People ex rel. American Surety Co. v. Benham

71 Misc. 345, 26 N.Y. Crim. 35, 128 N.Y.S. 610
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 71 Misc. 345 (People ex rel. American Surety Co. v. Benham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. American Surety Co. v. Benham, 71 Misc. 345, 26 N.Y. Crim. 35, 128 N.Y.S. 610 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1911).

Opinion

Gavegan, J.

This application is addressed to me as a justice of the .Supreme Court, to transfer and deliver one Frank C. Marrin, who is confined in the State prison at Auburn, N. Y., to his surety or a United States marshal, to be delivered, into the United States District Court at Philadelphia, Penn., to answer for the crime of conspiracy against the government, of which he was convicted in that court. The proceeding instituted to accomplish this purpose is by a writ of certiorari, this method having been adopted in place of habeas corpus as a matter of convenience so as to avoid bringing the prisoner before me. It appears that in February, 1895, Marrin, who was an attorney in this State, delivered to his client, one Caroline Barry, certain fictitious and forged bonds and mortgages for large sums of money received from her for investment and absconded from the State of Hew York. He was indicted in Kings county for forgery, and fled from place to place under assumed names, until some time in 1899, when he appeared in the city of Philadelphia, Penn., under the assumed name of Franklin .Stone. There, with the moneys of Caroline Barry, he purchased various pieces of property and bonds and mortgages, some in his own name and others in the name of his wife, known as Annie F. Stone. In June, 1905, he was indicted at Philadelphia, Penn, for conspiracy against [347]*347the United States and convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment in the Eastern penitentiary in that State. He appealed to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and while this appeal was pending applied for release upon bail. On June 15, 1908, a bail bond in the sum of $10,000 executed by the American Surety Company of Hew York and by Marrin, otherwise known as Stone, was given and filed in the said United States court. The condition of the bond is: “ That if he, said Frank C. Marrin, alias Frank E. Stone, alias Franklin Stone, alias Thomas Harper, whose application for a writ of error in the above matter has been allowed and is now pending, shall be and appear at the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, upon the determination of the proceedings in said writ of error and the receipt and filing of a mandate or other process or certificate showing the disposition thereof by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, or within five days thereafter, to answer and obey whatever final orders or judgment shall be made in the premises and not depart said court without leave thereof, then this recognizance to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.” During the period of his liberty pending this appeal Marrin came within the State of Hew York, where, under the old indictment in Kings county for the forgeries committed by him in 1895, he was tried in the County Court at Kings county, convicted of forgery in the first degree and sentenced to imprisonment in the State prison at Sing Sing under an indeterminate sentence, the maximum being twenty years and the minimum fifteen years. After Marrin’s arrest in Kings county he applied to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Hew York for a writ of habeas ° corpus and for an order for his removal to the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The application was opposed by the district attorney of Kings county, and denied by United ' States District Judge Chat-field in an opinion reported in 164 Federal Reporter, 631. On December 8, 1907, Caroline Barry died at Kings county, in this city, and on May 23, 190-8, one of the relators, Walter Westlake, was duly ap[348]*348pointed her administrator by the Surrogate’s Court of Kings county. In the same year Westlake as such administrator commenced an action in equity in the Supreme Court in this State against Marrin and his wife to impress a trust in his favor as such administrator upon the properties in Pennsylvania standing in the name of Marrin and his wife, purchased with the moneys of Caroline Barry, and for a judgment and decree directing a conveyance, bill of sale and assignment to him of such properties, the amount of money's embezzled by Marrin being fixed by the judgment, with interest, at $129,-629.87. One of the parcels of real property in Pennsylvania purchased with Caroline Barry’s money, which was taken in the name of Marrin’s wife under the name of Annie F. Stone, was sold by Mrs. Marrin or S’tone and $7,500 of the proceeds in cash was deposited with the American Surety Company of New York by Marrin and his wife together with other collateral to indemnify the American Surety Company on the bail bond of $10,000 above mentioned. In the final judgment in the Supreme Court in this State in favor of Westlake in the action in equity referred to Marrin and hi? wife were directed to execute a bill of sale and assignment of this $7,500' to Westlake as such administrator. Marrin and his wife having failed and refused to make these conveyances, bills of sale and assignments, and the property being situated in Pennsylvania, Westlake as such administrator filed a bill in equity in the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Marrin and his wife and against a receiver in bankruptcy of Marrin appointed in the United States court there, and an ancillary receiver of an institution known as the Storey Cotton Company, a swindling concern with which Marrin was connected. On Westlake’s bill in equity the judgment and findings of the Supreme Court of the State of New York were made the" judgment and findings of the United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the decree in equity in the said United States Circuit Court awarded the properties to Westlake, and likewise ordered and directed Marrin and his wife, otherwise known as Stone, to make conveyances, bills of sale and assignments of the property in [349]*349Pennsylvania, including the $7,500 cash deposited as indemnity with the American Surety Company. Pursuant to this decree Marrin and his wife made the conveyances, hills of sale and assignment. In the month of February, 1909, the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed the conviction against Marrin, who at that time under the sentence of the court in this State was confined in the State prison at Sing Sing. Marrin being called to the United States District Court for sentence under the •judgment of affirmance and not being present, his bail bond of $10,000' was forfeited. In June, 1909, a writ of scire facias on recognizance of bail in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania was issued against Marrin and against the American Surety Company, one of the relators, by the United States, to recover the $10,000 on the bail bond. A previous application for the relief asked for on this proceeding was made to Mr. Justice Stapleton of this court, but Marrin in the meantime was transferred from Sing Sing prison to Auburn prison, and the old application has been withdrawn and this new one has been made. The application has been opposed by the district attorney of Kings county. Thus it will be seen that Westlake has a judgment of the United States court and of this court making him the owner of the $7,500 cash of the indemnity put up with the American Surety Company on the bail bond. On the other hand we have the United States suing the American Stirety Company on the forfeited bail bond, and, lastly, Marrin is confined in the State prison at Auburn and cannot be produced at Philadelphia so as to obtain a remission of the forfeiture of the bond.

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Bluebook (online)
71 Misc. 345, 26 N.Y. Crim. 35, 128 N.Y.S. 610, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-american-surety-co-v-benham-nysupct-1911.