State v. Glaze

177 Iowa 457
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedSeptember 23, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 177 Iowa 457 (State v. Glaze) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Glaze, 177 Iowa 457 (iowa 1916).

Opinion

Salinger, J.

Criminal law : instructions: conflicting- instructions : embezzlement : elements. I. The court charged in Instruction 14 that, to entitle the State to a conviction, it must, among other things, prove beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant committed actual conversion and embezzlement of moneys, checks or drafts of the railroad company as charged in the indictment. But it adds:

‘ ‘ Or, if the State has failed in this, then, in order to justify a conviction, the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the shortage in the defendant’s accounts, and that the C. B. & Q. Railroad Company made demand on defendant for the sum of money charged in the indictment to have been embezzled, and that the defendant neglected or refused to account and pay over the same, or a sufficient amount to cover the amount of shortage actually existing, but not of a greater sum than was demanded by the said C. B. & Q. R. R. Co.”

It is unquestionable that this wholly omits fraudulent intent, which, of course, the State concedes to be an essential. It is entirely possible that one is not actuated by fraudulent intent, even though his employer makes a demand for money and there be a neglect or refusal to account for same or pay it over. The avoidance by the State is that other instructions told the jury that a fraudulent intent was essential to conviction. The defendant responds that this does not cure the error in the instruction given, and presents, at best for the State, reversible error on account of giving conflicting instructions. The objection cannot be' concluded by invoking the rule that the instructions must be taken together. Assume that the charge taken as a whole, except Instruction 14, correctly enumerates what is essential to conviction. That does not justify an alternative instruction which affirmatively permits the jury to return a verdict of guilty, though an essential element be not proven. That is just what the instruction complained of does. The jury had been instructed as to what it must find to justify a conviction. It was then told that, if [461]*461it could not find those things, it might still convict if some other things were found. This last enumeration omitted one essential. Its giving was error. For all we can know, the verdict may rest on'a finding that defendant was short, and, on demand, refused or neglected to pay. It may, to be sure, rest on the elements outlined by other instructions, but who is to say it does ?

We must reverse where, for all we know, the jury may have adopted the erroneous instead of the correct rule. State v. Hartzell, 58 Iowa 520; Kerr v. Topping, 109 Iowa 150. Where there was a lengthy instruction,, in one part of which there was error in stating the right to kill in repelling an assault, we reversed, though in another part the correct rule is stated, because it cannot be known which rule the jury followed. State v. Keasling, 74 Iowa 528. See State v. West (La.), 12 So. 7. In State v. Minella, 177 Iowa 283, we reverse because, while it is correctly charged that one may take life in defense of another if it seem to him in reason necessary, it is also charged that the belief of the one defended is to be considered. When one instruction lays down a rule in unequivocal language, and another a different or contrary rule, there must be a reversal. Mester v. Zaiser, 143 Iowa 623; McDivitt v. Des Moines City R. Co., 141 Iowa 689; Platt v. City, 136 Iowa 221; Hawes v. Burlington, C. R. & N. R. Co., 64 Iowa 315.

israfrigntoiremvItingSactFon' II. .In Instruction 3, the jury was told that, if the State-had proven eight specified essentials beyond a reasonable doubt, it should find defendant guilty. Appellant asserts ' that these eight alone were not sufficient, and ' that there were .other essentials which are not enumerated, in the instruction. It is further urged that it conflicts with Instruction No. 12. If this enumeration does not embrace all that should have been proven, appellant may not complain. The instruc- • tion given is a substantial copy of Instruction 2, offered by defendant. The only difference is this: The one given says [462]*462that, before convicting, the State must prove the eight things beyond a reasonable doubt. It closes with the statement that, if the eight things have been so proven, there should be a conviction ; but, if there is a failure to prove any one of them, there should be acquittal. The one asked by defendant starts out by saying, “You are instructed that, before you can convict defendant, the State must show by proof, convincing beyond a reasonable doubt, all of the following (eight) essentials,” and it closes with the statement, “That, if the State has failed to prove any one of such essentials by evidence which satisfies you beyond a reasonable doubt, you must acquit defendant.” It seems to us this speaks in terms of exclusion, and may fairly be construed to be a request to charge that proof of these eight 'essentials would justify a conviction — just what the instruction given does.

3' Sons^ ronSflict-" nonappYioabüíty' of doctrine. It is said, too, that the instruction conflicts with No. 12. This last instruction may, for the purposes of argument, be assumed to require more than those eight essentials, and, in that view, to be in conflict with No. 3. But, since appellant had asked the trial court to charge that the proof of eight things would . ,. „ ... ... justify a conviction, he is m no position to complain that the court, on its own motion, made the burden of conviction greater than appellant conceded it to be. The conflict in this case creates an error consisting of giving defendant more than he asked.

4' Aversion1-111711 money accounted III. The indictment alleges that defendant had embezzled the sum of $339.92. The court charged that this sum was made up of three specified checks, for $133, $86.24 and $120.68, respectively. The effect of Instruc^031 complained of, is that, if the defendant collected the $339.92, as charged in the in(jictment; and failed to place that sum collected on the books, and fraudulently concealed that he had collected it, he would be guilty of embezzling the $339.92 and appropriating the same to his [463]*463own use feloniously, although he had remitted that very money to his employer, if he remitted it to be applied in payment of moneys wrongfully appropriated earlier. In Secor v. State (Wis.), 95 N. W. 942, the evidence tended to show that monthly balances were taken, and that the shortage was concealed by the defendant by a system of throwing forward receipts which came in at the end of the month into the next month’s account, and entering expenses paid during the early days of the month among expenses of the previous month. The ease holds that making false trial balances, borrowing money to pay a shortage in accounts lost by speculation, and other things mentioned, are incriminating circumstances, and tend to furnish proof of the body of the crime. This does not go to the extent of holding that these, of themselves, will justify a conviction. In effect, the one here did go that far. But we think it did not err. To collect a stated sum which is the property of an employer, to conceal that fact, and to account for it as money due the employer for something else that has been collected for him, appropriates and embezzles the moneys so used. It concealed fraudulently that the sum had been collected for the items for which it was paid to the cashier.

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Bluebook (online)
177 Iowa 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-glaze-iowa-1916.