State v. Cameron

91 Ohio St. (N.S.) 50
Ohio Supreme Court·Decided October 15, 1914·No. No. 14392·Published

Opinion

By the Court.

We will first consider the case of Mr. Cameron. It is ruled by the principle laid down in The State v. Baxter, 89 Ohio St., 269. That was a prosecution of an officer of the state for converting public money temporarily to his own use in violation of Section 12876, General Code. This court decided that the fact that the accused returned money of equal amount to the trust fund before his secret appropriation of it became known, was no defense to the charge of embezzlement, and that it is the design and policy of that section and kindred statutes to prevent public officers and agents from using public funds in their possession or under their control in any manner or for any purpose not expressly authorized by law.

Counsel for Cameron do not question the validity of that principle, but they endeavor to distinguish this case from the Baxter case. They treat this case as founded upon Section 12873, General Code. As the prosecuting attorney and the court below so treated it, we shall so consider it for the purpose of passing upon the exceptions to the decision below.

[53]*53By way of raising the distinction, which they would have us adopt, they recite the original enactment of this law in Section 15 of the “Act to establish an independent treasury of the state of Ohio,” passed April 12, 1858 (55 O. L., 49; 2 S. & C. Stats., 1610). That act is somewhat prolix, after the style of ancient statutes, and the codifiers have pruned its language and subdivided its contents without changing its essential structure or substance. It was reenacted in the Revised Statutes as Sections 6841 and 7299. Section 6841 was again subdivided into Sections 12873 and 12874 in the General Code and Section 7299 reappears as Section 13674. Section 12873 sets forth what acts shall constitute this crime of embezzlement, and the imprisonment and the fine which shall be inflicted upon the embezzler. Section 12874 provides that the fine shall operate as a judgment upon the estate of the embezzler and be enforced by execution or other process for the use only of the owner of the money or other funds so embezzled. Section 13674, now placed in the chapter entitled “Trial and Proceedings Incident Thereto,” under the subtitle “Evidence,” describes what facts shall be prima facie proof of the commission of the crime.

Our discussion will neither be simplified nor clarified by quoting here the old statute verbatim; it would occupy four pages of this report. The bone of contention will clearly appear by bringing together the three parts of this old law, in their original consecutive order and essential form, but [54]*54purged of useless verbiage, as they have stood in the Revised Statutes for 35 years.

“Sec. 12873. Whoever, being charged with the collection, receipt, safekeeping, transfer or disbursement of public money * * * belonging to the state, * * * converts to his own use, or to the use of any other person, body corporate, association or party, or uses by way of investment in any kind of security, stock, loan, * * * or in any other manner or form, or loans with or without interest to a company, corporation, association or individual, or, except as provided by law, deposits with a company, corporation or individual, public money or other funds, controlled or held by him for safekeeping or in trust for a specific purpose, transfer or disbursement, or in any other way or manner, or for any other purpose, shall be guilty of embezzlement of the money * * * thus converted, used, invested, loaned, deposited or paid out, and shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary not less than one year nor more than twenty-one years and fined double the amount of money * * * embezzled. (R. S. Sec. 6841.)

“Sec. 12874. The fine, provided for in the next preceding section, shall operate as a judgment at law on all of the estate of the person sentenced and be enforced to collection by execútion or other process for the use only of the owner of the property or effects so embezzled, and such fine shall only be released or entered as satisfied by the person in interest as aforesaid. (R. S. Sec. 6841.)

[55]*55“Sec. 13674. Failure pr refusal to pay over, or produce the public money, or part thereof, by an officer or other person charged with the collection, receipt, transfer, disbursement or safe-keeping of such money, or part thereof, whether belonging to the state, or a county, township, municipal corporation or board of education in this state, or other public money, or to account to, or make settlement with a legal authority, of the official accounts of such officer or person, shall be prima facie evidence of the embezzlement thereof. Upon the trial of such officer or person for the embezzlement of public money under any provision of law, it shall be sufficient evidence, for the purpose of showing a balance against him, to produce a transcript from the books of the auditor of state, auditor of the county or the records of the commissioners of the county. The refusal of such officer or person, whether in or out of office, to pay a draft, order or warrant drawn upon him by an authorized officer, for public money in his hands, or a refusal by a person or public officer to promptly pay over to his successor public money or securities on the legal requirement of an authorized officer of the state or county, on the trial of an indictment against him for embezzlement, shall be prima facie evidence thereof. (R. S. Sec. 7299)/'

Now, reading the sections as if they were one, counsel for Mr. Cameron say (to use their own language): “This statute means that the method of fraudulently appropriating public money in the manner set out in the statute shall constitute em[56]*56bezzlement. But there must be fraudulent appropriation. The owner must be deprived of his property. The officer must fail to account. There must be a default. It means that if the money is lost the officer will not be heard to say that he did not intend to embezzle it. That if it is lost he will be held for embezzlement.”

Here we have precisely the same question which was raised in the Baxter case, supra. The statute in that case, Section 12876, reads: “Whoever, being elected or appointed to an office of public trust or profit, * * * embezzles or converts to his own use, * * * anything of value that shall come into his possession by virtue of such office or employment, is guilty of embezzlement.”

We held that (1) the temporary appropriation of the public money by an officer to his own use, with the intention of restoring it, is a conversion within the meaning of that statute; (2) that he thereby violates that statute though he be not a defaulter, and (3) the return of the money will not expunge the guilt.

Counsel do not ask us to reverse that ruling, but they would persuade us that the three sections above quoted, taken together as one, define' a different offense than that defined in Section 12876 and require that the money converted, loaned or deposited be lost and not recovered into the state treasury, before the embezzlement is complete.

It would be a tedious task and a futile consumption of time and space, if we would review in detail the able argument of the learned counsel of •the accused in their exhaustive brief of 225 pages. [57]

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State v. Cameron, 91 Ohio St. (N.S.) 50 (Ohio 1914).

91 Ohio St. (N.S.) 50 (State v. Cameron) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.