State v. Linden

17 P.2d 635, 171 Wash. 92, 1932 Wash. LEXIS 815
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 30, 1932
DocketNo. 24065. Department Two.
StatusPublished
Cited by37 cases

This text of 17 P.2d 635 (State v. Linden) 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. Linden, 17 P.2d 635, 171 Wash. 92, 1932 Wash. LEXIS 815 (Wash. 1932).

Opinion

Main, J.

Adolph F. Linden, E. W. Campbell and Carl G-. Nelson were, by indictment which contained three counts, charged with the crime of grand larceny. To the indictment, a demurrer was interposed, and overruled. The trial resulted in a verdict of guilty as to Linden and Campbell, and an acquittal as to Nelson. The convicted defendants each moved in arrest of judgment and for a new trial, all of which motions were overruled. Separate judgments were entered against the convicted defendants and sentence imposed, from which they appeal.

The appellants appear by separate briefs and different counsel. Many questions are presented, and the facts which are necessary to an understanding of a particular question will be stated in connection with the consideration of the question. It is only necessary to state a few of the preliminary facts.

*96 The Puget Sound Savings & Loan Association was a corporation engaged in the ordinary business of such an association, which was the receiving of deposits and the making of loans. Linden was the president of the association, Campbell the vice-president, and Nelson secretary. As one entered the banking room from the front or street entrance, to the right was a railing, such as ordinarily appears in banking houses. Back of this were the desks of the three officers mentioned, the first being that of Linden, the second Campbell, and the third Nelson. Next to the desk of Nelson the tellers’ cages began, and the first one was occupied by one M. N. Ostey as teller.

In the first count in the indictment, the officers named were charged with having converted trust funds which came into their possession between May 14,1928, and June 3, 1928, to the use of the Northwest Radio Service Company, a corporation, • and the American Broadcasting Company, “and to the use of other persons than the true owners thereof,” with intent to deprive and defraud the Puget Sound Savings & Loan Association. The second and third counts are to' the ' same effect, covering different periods of time, and each contains a like clause to that appearing in the first count, which is quoted. There are many questions presented, and, in considering them, we shall follow the order adopted in the appellant Campbell’s brief, and, after these are disposed of, consider any additional question that may appear in the brief of the appellant Linden.

In support of the demurrer, the appellants contend that the indictment is bad because it did not name specifically the other persons referred to in the quoted clause, and this presents the first question.

The indictment is based upon Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2601, subd. 3, which provides that every person who, *97 with, intent to deprive or defraud the owner thereof, having any property in his possession, custody or • control,

“. . . as bailee, factor, pledgee, servant, attorney, agent, employee, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian or officer of any person, estate, association or corporation, . . . shall secrete, withhold or appropriate the same to his own use or to the use of any person other than the true owner or person entitled thereto; . . . steals such property and shall be guilty of larceny.”

The import of the indictment is that the appellants were guilty of a fraudulent breach of trust in respect of money of their principal that had come into their possession by virtue of a fiduciary relation, and had wrongfully and fraudulently assumed dominion over it and had appropriated the same to the use of the radio company or the American Broadcasting Company, and to the use of other persons than the true owner. Under the statute and under the indictment based thereon, it was immaterial as to whether the appellants were the recipients of the benefits of the wrongful appropriation, or whether a third person reaped the benefits thereof; and for this reason the indictment was not bad, by reason of the fact that it used the expression “and to the use of other persons than the true owner.”

In the case of Lacy v. State, 13 Ala. App. 212, 68 So. 706, where the question presented was very much like that we are here considering, it was said:

“It is urged as an objection against some of the counts charging embezzlement that they aver that the defendant ‘embezzled or fraudulently converted to his own use or the use of another’ the property of his principal, without averring the name of the third person designated as ‘another.’ The clear import of this averment is that the defendant was guilty of a *98 fraudulent breach of the trust that had come into his possession by virtue of the fiduciary relation, and a wrongful and fraudulent assumption of dominion over it in total disregard and denial of the rights of the true owner (Wall v. State, 2 Ala. App. 164, 56 South. 57; Boutwell v. Parker, 124 Ala. 342, 27 South. 309; 15 Cyc. 521g), and it is wholly unimportant as to whether the defendant was the recipient of the benefits of the crime, or whether a third person reaped the benefits thereof. For this reason, it was not necessary for the indictment to aver the name of such third person. ’ ’

The case of State v. Carey, 4 Wash. 424, 30 Pac. 729, is based upon entirely different facts, and that case would not justify a holding in this case that the indictment was not good.

In addition to this, the quoted language may be regarded as surplusage, and the indictment would still be sufficient to charge the crime, because it specifically says that the property was converted to the use of the appellants and each of them unlawfully, fraudulently and feloniously, and to the use of the Northwest Radio Service Company and the American Broadcasting Company. State v. Hemhelter, 115 Wash. 208, 196 Pac. 581; State v. Fitzpatrick, 141. Wash. 638, 251 Pac. 875. The demurrer to the indictment was properly overruled.

It is next contended that the court erred in refusing to require the state to furnish to the appellants a list of its witnesses. The appellant Campbell objected to going to trial until a list of witnesses had been furnished. Whether the furnishing of a list of the witnesses is necessary when the charge is by indictment, depends upon whether it is required by statute. Laws of 1925, Ex. Ses., p. 420, § 1 (Rem. Rev. Stat., § 2042), amended Rem. Comp. Stat., § 2042, *99 and provided that, upon a true bill or indictment being presented to the conrt,

“. . . the clerk of the court must, within one day after demand made, furnish the defendant, or his counsel, a copy thereof without charge, or permit the defendant’s counsel, or the clerk of such counsel to take a copy.”

There is no provision in that section with reference to the furnishing of a list of the witnesses.

SectioiL 2 of the same chapter, p. 420 (Eem. Eev. Stat., §2050), amends Eem. Comp. Stat., §2050, and provides:

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Bluebook (online)
17 P.2d 635, 171 Wash. 92, 1932 Wash. LEXIS 815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-linden-wash-1932.