Harper v. United States

104 S.W. 673, 7 Indian Terr. 437, 1907 Indian Terr. LEXIS 46
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedSeptember 26, 1907
StatusPublished

This text of 104 S.W. 673 (Harper v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harper v. United States, 104 S.W. 673, 7 Indian Terr. 437, 1907 Indian Terr. LEXIS 46 (Conn. 1907).

Opinion

Townsend, J.

(after stating the facts as above). Plaintiff has filed 11 assignments of error, of which only the first, third, fourth, and fifth are argued.

The first assignment is that the matters charged in this indictment do not constitute a crime by the common law or under any statute of the United States. This indictment is brought under the provisions of section 5209, Rev. St. U. S. (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3497), being a portion of the national banking act. The section is as follows: “Every president, director, cashier, teller, clerk or agent of any association who [440]*440embezzles, abstracts, or wilfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds or credits of the association; or who, without authority from the directors, issues or puts in circulation any of the notes of the association.; or who without such authority issues or puts forth any certificate of deposit, draws any order or bill of exchange, makes any acceptance, assigns' any note, bond, draft, bill of exchange, mortgage, judgment or decree; or who makes any false entry in any book, report or statement of the association, with intent in either case to injure or defraud the association, or any other comp'any, body politi or corporate, or any individual person, or to deceive any officer of the association, or anjr agent appointed to examine the affairs of such association; and every person who, with like intent, aids or abets any officer, clerk or agent, in any violation of this section Shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be imprisoned not less than five years, nor more than ten.” In considering an indictment drawn under section 5209, the Supreme Court of the United States, in U. S. vs Britton, 107 U. S. 655, 2 Sup. Ct. 512, 27 L. Ed. 520, says that the following averments were necessary: “(1) That the accused was the president or other officer of a national banking association which was carrying on a banking business; (2) that, being such president or other officer, he made in a book, report, or statement of the association, describing it, a false entry, describing it; (3) that such false entry was made with intent to injure or defraud the association, or to deceive any agent, describing him, appointed to examine the affairs of the association; and (4) averments of time and place.” And in Cochran & Sayre vs United States, 157 U. S. 286, 15 Sup. Ct. 628, 39 L. Ed. 704, it is said: “But the true test is not whether it might possibly have been made more certain, but whether it contains every element of the offense intended to be charged and sufficiently apprises the defendant of what he must be prepared to meet, and, in case any other proceedings are taken against him for a similar [441]*441offense, whether the record shows with accuracy to what extent he may plead a former acquittal- or conviction.” Testing the indictment by the above rules, it will be seen, first, that the defendant Harper plaintiff in error here is alleged to have been “the duty elected, qualified, and acting cashier of the First. National Bank of Miami, Indian Territory;” second, “the said S. D. Harper * * * did make a certain false entry in a certain report,” describing it; third, that said false entry was made “to deceive one E. B. Frayser, the said E. B. Frayser being then and there the duty elected, qualified and acting president of the said First National Bank;” fourth, averments of time and place; “that on the 14th day of February, A. 1). 1903,” he made a certain false entry in a report, “showing the resources and liabilities of said First National Bank on the 6th day of February, 1903, to the Comptroller of the Currency.” With 'this test, the indictment on its face complies with the requirements laid down in U. S. vs Britton, supra; but it is contended bjr counsel for plaintiff in error, first, that the indictment does not sufficiently state that the defendant was carrying on a business at the time alleged. It appears from the indictment, however, that on the 14th day of February, 1903, the First National Bank of Miami was a corporation duty organized and existing, with a qualified and acting president and cashier, and that on that date the cashier made a certain report to the Comptroller of the Currency. It seems to us that this is a sufficient allegation. And, even if the bank had been defunct, would not the making of a false entry in a book, report, or statement of the association be just as much a violation of the statute as if the bank were in full operation? It is the making of the false entry with the intent to deceive that is the gravamen of the offense.

Plaintiff in error next contends that the indictment must show “that the report in which the false entry is alleged to have been made is one made by the association.” In Cochran [442]*442& Sayre vs United States, 157 U. S. 286, 15 Sup. Ct. 628, 39 L. Ed. 704, in which the indictment was also under the provisions of section 5209, plaintiffs in error in that case were in the same attitude as plaintiff in error in this case. The court there says: “The argument of the defendants assumes that the making of the entry and the making of the report are the same thing, whereas, in fact they are wholly different. By section 5211 the report must be made by the association, and must be verified by the oath or affirmation of the president or cashier, and attested by the signature of at least three of the directors. But, under section 5209, there is no pena ty affixed to the association or its officers for making a false report, nor to\ the president or cashier for verifying such report. The penalty imposed by section 5209 is affixed to the one who makes any false entry in any book, report', or statement of the association, and that penalty is applicable to any officer or agent of the bank who actually makes the entry with intent to injure or defraud, or to deceive any agent appointed to examine the affairs of any such association.”

Plaintiff in error next contends that the indictment must show that the report in which the false entry is alleged to have been made is one required by law to be made. This is answered by the Supreme Court of the United States in U. S. vs Britton, supra, as follows: “It is urged that these counts are defective because they do not contain an averment that the false entry was made ‘in an account of and in due course of business of the bank ’ Neither of these averments is required by the statute.” It is sufficient that it be a report intended to deceive the association or any of the persons mentioned in the statute, for it must be always borne in mind that the making of the report and the making of the entry are two different things. Cochran & Sayre vs U. S., supra. The indictment, in our judgment, is sufficient.

The third assignment of error is as follows: “That the [443]*443matters in testimony tending to prove which was given before Hon. Joseph A. Gill, judge of the District Court for the Northern District of the Indian Territory, in the above matter, do not constitute a crime against the common law or any Matute of the United States.” Under this assignment, counsel for plaintiff in error says that, because the false entry occurs in the schedule on the back of the report, it is therefore not a false entry in the report. The testimony of the witness Lykens shows: “Q.

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Related

United States v. Britton
107 U.S. 655 (Supreme Court, 1883)
Cochran & Sayre v. United States
157 U.S. 286 (Supreme Court, 1895)

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Bluebook (online)
104 S.W. 673, 7 Indian Terr. 437, 1907 Indian Terr. LEXIS 46, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harper-v-united-states-ctappindterr-1907.