Baldwin v. State

23 Ohio Law. Abs. 147, 1936 Ohio App. LEXIS 484
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 14, 1936
DocketNo 15101
StatusPublished

This text of 23 Ohio Law. Abs. 147 (Baldwin v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baldwin v. State, 23 Ohio Law. Abs. 147, 1936 Ohio App. LEXIS 484 (Ohio Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

OPINION

By THE COURT:

This is a proceeding in error under the former appellate practice, from the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga county, Ohio. It is brought to reverse a judgment of conviction of Wilbur M. Baldwin and Kenyon V. Painter, entered after trial on a joint indictment in which the accused were charged in four counts, for violation of §710-172, GC, a criminal section of the Ohio Banking Law. On the trial a jury was waived. The four counts involved three transactions, as follows:

(1) Misapplication, consisting of causing the release from and conveyance by The Union Trust Company of Cleveland, on or about September 30, 1931, of certain parcels of land in Geauga county, Ohio, title, to which was held by the bank as security in part for Painter’s indebtedness to the bank. This conveyance is charged to have been made to Maude Wyeth Painter, wife of Kenyon V. Painter, without payment on the loan or substitution of other security.

(2) Misapplication, consisting of the release on or about October 3, 1931, of certain miscellaneous shares of stock, held by the bank as partial security for Painter’s indebtedness to the bank, said shares having been released to Painter for his own use and benefit, without payment on the loan and with the return of inadequate security in place thereof, and causing part of said securities to be used as additional security for a loan of Kenyon V. Painter at The Chemical Bank and Trust Comany of New York.

(3) Abstraction of the same stocks involved in the second count, consisting of [149]*149the unlawful taking and removal of same from the bank, and the conversion of the same to Painter’s use and benefit.

The transaction in the third count is the same as that involved in the second count, that of October 3, 1931, it being charged in the second count as misapplication and in the third count as abstraction.

(4) Misapplication, consisting of the release, on or about October 23, 1931, of 7000 shares of stock of the Manufacturers’ Tract Company, of New York, held by the bank as partial security for Painter’s indebtedness to the bank, which shares were delivered to the New York Trust Company of New York, for Painter’s account, and receiving therefor the sum of $150,000.00, when it is charged that the market value of said stock was approximately $226,000.00.

In the indictment, Wilbur M. Baldwin is charged with being an officer, to wit, president, director and member of the executive committee of said bank, and Kenyon V. Painter is charged with being an officer, to wit, director and member of the executive committee of said bank, and in each of the counts of the indictment it is charged that the transactions mentioned were had with intent to injure or defraud the bank, and the misapplication and abstraction are charged to have been unlawfully and wilfully done.

The Union Trust Company of Ceveland, the bank involved in this indictment, was a member bank of the Federal Reserve System at and for a long time prior to the dates involved in the indictment.

Shortly after the return of this indictment both Baldwin and Painter filed their pleas in abatement, thereto, alleging as their ground therefor the fact not made apparent in the indictment, that The Union Trust Company was at the times charged, a member bank of the Federal Reserve System, which fact was admitted by the State, and that since the same acts were made offences and were cognizable under and by the federal law, if committed by. officer's of a member bank of the Federal Reserve System, the federal courts had exclusive jurisdiction. These pleas in abatement were overruled some time before trial, and at the trial were amended so as to state with more definiteness and certainy that by virtue of both the Constitution and the statutes of the United States, the state courts were without jurisdiction to return or try this indictment. Thus amended, the trial court again overruled these pleas, and, after a finding of guilt as to both defendants on all four counts of the indictment, the same question of the jurisdiction of the .state courts were raised by motions in arrest of judgment, duly filed which were also overruled.

The rulings of the court on these pleas and motions are assigned as errors in the petition in error and as these assignments of error go to the jurisdiction of the trial court, they will be first considered.

The pertinent part of §710-172 GC, on which this indictment is based, provides:

“Whoever being an officer, employee, agent or director of a bank, embezzles, abstracts or wilfully misapplies any of the money, funds, credits or property of such bank, whether owned by it or held in trust, * p * with intent to defraud or injure the bank or another person or corporation * * * shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned in the penitentiary not more than thirty years, or both.”

U. S. Code, Title XII, §592, (Revised Statutes §5029) as in effect at times the offences are charged to have been committed, provided as follows:

“Any officer, director, agent or employe of any Federal Reserve Bank, or of any member bank as defined in §§221 to 225 of this Title, who embezzles, abstracts, or wilfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds or credits of such Federal Reserve Bank or member bank, * * * with intent in any case to injure or defraud such Federal Reserve Bank or member bank, or any other company body politic or corporate or any individual person * * * and every person who with like intent, aids or abets any officer, director, agent, employee or receiver in any violation of this section, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof in any district court of the United States shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or shall be imprisoned for not more than five years, or both, in the discretion of the court.”

U. S. Code, Title XXVIII, §371, provides as follows:

“The jurisdiction vested in the courts of the United States in the cases and proceedings hereinafter mentioned, shall be exclusive of the courts of the several states.
First. Of all crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States.”

It is under the above sections of the United States Code, and by virtue of the pro[150]*150visions of the Constitution of the United States, Article VI, Paragraph 2, that the defendants claim that the state court had no jurisdiction to try them under this indictment.

U. S. Constitution, Article VI, paragraph 2, provides as follows:

“This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof, * * * shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”

The following parts of sections of the United States Code and of the General Code of Ohio, are also pertinent to a consideration of the questions raised by the ruling of the trial court:

U. S. Code, Title XII, §321:

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Bluebook (online)
23 Ohio Law. Abs. 147, 1936 Ohio App. LEXIS 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldwin-v-state-ohioctapp-1936.