Gale

The two cases above entitled are considered together because they present problems depending upon the same legal principles for solution. In each the defendants were charged with petty theft. In each the offense within the category of “theft” which the evidence most nearly indicates is that of obtaining money under false pretenses. In each the evidence fails utterly to establish such an offense.

The crime of obtaining money by false pretenses is not new to this state, and the indispensable elements were early catalogued and have been frequently illustrated.

. In the Penal Code we find two sections of interest. Section 532, as enacted in 1872, read in part:

In 1889 the section was amended so as to make the punishment the same as that for larceny of money or property so obtained, and in 1905 the section was further amended in a particular not of interest to us.

Section 484, as amended in 1927, includes this offense under the definition of theft, by the following language:

In the early cases of People v. Jordan, (1884) 66 Cal. 10 [ 56 Am. Rep. 73 , 4 Pac. 773 ], and People v. Wasservogle, (1888) 77 Cal. 173 [ 19 Pac. 270 ], we find this statement concerning obtaining money under…