Lear v. United States

147 F. 349, 77 C.C.A. 527, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4244
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJuly 16, 1906
DocketNo. 42
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 147 F. 349 (Lear v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lear v. United States, 147 F. 349, 77 C.C.A. 527, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4244 (3d Cir. 1906).

Opinions

GRAY, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in error, who, during the period involved, was president of the Doylestown National Bank, was tried in the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, upon an indictment framed under section 5209 of the Revised Statutes [U. S. Comp. St 1901, p. 3497], which is as follows:

“See. 5209. Every president, director, cashier, teller, clerk, or agent of any association, who embezzles, abstracts, or willfully 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 company, body politic or corporate, or any individual person, or to deceive any officer of the association, or any agent appointed to examine the affairs of any 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.”

The indictment covered fifty transactions, and, with respect to each of them, embezzlement, abstraction and willful misapplication were severally charged. Accordingly, there were one hundred and fifty counts. The court directed the jury to acquit of embezzlement, and fifty of the counts were eliminated. The charges of abstraction and of willful misapplication were submitted, with instructions, no part of which has been assigned for error, and which, in our opinion, were not [351]*351open to valid exception. But the learned counsel of the defendant requested the learned judge, to charge that, “under all the evidence in this case as now presented by the prosecution, your verdict should he for the defendant”; and the refusal of this request, the fifth specification avers was erroneous. There are four other specifications, but none of them has been pressed in argument. The first three are plainly without merit, and the fourth relates to counts upon which there was no conviction, and therefore is immaterial.

The defendant’s claim of right to binding instructions went to the the whole case, and was based upon “all the evidence.” Ilis proposition was, that upon the evidence as a whole, the entire case should be withdrawn from the jury; and that, at the time the court below -was required to pass upon it, this proposition could not have been properly affirmed, is indubitable. It has been suggested, however, that the ruling of the court below should now be regarded, not as of the time at which it was made, but with reference to the verdict that was subsequently rendered, and which, it is supposed, has had the effect of excluding some of the evidence from present consideration. This suggestion will be first disposed of.

At the close of his charge, the learned judge, addressing the jury, said:

“T want to say this with reference to this indictment. You need not trouble yourself reading this over, or any part of it. The first three counts of tills indictment are concerned with the $10,000 note, whicli was obtained in July, 1001. You will perhaps find it desirable, or convenient, to take that subject up first, and if you are satisfied, beyond a reasonable doubt, that that money was abstracted, or willfully misapplied, guided by the instructions I have given you, then there is no occasion for you to go any further into the ease, because that disposes of it finally, but if you find in favor of the defendant with regard to that matter, then you will be obliged to go into this series of overdrafts, and you will have to determine concemiiur those, whether, with regard to any one or more of them, the offense of abstraction or willful misapplication has been committed. As I have said, it is possible for the jury to find in favor of the defendant as to some portion, and in favor of the Government as to others, or they may find in favor of the defendant as to all or in favor of the Government as to all.”

Some further remarks were made in explanation of the general charge, and “the jury then retired, and on their return to the court, announced that they had found the defendant guilty as indicted in the third count”; but the verdict, as recorded, was “that the defendant, Henry Lear, is guilty in manner and form as he stands charged in the third count of the indictment, and not guilty as to the remaining counts”; and the contention appears to be, that this verdict was tantamount to an express finding that the facts requisite to a conviction upon any of the counts other than the third had not been shown to exist, and that therefore it must now be assumed that there was no evidence upon which a finding of their existence, with reference to the third count, could be sustained. We cannot accede to this contention. We would not be disposed to reject it merely because the point to which it is directed is not presented by the assignment of errors; but a conclusive answer to it is, that we are not at liberty to [352]*352indulge in conjecture respecting the grounds of a verdict, or to add to its terms by inference.

The inference we are asked to draw in this instance, is precluded, we think, by the circumstances which preceded and attended the rendition of the verdict; but if this were not so, it could not legitimately affect our decision of the question before us. If there was no evidence to sustain the conviction upon the third count, it of course should not be permitted .to stand; but if there was, it is not within the province of this court to inquire, or by deduction to surmise, how the whole or any part of that evidence was dealt with by the jury.

The count as to which there was a verdict of guilty, is as follows:

“Count 3.

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Bluebook (online)
147 F. 349, 77 C.C.A. 527, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lear-v-united-states-ca3-1906.