Nahhas

The defendantwas convicted of a felony, to wit, violation of section 538 of the Penal Code, in that, on or about the thirtieth day of May, 1931, in the county of Merced, the defendant executed and delivered a mortgage upon certain personal property, to wit, Caterpillar-30 tractor No. -5940, of the alleged value of more than $200, upon which property there was, at the time of the execution of the said mortgage, a prior encumbrance, and that the defendant, at the time of executing the subsequent mortgage, failed to inform the mortgagee, the person to whom the mortgage was executed, of the existing prior mortgage, and also failed to inform the owner of the prior mortgage thereof. From this conviction the defendant appeals.

When the case was called for trial, upon motion, the district attorney was allowed to amend the information by inserting the words “of the value of more than $200.00”, the claim being made that this amendment was and is not allowable under the provisions of section 1008 of the Penal Code, in that it substantially changed the offense charged in the information so as to charge an offense not shown by the evidence taken at the preliminary examination.

By reason of…