State v. Scherer

462 P.2d 549, 77 Wash. 2d 345, 1969 Wash. LEXIS 593
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 4, 1969
Docket40521
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 462 P.2d 549 (State v. Scherer) 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. Scherer, 462 P.2d 549, 77 Wash. 2d 345, 1969 Wash. LEXIS 593 (Wash. 1969).

Opinions

Rosellini, J.

The appellant was found guilty on two counts of larceny by check. The evidence showed that, as president of Scherer & Company, Inc. (a retail seller of building supplies), he had signed two checks for $250 and $300 in payment for supplies furnished by a wholesaler, Harris Company, at a time when he did not have funds on deposit to cover either of them. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict.

According to the evidence presented, the appellant was president and principal stockholder of Scherer & Company. Over a period of years, his company had purchased large quantities of materials from Harris Company on open account, and by the spring of 1967 was indebted to that company in the amount of some $30,000 to $40,000. Scherer & Company was in danger of bankruptcy, and if Harris Company had sued for the amount owed it and had attached the assets of Scherer & Company, the latter could not have continued in business.

Since there were many other creditors of Scherer & Company, including the Small Business Administration and the Washington State Department of Revenue, Harris Company would have been able to recoup only a small part of the amount owed it, if any, had Scherer & Company been thrown into bankruptcy or receivership. Therefore, it accepted a note for the amount then owed to it and agreed to continue supplying materials to Scherer & Company, in order to assist that company in remaining in business. It exacted an agreement, however, that all materials would be paid for within 2 weeks after delivery and that, if these terms were not observed, availability of materials would terminate. This agreement was signed June 5,1967.

Scherer & Company did not pay for the materials furnish[347]*347ed as agreed; and about the first part of July, the appellant was notified by Mr. Pilgrim of Harris Company that henceforth all sales would be on a cash basis. Because the exact amount of the charges on any sale of materials could not be determined until after the truck sent by Scherer & Company was loaded, and because it was inconvenient for the appellant always to accompany the truck making the pickup and wait for the invoices to be extended, the system used thereafter was as follows:

The appellant would either send a check with the driver which was more than sufficient to cover the anticipated cost of the materials, or he would stop by the office of Harris Company before, at the time, or immediately after the materials were picked up and leave a check in an amount more than adequate to cover the purchase. Any excess of payment was applied to the reduction of the balance owed on the past due account after the invoice for the particular delivery was extended.

On September 13, 1967, Scherer & Company purchased and seemed delivery of materials in the total amount of $234.70, for which the appellant signed a check for $250; and on September 15, 1967, it purchased materials invoiced at $157.25, for which the appellant signed a check for $300. When these checks were presented for payment in the regular comse of business, there was the sum of $38.58 on deposit in the account of Scherer & Company. On September 13th, the account had contained $40.20, and on September 15th, it had contained $35.70. The account was reduced after that to the final sum of 25 cents, and there were never at any time sufficient funds to pay the checks.

The appellant testified that, at the time these checks were written, he had in his office the sum of $1,267.38; but that all but $7.38 of this amount was drawn upon by the Small Business Administration at the moment of deposit for a past due debt under a preexisting agreement. The deposit slip showed the deduction so that the bank showed a deposit of only $7.38.

Thereafter, the accounts receivable were attached by the Washington State Department of Revenue, as was the cash [348]*348on hand, and the business became, for all practical purposes, defunct. The checks given to Harris Company were never paid nor was the note or preexisting indebtedness paid. When it became manifest that the checks were not going to be made good, Harris Company turned them over to the police department of Olympia and this prosecution followed.

In arguing his contention that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict, the appellant urges that the checks were not given in exchange for materials but were simply payments on the open account. He concedes that there was evidence to the contrary but maintains that the case must rest, not upon the circumstantial evidence or testimony of other witnesses, but upon the appellant’s testimony about the nature of his understanding of the agreement between the parties.

The appellant admitted that he was required to furnish checks at or about the time of each purchase, but he did not consider these to be cash payments. He said:

Cash to me means green stuff. I mean, I have been in business long enough that when you say “cash,” that’s cash. A check is only good when it goes through the bank and it clears.

He said that the purpose of the checks, as he understood it, was to “hold our account down so we would not — the over-all account would not be greater.”

This statement is not inconsistent with the testimony by Mr. Pilgrim of Harris Company that he demanded cash for all materials sold after the first part of July. The only way Scherer & Company could “hold” the account down was, of course, to pay cash for all purchases made thereafter.

Even though the appellant may have considered his checks nothing more than promissory notes, the fact is that, as long as there was money in the bank to pay them, they were as good as cash. In any event, they were exacted and accepted, the jury could find, as payment for the materials furnished; and this is the significant fact in determining whether the person to whom the check has been issued has [349]*349been defrauded. As the trial court instructed the jury, in order to convict the appellant it was necessary for it to find that, by color and aid of check, the appellant willfully, unlawfully, fraudulently, and feloniously obtained from the Harris Company the possession of merchandise and cash monies of a value in excess of $25, knowing that the drawer of the check was not authorized or entitled to draw the same. RCW 9.54.010 (2).

The evidence showed that the appellant knew that there were insufficient funds in the bank to pay the checks and thus he was not entitled to draw them, and that he admitted that he gave them in order to obtain possession of merchandise of value in excess of $25. The evidence also showed that he did not have funds on hand to cover the checks and meet his other pressing obligations, and that it would have been fortuitous indeed if the Small Business Administration had failed to draw upon his deposit and had allowed his other creditors to claim it. The jury could and apparently did find that he had no reason to believe that this would happen.

Whether the appellant thought the checks were “cash” is immaterial. It is the issuing of a check for a fraudulent purpose which is made a crime by the legislature.

The evidence was clear that the checks were issued unlawfully, that is, upon an account in which there were insufficient funds to cover them.

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State v. Scherer
462 P.2d 549 (Washington Supreme Court, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
462 P.2d 549, 77 Wash. 2d 345, 1969 Wash. LEXIS 593, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-scherer-wash-1969.