State v. Bickford

147 N.W. 407, 28 N.D. 36, 1913 N.D. LEXIS 32
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by63 cases

This text of 147 N.W. 407 (State v. Bickford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Bickford, 147 N.W. 407, 28 N.D. 36, 1913 N.D. LEXIS 32 (N.D. 1913).

Opinions

Bruce, J.

(after stating the facts as above). The first assignment of error, or point one, of appellant’s brief, is directed to the action of the court in overruling the demurrer to the information. It is alleged that more than one offense is charged, and that the information therefor violates § 9851, Pev. Codes 1905. The information begins by informing the court “that heretofore, to wit, on the 3d day of January, 1911, in the county of Burleigh, and state of North Dakota, one George L. Bickford, late of said county and state, did commit the crime of embezzlement in the manner following, that is to say: Count one: That at said time and place the defendant, George L. Bickford, was, and ever since on or about the 4th day of January in the year nineteen hundred nine, had continuously been, the duly elected, qualified, and acting; state’s treasurer of the state of North Dakota, and during such period and in his said term of office as such state treasurer of the state of North Dakota, and by virtue of'and in the course of his official duty as such state treasurer, he, said George L. Bickford, collected, received, obtained, and had in his possession and custody and under his control as such state treasurer certain public money, bank notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, and valuable securities of the aggregate sum and value of sixty thousand four hundred thirty-eight dollars and eleven cents, and all of which said money, bank notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, and valuable securities were then and there the property of the state of North Dakota; and he, the said George L. Bickford, so having in his custody and under his control as such state treasurer, as aforesaid, the piiblic money, bank notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, and valuable securities aforesaid, on, to wit, the third day of January, [61]*61In the year one thousand nine hundred eleven, in the county of Burleigh in the state of North Dakota, did then and there wilfully, fraudulently, and feloniously appropriate and convert the same public money, bank notes, checks, drafts, bills of exchange, and valuable securities to his own use, in violation of his said official trust, and thereby did ■embezzle the same. This contrary to the statute in such cases made .and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the state of North Dakota.”

Count two begins with the words: “And your informant in the name and by the authority of the state of North Dakota further informs this •court: That on, to wit, the third day of January, 1911, in the county •of Burleigh, state of North Dakota, the said defendant, George L. Bickford, did commit the crime of embezzlement in the manner following, that is to say:” Then follows language identical with that of the first count, with the exception that, instead of charging that the said Bickford appropriated and converted the public money, bank notes, checks, etc., “to his own use, in violation of his said official trust, and thereby did embezzle the same,”- it charges that he appropriated and •converted the said moneys, etc., “to the use of the First State Bank of Bowbells,”'etc., “and thereby did then and there feloniously embezzle the said public money, bank notes,” etc.

The third count is the same as the foregoing, except that it charges that the said Bickford did “loan the said public money,” etc., “to the First State Bank of Bowbells,” etc., “and then and there did feloniously embezzle the said public money,” etc.

We are of the opinion that only one offense is charged. It is true that each count is complete in itself. It is, however, also true that the information begins with the general charge of the crime of embezzlement, which it says was committed “in the manner following, that is to say,” and that then the separate counts follow. It is quite clear to us that this general allegation charges the one general crime of embezzlement, and that the several counts are merely various statements of the ways in which the said general crime was committed.

Sec. 9204, Bev. Codes 1905, defines embezzlement as “the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been intrusted.” Sec. 9205 provides: “If any county treasurer or other officer or [62]*62person charged with the collection, receipt, safe keeping, transfer, or disbursement of public moneys, or securities, or any part thereof belonging to the state or any county, precinct, district, city, town, or school district shall convert to his own use, or to the use of any other person or persons, body corporate, association, or party whatever, m any way whatever, such public moneys or securities, or any portion, thereof, or shall use the same or any portion thereof by way of investment in any kind of securities, stocks, loans, property, land, and merchandise, or in any form whatever not authorized by law, or shall loan the same or any portion thereof with or without interest to any company or corporation, association or individual, or if any person shall advise,, aid, or in any manner knowingly participate in such act, every such act shall be deemed and held in law to be an embezzlement of so much, of said moneys or securities as aforesaid as shall be thus converted, used, invested, loaned, or paid out as aforesaid, and upon conviction thereof, such county treasurer or other officer or person shall be punished by imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not less than one-year, nor more than twenty-one years, according to the magnitude of the embezzlement, and also pay a fine equal to double the amount of money or other property so embezzled as aforesaid; which fine shall operate as a judgment at law on all the estate of the party so convicted: and sentenced, and shall be enforced by execution or other process for the use of the state, county, precinct, district, town, city, or school district whose moneys or securities have been so embezzled.” In the-same chapter (chapter 51) are other provisions making a common offense of embezzlement out of fraudulent appropriations by carriers,, trustees, bailees, and clerks or servants. It is true that in § 9205 a-special penalty is provided for in case of fraudulent appropriations by public officers, but in the whole chapter there is but one common crime-of embezzlement, based upon the fundamental act of the “fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been intrusted,”' and in § 9205 we find no suggestion of specific crimes, but the general crime of embezzlement committed by the fraudulent misappropriation of public money by conversion to one’s own use, to the use of any other person or persons, body corporate, association or party whatever, in. any way whatever, or the use of such money, etc., in any form whatever [63]*63not authorized by law. The several counts of the information, in our opinion, do not charge, therefore, the commission of different offenses, but contain merely allegations of various ways by which the same was accomplished; or, to put it in different words, various facts by which the common and necessary fact, that is to say, the substantive crime of embezzlement, was committed. A fraudulent conversion, indeed, is at the foundation of the whole matter and of the whole chapter and of § 9205. Sec.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
147 N.W. 407, 28 N.D. 36, 1913 N.D. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-bickford-nd-1913.