State v. Buck

84 S.W. 951, 186 Mo. 15, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 289
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJanuary 31, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 84 S.W. 951 (State v. Buck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Buck, 84 S.W. 951, 186 Mo. 15, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 289 (Mo. 1905).

Opinion

BURGESS, P. J.

— At the December term, 1904, of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, there was filed in the office of the clerk of said court an information by the circuit attorney of said city, charging the defendant Buck with having feloniously stolen from one Patrick J. Keane, at said city, the sum of two hundred dollars. Thereafter, defendant was put upon trial and found guilty and his punishment fixed at imprisonment in the penitentiary for three years. He appeals.

Patrick J. Keane, the prosecuting witness, lived at 3161a Clark avenue, St. Louis. He was a young man about twenty-two years old, and prior to March, 1903, was a clerk at the Laclede Gas Company, and became acquainted with defendant Buck on the tenth day of March, 1903, through an advertisement in the St. Louis Republic. It appears that Buck was engaged in the brokerage business under the name of the Atlas Brokerage Company, doing a business of buying and selling saloons, stores, dwellings, flats and apartment houses. He had placed an advertisement of some character in the Republic and it was in this way that Keane became acquainted with him.

On the morning of the tenth of March, Keane went to defendant’s place of business at 612 Chestnut street, for the purpose of securing employment. He was met by defendant Buck, who asked him for references. The references were given and Buck told Keane [18]*18to return at one o ’clock. At the appointed time, Keane returned, when Buck introduced him to a man by the name of Anderson, at the same time stating to Anderson that he, Keane, had splendid references and for him to do the best he could for him. At the same time Anderson invited Keane to go into an adjoining room where he demanded of Keane fifty dollars as a guarantee of his good faith and honesty in his employment, telling him to return the next day. On the following day, Keane returned, where he found Buck, who told him that Anderson did not understand the business, and that it required one hundred and fifty dollars as a deposit for his honesty, inasmuch as he, Keane, would be required to handle in his employment four or five hundred dollars per day. Keane left, stating that he would return the next day, which he did, bringing with him the additional one hundred and fifty dollars. This he turned over to Buck, together with the receipt for fifty dollars which Anderson had given him. Buck, as the evidence shows, read a statement which he termed a receipt, showing that Keane had paid him the sum of two hundred dollars which was considered a deposit with Buck to secure the honesty of Keane in the conduct of his business, in which he was to be engaged, the understanding being that Keane was to receive fifteen dollars per week for his services, the money deposited to be returned to him when he became dissatisfied with his position. When Keane became dissatisfied and quit the service of Buck, he demanded his money from Buck, but he refused to pay it to him. What purported to be a receipt for this money was handed to Keane and he put it in an envelope and did not look at it for more than a week. It developed, however, that this was not a receipt, but a bill of sale of a one-half interest in the house department. Keane remained in the employ of Buck about three or four weeks, during which time he drew $15.75 in salary.

The defense was that Keane purchased from de[19]*19fendant a one-half interest in the rooming-house business, and the money turned over by Keane to him was in payment for such interest.

No just complaint can be made of the instructions, so that the only question for our consideration is as to whether or not defendant was, under the evidence, guilty of grand larceny. If Keane had no intention of parting with his money when he turned it over to defendant, but only gave defendant temporary possession thereof as security for the faithful performance of his duties as the employee of defendant, and defendant, thereafter, feloniously appropriated it to his own use, against the will or consent of Keane with the purpose and intent of depriving Keane of it, he was guilty of grand larceny; otherwise not.

The distinction between larceny, false pretenses and embezzlement is concisely stated in Commonwealth v. Barry, 124 Mass. 325, as follows: “If a person honestly receives the possession of the goods, chattels or money of another upon any trust, express or implied, and, after receiving them, fraudulently converts them to his own use, he may be guilty of the crime of embezzlement,- but cannot be of that of larceny, except as embezzlement is by statute made larceny. If the possession of such property is obtained by fraud, and the owner of it intends to part with his title as well as his possession, the offense is that of obtaining property by false pretenses, provided the means by which they are acquired are such as, in law, are false pretenses. If the possession is fraudulently obtained, with intent on the part of the person obtaining it, at the time he receives it, to convert the same to his own use, and the person parting with it intends to part with his possession merely, and not with his title to the property, the offense is larceny.”

In People v. Morse, 99 N. Y. 662, the defendant advertised for a clerk. A Miss Herder applied for the position and was required by defendant to deposit $600 [20]*20in cash, as a security for the faithful performance of the duties of the position. A Miss Wilson, a friend of the applicant, thereupon delivered to defendant six $100 bills, upon which the defendant agreed to pay interest, which was to be returned to Miss Wilson when Miss Herder quit the service of defendant. The defendant appropriated the money to his own use. The court charg’ed the jury as follows:

“If you are satisfied from the evidence beyond any reasonable doubt that it was the design of the defendant, Oarrie R, Morse, to fraudulently and feloniously obtain the complainant’s money and convert it absolutely to her own use without the complainant’s consent, and that in pursuance of that design the defendant so obtained $600 by the means and in the manner and under the circumstances testified to by the People’s witnesses, with the intention of converting the money absolutely to her use without the consent and against the will of. complainant, and that the complainant did not intend to part with the $600 absolutely, but only gave the accused temporary possession thereof as security for the faithful performance of the duties of Hattie M. Herder, I charge you that you can and ought to convict the defendant of grand larceny — otherwise, she should be acquitted.”

The defendant in that ease was convicted of grand larceny, and the judgment affirmed upon appeal. That case is cited with approval in People v. Dumar, 106 N. Y. 502; People v. Miller, 169 N. Y. 339.

In the case of People v. Gottschalk, 20 N. Y. Supp. 777, the evidence showed, “that, in answer to an advertisement by one W., seeking employment, and offering security, defendant, by false representations, and with intent to steal $200, deposited, according to advertisement, with him by W. as a pledge, the title to remain in pledgor, contracted with W. for his services, and agreed to return such pledge on the termination of the contract. The contract was subsequently terminated, [21]*21after which, defendant agreed with W. to return the money so pledged in two payments, hut failed to do so.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 S.W. 951, 186 Mo. 15, 1905 Mo. LEXIS 289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-buck-mo-1905.