Gordon v. United States

5 F.2d 943, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2783
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 4, 1925
DocketNo. 6783
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 5 F.2d 943 (Gordon v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon v. United States, 5 F.2d 943, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2783 (8th Cir. 1925).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

The grand jury in the court below on January 29, 1923, found an indictment in two counts against the defendant Abraham Gordon, a bankrupt, in the first count for fraudulently failing to list and declare in his schedules of his assets in bankruptcy and for fraudulently concealing from the trustee of his estate in bankruptcy three certificates of deposit aggregating and worth $2,500, issued to him by the Union National Bank of Minot, N. D., and in the second count for committing the crime of perjury in his testimony before the referee in bankruptcy relative to these certificates. He was tried and convicted on 'each of these counts, and sentenced to imprisonment in the penitentiary at Leavenworth for one year and six months. He sued out this writ of error, and his counsel make two complaints of the proceedings at his trial: First, that the court below refused to grant his motion, based on affidavits, to quash the second count of the indictment on the ground that there was no competent testimony or evidence before the grand jury that found the indictment of the commission of the offense charged in that count-; and, second, that the trial court denied the motion of the defendant at the close of the trial to instruct the jury to return a verdict in his favor.

The denial of the motion to quash, however, is not reviewabie in this court because that motion was founded on affidavits and those affidavits are not embodied in a bill of exceptions authenticated by the judge who denied the motion. Chicago Great Western Ry. Co. v. Le Valley, 233 F. 384, 387, 147 C. C. A. 320; Hildreth v. Grandin, 97 F. 870, 872, 38 C. C. A. 516; Ingram v. United States, 5 F.(2d) 940 (8th C. C. A., opinion filed April 17, 1925). Nor is this court required to review the denial of the motion for a directed verdict, for no exception was taken to that ruling. Southern Pacific Co. v. Arnett, 126 F. 75, 81, 61 C. C. A. 131.

We have nevertheless carefully read the evidence at the trial and the briefs of counsel, and these facts are admitted or conclusively proved: On December 2, 1921, the defendant Gordon was doing business under the name of the Gordon Clothing Company at Minot, N. D., and he kept his account with the Union National Bank of that city in that name. On that day he borrowed of that bank $2,500, and gave to it therefor his five promissory notes, for $500 each, secured their payment by an assignment of his rents, caused this $2,500 to be credited to himself under the name Gordon Clothing Company by the bank, drew his cheek as Gordon Clothing Company on the bank for $2,500, bought with that cheek two certificates of deposit of that bank for $1,000 each, and one for $500, running to himself under the name A. Gor[944]*944don, indorsed them, and delivered them to the bank. Mr. Persons, the president of the hank, testified that he made out the slip for the credit to him as the Gordon Clothing Company of the $2,500 borrowed; that 10 or 15 minutes thereafter he returned with the three certificates of deposit which he had indorsed, handed them to him, and said, “You can put these away with my other collateral ; I want the bank to be safe all the time, and I don’t intend to use the money right now;” and that he (Mr. Persons) understood that he was taking these certificates as collateral security for Gordon’s notes for the $2,500 and for other amounts.

On January 16, 1922, an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed against Mr. Gordon, and on February 8,1922,- he was adjudicated a bankrupt. He did not list or describe the three certificates' of deposit or their value in his schedules of his assets in the bankruptcy proceedings. He was called and sworn to testify to the truth in his examination before the referee in bankruptcy at the first meeting of his creditors on March 2, 1922, and at a continuation of that examination on April 6, 1922, he testified that the three certificates of deposit which he obtained from the bank and handed to Mr. Persons oh December 2,1921, were not his, but were his wife’s; that some one in the bank made a mistake in making them out in his name; that his wife gave him the cash for them at just that time; that he went to his wife and got $2,500; that he gave that cheek to his wife; that he got credit to his account and drew it out; that he drew cheek on the bank; that she gave it to him as cash; that she said she did not need it, and he might just as well take it; that he owed the bank, and took the certificate of deposit, and left it in the bank, because his wife was going away for medical attention; that he did not turn over the certificates of deposit; that he gave his wife cheek for cash, and she gave him cash; that he signed the cheek; that he did not remember whether he gave the bank a check, too; that he paid bills with the cash she gave him; that he drew only one cheek on December 2, 1921, and that was to his wife, and he got the currency from her; that he gave her $2,000 in September, which he got from Kopald and Gordon, and gave her for her operation, and she still had it in December, because she had not used it.

“Q. Didn’t you just tell us that you borrowed $2,500 from your wife in December? A. She gave it to me, so I could take certificates of deposit and put it away for her.
“Q. You mean you used it to buy G. D.’s, this currency that you got from your wife? A. I don’t just exactly remember whether I used the check or currency.
“Q. Did you issue any cheeks on December 1st or 2d for $2,500 ? A. I don’t think I issued this check; I drew cheek right on the bank here.
“Q. And that cheek? A. I am sure I did-n’t draw a check.
“Q. Drew it at the bank at the same time you borrowed the money? A. I did not.
“Q. You went home first? A. Sure.
“Q. What did you go home for? A. Well, because I wanted to get the wife.
“Q. Why did you borrow it from the bank, if you had money — if your wife had money? A. I didn’t know she had money. That was given her for medical attention.
“Q. In the first place, you didn’t know she had it? A. But I didn’t know whether she used it.”

It was upon this testimony of Mr. Gordon before the referee that the claim of the government that he committed perjury was based. At the trial below he testified in his own behalf that the three certificates of deposit were his wife’s and not his; that on December 2,1921, after he had borrowed the $2,500, given his notes for it, and received-credit for it in his account with the bank, he went home to his wife and got $2,000 in cash, which she had in the house, took it to Mr. Balerud, the assistant cashier of the bank, drew his cheek on the bank for $2,500, gave it to Balerud, and told him he wanted certificates of deposit for that amount, told Mr. Persons that he just got $2,000 from his wife, which he was going to use for meeting his obligations, and that he would have certificates of deposit for the $2,500 he borrowed of the bank, and leave it with Mr. Persons; and^ that he told his wife he put away $2,-500 for her. He again testified that the certificates were his wife’s, and that that was the reason he did not list them in the schedules of his assets. He also testified that he gave his wife the $2,000 she had in the house in September, 1921.

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Bluebook (online)
5 F.2d 943, 1925 U.S. App. LEXIS 2783, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-v-united-states-ca8-1925.