People v. Harmon

185 N.W. 679, 217 Mich. 11, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 813
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 21, 1921
DocketDocket No. 185
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 185 N.W. 679 (People v. Harmon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Harmon, 185 N.W. 679, 217 Mich. 11, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 813 (Mich. 1921).

Opinion

Stone, J.

In March and April, 1920, James Harmon was engine foreman and yard conductor, and [12]*12Bert F. Coe was assistant conductor in the employ of the Grand Trunk Railroad Company at Lansing, Michigan. An information was filed charging them with the larceny of 16 Fisk automobile tires of the value of $250. Mr. Harmon was tried and convicted. His case is here on exceptions before sentence.

It is the claim of the people that on February 25, 1920, Robert Scarf, shipping clerk for the Detroit branch of the Fisk Tire & Rubber Company, prepared a shipment of 32 Fisk tires, of various sizes, for the Giles Tire service of Lansing, Michigan; that these tires were arranged in 9 bales; that Mr. Scarf called up the cartage company and consigned the tires in the usual course of business to the consignee for whom they were prepared; that they were shipped over the Grand Trunk railroad. It is the further claim that the shipment was received at the Grand Trunk station in Detroit and loaded in Lansing car No. 47, and that the car arrived at Lansing, and the tires were checked out as received at Lansing in the usual manner. This date was March 7th. It is also claimed that about two days later the Giles Service Company called for these tires and it then developed that they were short 7 bales, a shortage of 25 tires. It is also claimed that on April 9, 1920, 14 new tires corresponding to the tires shipped as above were found in the cellar of Earl Finkbinder’s home in Lansing, where they had been placed by Mr. Harmon and later two more tires were taken off the car of one Coe, which were with the 14 found when they first came into the hands of the defendant James Harmon. It is claimed these 16 tires corresponded with 16 of the tires missing in the Giles shipment, and that no shipment of a similar lot of 16 tires, or containing 16 similar tires, was ever shipped from the Detroit Fisk branch, and that the Detroit branch furnishes all tires shipped in Michigan. It is admitted that these tires were brought [13]*13to Mr. Finkbinder’s home by the defendant about three weeks before April 8, 1920. The claim of the people is that Mr. Harmon and Mr. Coe stole these tires.

The claim of the defendant is stated by his counsel as follows:

“The evidence on behalf of respondent tends to show that the Grand Trunk railroad owned a piece of land bordering its tracks, some 30 or 40 rods from its freight shed. In the southeast comer of this piece of land were some stockyards. The balance of the land was not used by the Grand Trunk for railroad purposes and had for the last three years been leased by the Grand Trunk to the respondent and used by the respondent as a garden spot. * * * The respondent introduced evidence showing that one morning in the latter part of January or the first of February, in passing from his home to his work, he crossed his garden patch and saw some automobile tires lying there in a hole; that these tires were partially covered with snow so that only one or two of them showed; that he left them there a week or ten days; that during this time nobody removed the tires and that therefore he removed the tires from the garden spot and put them in his garage. At the time he put the tires in his garage his automobile was in the repair shop. About the middle of February he returned his car to the garage and not having room for the tires and the car, he spoke to Finkbinder, from whom he rented the garage, about them and Finkbinder permitted him to store them in his (Fink-binder’s) cellar. The tires were in Finkbinder’s cellar about three weeks when respondent was called to the police station where he met Detective O’Brien and was asked in reference to the tires. He then told O’Brien about finding the tires as herein set forth. Respondent also told Finkbinder the same detailed statement in reference to the tires at the time they were placed in Finkbinder’s cellar. Respondent has never claimed the tires as his own. In fact, whenever he referred to the tires both before his arrest, at the time of his arrest, and since his arrest, he has al[14]*14ways detailed the same history as to the method in which the tires came into his possession. It is true that he never advertised the tires in the lost and. found column of the papers, nor did he ever ask the Grand Trunk if any tires had been lost by that road.”

It is the claim of defendant that there should have been a directed verdict in his favor because there is •no evidence that any crime has been committed. This contention seems to be principally based upon the theory that there is no evidence that the tires were actually delivered to the Grand Trunk Railroad Company in Detroit, and the further claim that there is no evidence that they were actually received by the railroad company in Lansing.

Mr. Scarf testified to the putting up of the order .and that—

“.When these tires were ready I called up the cartage company and the last I saw of them was when I rolled them on his wagon at the door of the shipping department. That was February 25th. The cartage man brought back the bill of lading, signed by the railroad company, dated the 26th or 27th. I turned it over to the billing clerk. The shipment left our store room the 25th and it was delivered to the railroad the next morning, the 26th. That has the Grand Trunk railroad stamp on it. In the nine bales that went from our company to the cartage company there were 32 tires and these tires cover a portion of that shipment and the bales are described in the shipment. I have investigated all the records and find no other loss or claim or shipment of a similar character. These 16 tires and the 7 at the Grand Trunk do not make up the complete invoice; there are 9 tires to be recovered yet. The Detroit branch furnishes all tires used in Michigan and they are shipped from Detroit.”

Mr. Reedy testified in part:

“February 26, 1920, I received two shipments of 9 bales of tires from the Fisk Rubber Company consigned to Giles Tire Service, Lansing. I got my sig[15]*15nature here where I loaded 9 bales of tires in a special Lansing car, No. 47. * * *
“Q. You don't know anything about it except what your records show, you don’t remember anything about it do you?
“A. No, except what the records show.
“Q. And the usual thing would have been for you as checker to have turned it over to the loader and for the loader to have put it on the truck car, wouldn’t it?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And that is probably what happened in this case isn’t it?
“A. I presume. I have no personal knowledge as to whether these tires ever went on a car or not. We have a system of tickets but b cannot tell whether I got the ticket back or not.
“Q. So you don’t know?
“A. No.”

Redirect-examination by Mr. Boice:

“Our records indicate it was loaded. The handing to the loader and loading it to the car was almost simultaneous, all at one time. I was right there. I loaded this myself and checked up the bills.”

Later on he testified:

“I loaded this particular shipment into 47 car myself.”

Homer Phillips, a checker at the station at Lansing, testified in part:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 N.W. 679, 217 Mich. 11, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 813, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-harmon-mich-1921.