Larson v. State

186 N.W. 981, 107 Neb. 800, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 161
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1922
DocketNo. 22199
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 186 N.W. 981 (Larson v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Larson v. State, 186 N.W. 981, 107 Neb. 800, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 161 (Neb. 1922).

Opinion

Morning, District Judge.

The defendant was convicted of the crime of embezzlement in the district court for Dixon county aiid was [801]*801sentenced to a term in the state penitentiary, and prosecutes error to this court.

The count of the information upon which the conviction was had charged , that on the 21st day of June, 1.919, in Dixon county, the defendant then and there being the agent of the Farmers Union Elevator Company, a corporation of Dixon county, Nebraska, did then and there, while acting as such agent and by virtue of such employment as agent of said Farmers Union Elevator Company, receive and take into his- possession certain money and one certain bank check dated June 21, 1919, of the amount and value of $582.93, the property and money of the said Farmers Union Elevator Company and did then and there unlawfully, fraudulently and feloniously convert to his own use and did embezzle said property and money, without the assent of said Farmers Union Elevator Company, his principal and employer. At the close of the evidence for the prosecution defendant moved the court to instruct the jury to return a verdict of not guilty, which was overruled and this ruling is assigned as error. An examination of the record convinces us that the court did not err in overruling said motion. There was sufficient evidence introduced by the state to justify the submission of the question of defendant’s guilt to the jury.

The chief contention of plaintiff in error is that the verdict is not sustained by the evidence. It is insisted that under the rule announced in McAleer v. State, 46 Neb. 116, it was necessary for the state to establish the corporate character of the Farmers Union Elevator Company, named in the information as the employer of the accused and as owner of the check and money alleged to have been embezzled, and that there was a want of evidence to show such corporate character. Formal proof of the incorporation of the Farmers Union Elevator Company was not made, but this was not necessary. The contract by which the defendant was employed was in writing, signed by defendant, and- it [802]*802designates the employer as “The Farmers Union Elevator Co., a corporation of Dixon, Nebraska, party of the first part.” This was placed in evidence,' and it is not only an admission by the defendant that his employer was a corporation, but it was evidence that said employer was assuming to act as a corporation. The evidence shows that said company had 81 stockholders, a board of directors, a president, secretary and treasurer, and that meetings of the stockholders and directors were held and that it did business in the name of the Farmers Union Elevator Company. In Braithwaite v. State, 28 Neb. 832, the court cited with approval Burke v. State, 34 Ohio St. 79, wherein an instruction by the court to the effect that it was “sufficient to prove by reputation that there was, at the time when the crime is alleged to have been committed, a corporation known by that name,” was approved. In the present case the defendant himself recognized, in the contract of employment signed by him, that his employer was in fact a corporation, and that it was doing business under the name by which it was designated in the information.

On cross-examination of J. J. Stanley, president of the Farmers Union Elevator Company, counsel for defense exhibited what purported to be the constitution and by-laws of the corporation, and developed the following testimony relative thereto: “Q. I will ask you to examine this little book, marked defendants exhibit 1, and state if it be the constitution and by-laws of the company concerning which you have been testifying and by which the defendant was employed? A. Yes, sir; I think it is. Q. As president you have seen such copies as these around the office? A. Yes, sir. Q. And this, you think, contains the constitution and by-laws of the association? A. Yes, sir.” Defendant’s counsel then offered and read in evidence article 1 of the document, as follows: “The name of this corporation shall be the Dixon Farmers Union Elevator Cooperative Association.”

Defendant’s counsel insists, in substance, that this [803]*803evidence shows that the corporation by which defendant was employed ivas the Dixon Farmers Union Elevator Cooperative Association, and not the Farmers Union Elevator Company, as alleged in the information, and that there is a fatal variance between the allegation of the information and the proof as to the name of the corporation, and that it also shows that there was no such corporation in Dixon county, by which defendant was employed, as that named in the information. Granting that the evidence referred to shows that the legal name of the corporation was the “Dixon Farmers Union Elevator Cooperative Association,” does it prove anything other than that the corporation was, at the time, doing business under an assumed name somewhat shorter and slightly different from the one under which it was incorporated? If the evidence had shown that the corporation was doing business under the name of Dixon Farmers Union Elevator Cooperative Association, instead of the name set out in the information, no doubt the variance between the allegation of the information and the proof would have been fatal, but such was not the case. The evidence shows, without contradiction, that the name set out in the information was not only the one used in the written contract by which defendant was employed, but was also the name by which all of its business ivas transacted ivhile defendant was employed by it. The above-quoted evidence of the president of the corporation shows that the two names refer to the same corporation, and if removes any possible doubt that the concern was a corporation. Hoav it came about that the name under which it did business was different from the one mentioned in the above-quoted provision of the constitution and by-laws the record does' not disclose, nor do Ave regard it as material. If the injured party is known as Avell by one name as another, he may be designated in an information by either. 14 R. C. L. 182, sec. 28; 22 Cyc. 348, 350; State v. Glaze, 9 Ala. 283; Commonwealth v. [804]*804Trainor, 123 Mass. 414; State v. Davis, 109 N. Car. 780; Bell v. State, 25 Tex. 574. And, since a corporation, as well as an individual, may have, or be known by, more than one name, we see no reason why the same rule should not apply where the injured party is alleged to be a corporation. 1 Clark & Marshall, Corporations (11th ed.) secs. 51, 52.

Defendant also insists that the evidence was not sufficient to prove that the check described in the count of-the information upon which he was convicted was the property of the Farmers Union Elevator Company. John Curley went to the elevator of said corporation at Dixon, where defendant was in sole charge, and bought a quantity of corn,. giving his check in the sum of $1,056.48 payable to the order of the Farmers Union Elevator Company in payment. Defendant had charge of the checking account of said corporation at Dixon, and his usual custom was to deposit moneys' received by him for his employer in its bank account, which was in the name of the corporation. That course was not pursued, however, with the check for $1,056.48 above mentioned.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 N.W. 981, 107 Neb. 800, 1922 Neb. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/larson-v-state-neb-1922.