in practically all fifty states. Cases concerning these statutes are collected in Volume 9B of Uniform Laws Annotated. Research does *460not reveal any cases which require an information to allege scienter where the type of violation in the present case is charged.
The defendant-appellee contends the trial court was correct in quashing the information and relies heavily on the case of Beasley v. State, 1947, 158 Fla. 824, 30 So.2d 379. In this case a violation of Sec. 398.19(4) was charged, which involved the uttering of a forged prescription for narcotics. The sufficiency of the information was one of the issues and the Florida Supreme Court held that for the offense of uttering a forged prescription it was necessary to allege that the defendant had known that the instrument was false and forged. The information did not contain this and the Court stated that it should have been quashed. The difference between this offense and the one charged in the present case is obvious. To impose criminal liability for the uttering of a forged instrument would require scienter because the very essence of the offense is the nature of the written instrument. One who passes a forged prescription in good faith, entirely innocent of the fact that it is a forgery, could not be convicted of uttering a forged instrument.
In the present case the information charged that the defendant obtained a narcotic prescription by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and the concealment of a material fact. An allegation of scienter with reference to this crime would merely be redundant. It is difficult, if not impossible to conceive of a situation where a person could obtain a narcotics prescription by fraud, deceit, misrepresentation and concealment of a material fact, and yet not have scien-ter. Knowledge or scienter is implicit in the language of the statute and thus it does not have to be alleged separately.
Another question raised by this appeal is whether the defendant had waived any right to object to the information by not moving to quash until during the trial. Inasmuch as we are reversing the order quashing the information it is not necessary to consider this question.
Reversed and remanded.
ALLEN, Acting C. J., and DRIVER, B. J., Associate Judge, concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Chicone v. State, 684 So. 2d 736 (Fla. 1996)…y, since we find that guilty knowledge is implicit in the concept of possession as provided in the statute, it need not be specifically alleged in the information in a manner more explicit than that provided in the statute. See State v. Scarborough, 170 So. 2d 458 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965)(knowledge or scienter is implicit in the language of the statute barring use of a forged prescription and does not have to be alleged separately); see also State v. Harris, 439 So. 2d 265, 270 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983)(holding that accus…
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Frank v. State, 199 So. 2d 117 (Fla. 1st DCA 1967)…is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein. JOHNSON and SPECTOR, JJ., concur. . F.S. § 398.03, F.S.A. . Cohen v. State, (Fla.1960) 125 So. 2d 560. . State v. Scarborough, (Fla.App.1965) 170 So. 2d 458. .Spataro v. State, (Fla.App.1965) 179 So. 2d 873, 876, 877. . Stanley v. State, (Ma.App.1966) 189 So. 2d 898. . O’Neil v. State, (Ma.App.1967) 194 So. 2d 40.…
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Ginn v. State, 26 So. 3d 706 (Fla. 2d DCA 2010)…of uttering] is the nature of the written instrument,” and thus “[o]ne who passes a forged [instrument] in good faith, entirely innocent of the fact that it is a forgery, [can] not be convicted of uttering a forged instrument.” State v. Scarborough, 170 So. 2d 458, 460 (Fla. 2d DCA 1965); see also Taylor v. State, 241 So. 2d 426, 426 (Fla. 3d DCA 1970) (holding that an “essential element” of the crime of uttering a forged instrument is knowledge that the instrument was forged). In this case, there was undisp…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Beasley v. State, 158 Fla. 824 (Fla. 1947)