People v. Clark

245 Ill. App. 316, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 3
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedMarch 31, 1925
StatusPublished

This text of 245 Ill. App. 316 (People v. Clark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Clark, 245 Ill. App. 316, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 3 (Ill. Ct. App. 1925).

Opinion

Mr». Presiding Justice Higbee

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiffs in error, Harry Clark and Irwin Hatridge, together with Stowell Beach, were indicted in the circuit court of Madison county, Illinois, for violation of section 61 of the Criminal Code, which is section 1 of “An Act for the protection of bank depositors.” Ca-hill’s St. ch. 38, H 38. .

The indictment charged that on the 31st day of October, 1922, plaintiffs in error were president and cashier, respectively, of the First State & Savings Bank of Woodriver, Illinois, and that Stowell Beach was chairman of the board of directors; that said "bank was then insolvent within the knowledge of said officers; that on said date they accepted a deposit of $294 from one George Smith, who was not indebted to the bank, .and that the said deposit was thereby lost to the said George Smith. On trial Stowell Beach was found not guilty and plaintiffs in error were found guilty and the punishment of each fixed by the verdict at imprisonment in the penitentiary for two years. This writ of error was sued out to review the judgment entered on that verdict. It appears that the bank was closed on the 17th day of November, A. D. 1922, at the direction of the auditor of public accounts. On October 24, 1922, the bank was examined by an examiner from the State auditor’s office, on which date the books of the bank showed its assets to be $974,194.36 and its liabilities to be the same. .On that day the examiner ascertained the actual cash reserve and money due from banks amounted to $30,180.06 and that the total deposits were $650,210.23. Finding the cash reserve and money due from banks much lower than that required by law and the regulations of the auditor’s office, he advised the officers that the same should in some manner be increased. Meetings of the officers of the bank, certain bank examiners and officials of several banks in the city of Alton were held within a few days in Alton. As a result of those meetings, it was decided that the directors of the bank in question should deposit in the bank $50,000; that notes to that amount owned by the bank should be assigned to them, and that the sum of $50,000 in addition should be borrowed upon a mortgage by the bank upon its building. Pursuant to this arrangement the directors deposited $51,000 in the bank by November 6, and the $50,000 was borrowed. Of the amount deposited by the directors, plaintiff in error Clark paid $15,000 on the 1st day of November. On the same day he resigned as president and plaintiff in error Hatridge resigned as cashier. Other directors were then selected as president and cashier and a Mr. Slivka, who had previously been an employee of the bank, was placed in charge of it with instructions to report directly to the State auditor’s office. The bank continued to conduct its regular business in this manner until the 17th day of November, 1922, when the depositors began to withdraw their money and the bank was closed by the State auditor’s office and placed in the hands of a receiver.

It is argued at considerable length by attorneys for plaintiffs in error that the verdict is not supported by the evidence for the reason, as it is claimed, the competent proof in the case does not show that the bank was insolvent on October 31, the day the deposit in question was made. The evidence om this question is voluminous, but we have examined it in detail, to ascertain whether the jury were justified in finding the bank insolvent at that date. The banking house and fixtures at the time the examination was made by the examiner were carried on the books of the bank at more than $120,000. The testimony of the receiver shows that only $52,150 was realized from the sale thereof, although it appears that prior to such sale he was made an offer of $75,000. The testimony of the receiver and his attorneys and assistants further shows that he had failed or would fail to receive the face value of the notes carried by the bank by at least $50,000 and that $40,000 more of the notes were doubtful. It is true that these amounts and figures were arrived at by the receiver and those testifying, at a time considerably later than the date on which the deposit was received, and it is also true that the question to be determined was whether the bank was insolvent on the 31st day of October, 1922, and not at a later date. However, this testimony of the receiver and others as to what was received and would be received for the property and notes in process of liquidation of the bank was competent in connection with all other evidence in the record for the consideration of the jury in its determination of the value of the bank’s assets. (People v. Hartenbower, 283 Ill. 591; People v. Munday, 280 Ill. 32; People v. Dubia, 289 Ill. 276.) This evidence, in connection with the other proofs in the record, which we do not deem it expedient to discuss in detail, justified the jury in finding that the bank was insolvent on the 31st day of October, 1922. In September, 1922, the State auditor’s office called upon this bank for a verified report showing the condition of the bank at the close of business September 15. This was the report commonly called for by the State auditor’s office prior to an intended examination of a bank and is referred to ás a “call report” This report, which was admitted in .evidence, was made and sworn to by plaintiff in error Clark. The bank examiner, over the objection of plaintiffs in error, was permitted to testify to the fact that this report showed that the cash reserve of the bank was $30,000 more than shown by the books. The witness testified that this was due to the fact that three time certificates of $10,000 each had been issued on July 28, 1922, and sent to the State treasurer, but that no money had been remitted by the State treasurer for such certificates, and that the amount represented by these certificates was included in the report as a cash item of the bank and the certificates carried as a liability. It is contended by attorneys for plaintiffs in error that the admission of this “call report” in evidence and the testimony concerning the same was improper and tended to unduly prejudice the jury against plaintiff in error Clark. Attorney for defendant in error, on the other hand, contends that this evidence was competent for the purpose of proving knowledge on the part of plaintiffs in error that the bank was insolvent. There is no evidence in the record whatsoever as to why these time certificates were issued nor as to why the money represented thereby had not been forwarded to the bank by the State treasurer. It is a close question whether this discrepancy between the “call report” and the books tended in any way to prove the insolvency of the bank a month and a half thereafter or any knowledge of such insolvency upon the part of plaintiffs in error, but in view of the length of time these certificates had been in existence and the fact that the bank in the call report claimed to have an equal amount as “cash due from bank” based thereon, we are of the opinion such evidence was admissible. However, we are of the opinion that there is ample evidence in the report outside of that under consideration to justify the jury in believing beyond a reasonable doubt that the bank was insolvent on October 31, 1922, and that plaintiffs in error knew of such insolvency.

It further appeared that upon the closing of the bank the bank examiner discovered a shortage of over $11,000 in the savings account.

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37 Ill. 459 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1865)
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163 Ill. 56 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1896)
Henderson v. People
46 N.E. 711 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1897)
People v. Boer
104 N.E. 162 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1914)
People v. Munday
117 N.E. 286 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1917)
People v. Hartenbower
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People v. Dubia
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People v. Watkins
141 N.E. 204 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
245 Ill. App. 316, 1925 Ill. App. LEXIS 3, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-clark-illappct-1925.