State v. Lewis

257 N.E.2d 59, 21 Ohio St. 2d 203, 50 Ohio Op. 2d 441, 1970 Ohio LEXIS 455
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 18, 1970
DocketNo. 69-268
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 257 N.E.2d 59 (State v. Lewis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio 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. Lewis, 257 N.E.2d 59, 21 Ohio St. 2d 203, 50 Ohio Op. 2d 441, 1970 Ohio LEXIS 455 (Ohio 1970).

Opinion

Taft, C. J.

The evidence in the record is sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt all of the alleged facts [206]*206in the above quotation from the indictment, excepting those italicized in that quotation.

There is ample evidence to support a conclusion that Lindsay Consulting Service was the alter ego of Sterling Lewis and his wife, the defendant Libby Lewis, and that the account of Lindsay Consulting Service in the Mt. Yernon bank was their property. However, in our opinion, the evidence in the record is not sufficient to enable reasonable minds to conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that Sappington was any part of Lindsay Consulting Service or had any interest in its Mt. Yernon bank account.

The only evidence offered by the state, which could have any apparent tendency to prove that Sappington was a part of Lindsay Consulting Service or that he had any interest in its Mt. Vernon bank account, was testimony of a Mt. Yernon bank employee. He testified that the Lindsay Consulting Service account was opened for and in the name of that organization on May 9, 1966 by Sterling Lewis and that Lewis then gave information that was placed on a card which indicated that signatures of Sterling Lewis (designated thereon as President), Mrs. Libby Lewis (with a notation thereon of “Card Out”) and Mr. John Sappington (with a notation thereon of “Vice Pres” and “Card Out”) were to be authorized signatures. This employee testified that the bank never received a signature from either Libby Lewis or Sappington and that there was never any authorized signature for the account other than that of Sterling Lewis.

Although the monthly bank statements for this account are in evidence and indicate over 200 checks drawn against the account and although the record of this case indicates a subpoena for this witness to produce “copies of all checks written on” this account, only four cheeks were offered in evidence. Also, there is nothing in the record to indicate why other checks were not offered. These four checks were payable to Libby Lewis. If there were any checks drawn on this account payable to or endorsed by Sappington, the state would certainly have offered them [207]*207in evidence. Thus, it is reasonable to infer that there were no such cheeks.

We attach no significance to the fact that the printing on checks for the account listed “Sterling Lewis, President” and “John Sappington, Vice President.” It is obvious that this happened merely as a result of the information which the bank employee said was furnished by Sterling Lewis when the account was opened. We can only speculate as to whether Sappington authorized brm to give such information or whether there was any factual basis for what he told the bank employee witness about Sapping-ton’s association with Lindsay Consulting Service. Neither Sappington nor Sterling Lewis testified.

Apparently, the theory of the prosecution in drawing this indictment was that the contract with Lindsay Consulting Service provided for payments to it for services which Sterling Lewis and Sappington were already obligated by their employment contracts to render for the hospital, and that therefore it enabled them to get from the hospital something which the hospital was already entitled to receive from them by reason of its employment contracts with them. There is nothing in the written contract with Sterling Lewis, under which he was to be paid $600 per month, to indicate what his duties were to be except that he was to be director of the hospital laboratory. There is nothing in the contract with John Sappington to indicate that he was to perform any laboratory services. There is no other evidence that would provide a reasonable basis for a conclusion that the contracts with Sterling Lewis or Sappington already entitled the hospital to what it was to receive under the contract with Lindsay Consulting Service.

To the contrary, the secretary of the board of trustees, who was a member of that board and who testified on behalf of the state, testified that, at all times after Sterling Lewis was employed, she and the other board members knew that Sterling Lewis and Libby Lewis were to furnish laboratory services for the hospital and to be com[208]*208pensated at the rate of $600 per month to Sterling Lewis and 35 per cent of the hospital’s gross charges for those services to the two of them. Another of the six trustees testified on behalf of the defendant to the same effect. There was no evidence to the contrary.

In explaining his conclusion that the defendant Libby Lewis was guilty, the trial judge stated that it was “necessary that we look to the audit of the State Auditor.” He then pointed out that this audit showed charges by the laboratory, which were included in the figures upon which the 35 per cent payable to Lindsay Consulting Service was based, for services, which were either not authorized by physicians as required by the Lindsay Consulting Service contract or were not rendered.

He apparently recognized that there was no other evidence in the record tending to prove that Lindsay Consulting Service, Sterling Lewis, Sappington or defendant Libby Lewis got anything from the hospital that they were not entitled to receive under contracts with the hospital that were executed on behalf of the hospital with the knowledge of and either the express approval or the acquiescence of all of its trustees.

Section 10, Article I of the Ohio Constitution, provides in part:

“ * * * In any trial, in any court, the party accused shall be allowed * * * to demand the nature and cause of the accusation against him, and to have a copy thereof & # # J J

See also Article VI, Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which reads in part:

“In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation * * *.”

Those constitutional provisions may be satisfied by an indictment. However, where they are not, the prosecuting attorney is required on request to “furnish a bill of particulars setting up specifically the nature of the offense charged.” See Section 2941.07, Revised Code.

[209]*209Section 2921.14, Revised Code, requires a conspiracy to defrand a subdivision of the state in some “ manner. Hence, in order to state specifically the nature of an offense under Section 2921.14, Revised Code, in accordance with the requirements of the last sentence of Section 2941.-07, Revised Code, an indictment or, if an indictment does not and a bill of particulars is requested, the bill of particulars must specify some manner of defrauding that was a part of the conspiracy charged.

In the instant case, the indictment specifically stated the manners of defrauding the state that were claimed to be a part of the conspiracy charged.

Under this indictment, the state specified the manners of defrauding the hospital which were claimed to be a part of the conspiracy to defraud as (1) by taking something from the hospital without its knowledge as compensation for services that two of the conspirators were already obligated to provide, or (2) by enabling paid hospital employees (Sappington and Sterling Lewis) to receive from the hospital and without its knowledge profits in addition to their compensation.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
257 N.E.2d 59, 21 Ohio St. 2d 203, 50 Ohio Op. 2d 441, 1970 Ohio LEXIS 455, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lewis-ohio-1970.