State v. Hall

125 P. 639, 45 Mont. 498, 1912 Mont. LEXIS 79
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 10, 1912
DocketNo. 3,102
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 125 P. 639 (State v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Hall, 125 P. 639, 45 Mont. 498, 1912 Mont. LEXIS 79 (Mo. 1912).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE SMITH

delivered the opinion of the court.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction of grand larceny, and from an order denying his motion for a new trial.

1. The charging part of the information reads as follows: ‘ ‘ That on or about the 28th day of February, 1908, the defendant [1] Sam A. Hall, then and there having in his possession, custody and control, as bailee and agent of Maggie Stephens, certain personal property, to-wit, money, in amount and of the value of five hundred and sixty-four and 50/100 dollars ($564.50) lawful money of the United States, did willfully, unlawfully, knowingly, fraudulently, intentionally and feloniously appropriate said money to his own use, with intent in him the said Sam A. Hall, then and there to deprive and defraud the true owner, the said Maggie Stephens, of her property and of the use and benefit thereof.” It is contended that the county attorney has failed to set forth by direct averment that Maggie Stephens was the owner of the money. We think the information is sufficient. A person of common understanding would undoubtedly know, from reading it, that it was intended to so charge. That is the [2] criterion. (Rev. Codes, see. 9147.) It was not necessary to describe the money. (Rev. Codes, see. 9164.)

2. It appears from the state’s evidence that Hall Brothers, a corporation, was engaged in the insurance, real estate and other business in Butte; the defendant was its president and also attorney in fact for one Frank E. Southmayd, who resided in Wisconsin. On August 29, 1906, Christopher Stephens, brother of Maggie Stephens, visited Hall Brothers’ place of business and [503]*503procured a note for $564.50, dated June 28, 1906, due ten months after date, payable to the order of Frank E. Southmayd, signed by Joseph P. and Annie Wynne. The defendant and one Wig-ginton were present at the time. Stephens paid $564.50 for the note, and it was thus indorsed: “Without recourse pay to the order of Maggie Stephens. (Signed) Frank E. Southmayd by S. A. Hall, attorney and agent in fact. ’ ’ Not anything was said at the time by the defendant as to how the note should be paid or collections made on it. Stephens continued to go to Hall Brothers’ place of business every month and collect one per cent interest on the sum evidenced by the Wynne note and also on twelve other notes, of various persons, which he procured or purchased at different times at the same place and under substantially similar circumstances. Some of these notes were purchased from the defendant personally. At times he was present at the transaction and sometimes not. Occasionally he paid the interest himself and made the indorsement; at other times it was paid by Wigginton. Nothing was ever said as to whether the Wynnes had paid interest on their note or as to where the interest came from. In August, 1910, Stephens went to Hall at his office, and, as narrated by the former, this conversation, in substance, was had: “I told him that I had three or four notes I bought off him in 1906 and I was going to call them in; and to that he told me he had called in quite a number of notes. I asked him what he did with the money and he told me he paid it out here and there. He said his big creditors were rushing him, and he said, ‘You won’t get anything out of it and I won’t,’ and he says, ‘I will take all your notes you have got and you take my personal note. ’ He says: ‘I will give you a note and pay you $1,000 in one year and another note in eighteen months and another in two years, and so on until I get you paid. ’ He told me he had lots of assets that would amount to more than the liabilities and he would settle up as soon as he could. So I never got a cent from him since that time. He stated he had collected the principal on all those notes I had.” The notes all ran to Frank E. Southmayd and were indorsed as was the Wynne note. Stephens never noti[504]*504fied tbe makers of tbe notes to pay tbe interest directly to him. Once or twice Hall complained that some of tbe parties were not paying interest regularly, but be always paid it himself whether be had received it or not. Stephens also testified: “There were three notes I told him to collect for me. The first note I had him collect for me was in 1907 or 1908. That note was taken up. He collected the principal on that note and notified me and I brought down? the note and he gave me the principal. I had a conversation with him relative to collecting the principal on the notes introduced in evidence marked 1 to 13 for identification; I went to Hall last May or June, 1910, and I told him I had three notes outstanding since 1906; and I requested bim to call them in and I mentioned the notes, and he told me he would see the parties and have them pay the principal on these notes. Those were the Wynne note, the Mattock note and the Hornbeck note. So I went to him later, and he told me he was doing all the business himself at that time and was so busy he could not get around to see the parties; I went there three or four times; and one time he told me that he saw the parties and as soon as they could raise the money they would come in and pay them. That was about a month before he told me he had collected the principal and put it here and there. This note of $564.50, signed by Joseph P. Wynne and Anna Wynne, which is the one set out in the information and which I claim Sam Hall embezzled — if that money was paid by the Wynnes in February, 1908, to Sam Hall, I had not told Sam Hall to collect it, but I authorized his agent; I authorized his agent Wigginton to collect it, but I did not tell Sam Hall personally. If that money was paid to them it was authorized by me; it was authorized by me in 1907; I told Mr. Wigginton, and Wigginton was working for Sam Hall. In August Hall told me each and every one of those notes had been paid. ' That is what he told me, that every one of those notes had been paid. He told me he had collected the principal on all the notes I held.”

Nellie Jory,. bookkeeper for Hall Brothers, testified: “The method of keeping account as to those outstanding notes of [505]*505Maggie Stephens was that the makers of the notes continued to pay the interest at Hall Brothers; we collected the interest and we paid it to him. The $564.50 Wynne note was paid on the 28th day of February, 1908. Assuming that was paid on the note indorsed to Miss Stephens, and we had the money belonging to Miss Stephens, we would not enter it as a credit in the Maggie Stephens account, not until we paid it over to Stephens. I don’t know why it was not turned over. After Hall Brothers had received this money from Mrs. Wynne and in payment of the Stephens note, I do not know why it was not credited to Maggie Stephens or Chris. Stephens. As a matter of fact, Hall Brothers had received $564.50, money which was paid by the debtor on a note which Stephens held. Mr. Hall knew that I was receiving money on those notes and not giving the holder of the note credit in his account. I • carried everything reading to Frank E. Southmayd under the name of ‘S. A. Hall, general.’ The ‘S. A. Hall, general’ account is a bills receivable account to Hall Brothers. So far as I know there was no account whatever with Frank E. Southmayd. The personal account of Sam Hall was carried in the name of A. F. Hall, his sister. The Stephens account never showed the amount of money that had been paid in for him.”

There is an abundance of evidence in the record to warrant the conclusion that Hall Brothers, the corporation, was simply a cloak or cover for the operations of the defendant Sam A. Hall.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
125 P. 639, 45 Mont. 498, 1912 Mont. LEXIS 79, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hall-mont-1912.