Barr v. State

65 So. 197, 10 Ala. App. 111, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 149
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 22, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 65 So. 197 (Barr v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barr v. State, 65 So. 197, 10 Ala. App. 111, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 149 (Ala. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

WALKER, P. J.

As stated in the report of this case on a former appeal (Barr v. State, 7 Ala. App. 96, 61 South. 40), the indictment charged the defendant with the embezzlement of money of the White Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Ohio, which came into his possession by virtue of his employment as agent of said company. It is apparent from the language of the indictment that the offense the commission of which it charges is the one defined by section 6828 of the Code. — Willis v. State, 134 Ala. 429, 33 South. 226. The evidence offered in support of the charge was as to the fraudulent conversion by the de[114]*114fendant to Ms own nse of money received by Mm on a sale of an automobile wMcb Avas tbe property of the White Company, and Avhich came into the defendant’s possession as a sales agent of that company. In behalf of the appellant it is contended that evidence of such a misappropriation by a bailee of “the proceeds of any property sold by him for another” shows the commission of the offense denounced by section 6831 of the Code, and cannot support an indictment which charges the commission of another offense — one embraced by the terms of section 6828 of the Code. This contention cannot be sustained. If there is evidence of the commission by the defendant of an act which has in it all the elements of the offense charged in the indictment, 'he cannot escape on the ground of a variance between the allegations of the indictment and the evidence offered in support of them, though • the same evidence might have been available in support of another criminal charge against him. The existence of every element of the offense which the indictment in this case charges is shown by evidence to the effect that the defendant, being at the time the agent of the corporation named in the indictment, employed to transact business for it, fraudulently converted to his own use money of that corporation which came into his possession by virtue of his employment. — Eggleston v. State, 129 Ala. 80, 30 South. 582, 87 Am. St. Rep. 17; Washington v. State, 72 Ala. 272; 15 Cyc. 497. Before the statute which constitutes section 6831 of the Code was materially changed by amendment, it was held that an indictment charging the offense defined by section 6828 of the present Code could not be supported by evidence of the fraudulent conversion by the defendant to his own use of property of another of which the defendant had possession as 'bailee, unaccompanied by any authority to act as agent [115]*115of the bailor, the owner ■ of the property, as such evidence showed only the commission of an offense defined' by the section of the Code of 1896 (3797), which corresponds with section 6831 of the present Code; and it was said, in effect, in reference to the law as it then stood, that a defendant, indicted under one of these sections, could not be convicted on evidence showing his guilt of an offense denounced by the other.- — Pullam v. State, 78 Ala. 31, 56 Am. Rep. 21; Watson v. State, 70 Ala. 13, 15 Am. Rep. 70. It is very questionable whether such a statement can properly be made, since by an amendment of the statute, section 6831 of the Code, makes it a crime for a bailee to embezzle or fraudulently convert to his own use any money or other property “which may have come into his possession by virtue of any bailment for any purpose.” It seems that these Avords bring within the scope of this statute a bailee who is also the authorized agent of the bailor to deal with the subject of the bailment on account of the latter. However that may be, it is plain that a bailee who is such an agent of the bailor is guilty of the offense charged in the indicment in this case if he fraudulently converted to his own use money which came into his possession by virtue of his employment, though that money is the proceeds of property sold by him for another.

The money which there was evidence tending to prove Avas converted by the defendant to his own use came into his hands as a result of a sale made by him. in this state of an automobile which he had for sale for the White Company, an Ohio corporation Avhich at the time of such sale had not, by a compliance with the statutory requirements applicable to such a corporation, become entitled to do business in this state. Such a noncompliance Avith the requirements of the law by [116]*116the nondomestic corporation from which the defendant received the property did not change his relation to that property or to the money into which by the sale it was converted, from that of bailee or agent to that of owner; nor did it have the effect of confiscating or so far outlawing the property of such corporation found in this state that a person in possession of it could, with impunity, deal with it or with the proceeds of its sale in such a manner as would have made him guilty of embezzlement if his principal or employer had been under no disability to transact business in the state. The statutes render null and void all contracts, engagements, or undertakings or agreements with, by, or to a nonresident corporation which undertakes to do business in this state when it is not entitled to do so, and make the offending corporation, and any agent, servant, or officer of it liable to specified criminal penalties for violations of the prohibitions as to doing business in this state to which they are subjected. — Code, §§ 3642, 3644, 3645, 3653, 6628, 6629. But the statutes do not undertake further to penalize such infractions of their provisions by. exposing any property of the offending-corporation found in this state to be preyed upon by any one who may choose to despoil it or to appropriate it to his own use, or by suspending as to such property the operation of all laws, .civil or criminal, against wrongful dealing- by one person with the property of another. In the case of State v. Sienkiewiez, 4 Pennewill (Del.) 59, 55 Atl. 346, the support for the charge of embezzlement was evidence as to a fraudulent conversion by the defendants to their own use of goods which they had obtained under a contract of bailment which was void because it was made on Sunday. In disposing of the contention that the defendants could not have been guilty of embezzlement because there had [117]*117been no valid bailment of the property charged to have been fraudulently converted, the court said: “When a contract is made on Sunday, and the making of it on that day is forbidden by statute, the contract is void, though the thing contracted to be done may be lawful. And yet, although the OAvner may place his property in the hands of another under a contract Avhich is void, he does not forfeit his property in the thing which he has thus delivered. While the party to an unlawful contract shall not receive the aid of the laAV to enforce that contract, or to compensate him for the breach of it, and while the contract may be void, the general property in the thing bailed remains Avith the former owner.

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Bluebook (online)
65 So. 197, 10 Ala. App. 111, 1914 Ala. App. LEXIS 149, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barr-v-state-alactapp-1914.