State v. Larson

211 P. 885, 123 Wash. 21, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 710
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 3, 1923
DocketNo. 17368
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 211 P. 885 (State v. Larson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington 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. Larson, 211 P. 885, 123 Wash. 21, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 710 (Wash. 1923).

Opinion

Tolman, J.

The information charged:

“That the said O. S. Larson in the county of Pierce, in the state of Washington, on or about the 24th day of December, nineteen hundred and nineteen, then and there being Vice-President and manager of the Scandinavian American Bank of Tacoma, a banking corporation organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Washington, and while having under his control, as such Vice-President and Manager, the sum of $17,500 lawful money of the United States of America, did then and there unlawfully and feloniously and with intent to defraud the owner thereof, to wit: Scandinavian American Bank of Tacoma, a banking corporation, withhold, secret and appropriate said property and money to his own use, contrary to the form of the statute in such cases made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Washington.”

Defendant has appealed from a judgment of conviction.

The following is a fair summary of the facts: The appellant was the vice-president and manager of the Scandinavian-American Bank at Tacoma. There was also a Scandinavian-American Bank at Seattle, in which the appellant was a stockholder. There was a close business relationship between these two banks, and the same man was the president of both. The Seattle bank was a member of the Federal Reserve Bank, but the Tacoma bank was not a member. The board of governors of the Federal Reserve Bank had [24]*24been threatening to immediately cancel the membership of the Seattle bank because of the financial instability of that bank. If the Federal bank carried out this threat, it was considered certain that it would greatly injure the Seattle bank, and also the Tacoma bank, because of the close relationship of the latter to the former.

The appellant was called upon to intercede with the Federal authorities, and for that purpose he proceeded to the city of Washington to consult with the chairman of the governors of the Federal bank. There he was informed that he should take up this matter with the president of the Federal Reserve bank at San Francisco. Thither he at once went, and after some days of consultation, a tentative agreement was made whereby the membership of the Seattle bank would not be cancelled, provided that, within a designated time, it required its stockholders to pay an assessment of one hundred per cent upon its capital stock, which amounted to one million dollars.

As a result of this conference, most of the larger stockholders of the Seattle bank, including the appellant, signed and executed among themselves a written agreement, the effect of which was that there should be an immediate call for an assessment of one hundred cents on the dollar of all the capital stock of the Seattle bank, and that the signers of the agreement would guarantee that such sums of money should be placed to the credit of the Seattle bank, and that thirty-five per cent of the total, or three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, should be deposited with the Federal Reserve Bank to the credit of the Seattle bank within two or three days from the signing of such agreement. The appellant signed the agreement individually binding himself in the sum of fifty thousand dollars. By the terms of the agreement, it was necessary that each one [25]*25of the signers should at once raise for the purposes mentioned thirty-five per cent of the amount signed for by him, which in the case of the appellant was seventeen thousand five hundred dollars. Immediately after the execution of this agreement, appellant wired the bank at Tacoma as follows

“On Wednesday afternoon December twenty-fourth deposit with Federal Reserve Bank at Seattle our Cashier’s check two hundred eighty-six thousand six hundred twenty five dollars to be credited to Scandinavian-American Bank of Seattle special assessment fund bringing securities and checks will arrive Wednesday afternoon. O. S. Larson, vice-president.”

Upon receipt of this telegram, the Tacoma bank deposited the sum of money therein mentioned as directed, seventeen thousand five hundred dollars of which was on account of the subscription made by the appellant.

A great many claims of error have been assigned by the appellant.

I. It is first contended by him that his motion for an instructed verdict in his favor should have been granted by the court because the evidence wholly failed to show that he was guilty of the crime with which he was charged. It is contended that the testimony shows conclusively that, in the signing of the agreement at San Francisco and in sending the telegram, and in paying' the seventeen thousand five hundred dollars to the credit of the Seattle bank, the appellant was acting solely on behalf of, and for the benefit of the Tacoma bank, and consequently there was an entire absence of any intent to defraud that bank. A number of witnesses testified that, when appellant signed the agreement in San Francisco, he stated that he could not personally sign the agreement because he was not in a financial situation to do so, and that his [26]*26various obligations to the Tacoma bank had “pauperized” him, and that his attorneys then suggested that he sign individually but for the use of the Tacoma bank only, and that, as a matter of fact, he signed the agreement individually, not with the intention of binding himself thereby, but with the intention of binding the Tacoma bank, of which he was manager and vice-president. There was also testimony to the effect that, when he returned to Tacoma within a few days, he told some of the directors or officers of the'Tacoma bank that he had signed the agreement in San Francisco individually, but in truth and in fact for the use and benefit of the Tacoma bank.

There was no direct testimony contradicting that above recited. However persuasive it may be, the jury was not bound to accept it. There was sufficient testimony upon which the jury might conclude that appellant signed the San Francisco agreement for his own benefit, and that the seventeen thousand five hundred dollars obtained from the Tacoma bank was for his individual benefit as a stockholder of the Seattle bank. In the first place, the agreement was signed by the appellant personally and not for the bank, and the whole tenor of the San Francisco contract is to the effect that the signers were personally obligating themselves because they were interested in, and stockholders of the Seattle bank; as, for illustration, it is stated in that agreement that,

“The express purpose of this contract is the placing of the Scandinavian-American Bank of Seattle upon a sound financial basis by the levy and collection by said bank of an assessment of one hundred per cent, aggregating one million dollars, and it is agreed that such purpose is for the mutual benefit of each of the subscribers hereto and constitutes a sufficient consideration for the execution of this agreement.”

[27]*27In another place the contract says that, “the respective parties hereto, as stockholders of the Scandinavian American Bank of Seattle do hereby appoint,” etc. Many other similar expressions may be found in the agreement.

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Bluebook (online)
211 P. 885, 123 Wash. 21, 1923 Wash. LEXIS 710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-larson-wash-1923.