State v. Wallin

199 P. 285, 60 Mont. 332, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 115
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1921
DocketNo. 4,625
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 199 P. 285 (State v. Wallin) 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. Wallin, 199 P. 285, 60 Mont. 332, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 115 (Mo. 1921).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE HOLLOWAY

delivered the opinion of the court.

The defendant was convicted.of grand larceny, and appealed from the judgment and from an order denying him a new trial.

Paraphrased, the information charges that on December 20, 1918, the defendant, while acting as cashier of the Rosebud State Bank, and having in his possession as bailee a United States Liberty Bond, No. 673169, of the value of $500, and the property of Hugh Lynch, did feloniously appropriate the said bond to his own use, with intent to deprive the true owner of his property.

[335]*335Counsel for defendant make twenty-four assignments of error predicated upon the rulings upon the admission of evidence, the giving and refusal of instructions, the refusal of the court to advise the jury to acquit, and the refusal to grant a new trial. These assignments need not be considered separately. Most of them, in one form or another, present the question of the correctness of the theory upon which the prosecution proceeded.

During the summer of 1918 the campaign was conducted throughout the country for sale of bonds of the Third Liberty Loan. The general plan of that campaign is a matter of public history, and need not be considered. In and about the town of Bosebud, subscriptions were obtained by the card system in use. Each of several subscribers indicated that he would make payment on his subscription to the Bosebud State Bank, of which institution the defendant was cashier and active manager. When these particular cards were collected, they were turned into the bank which made its subscription to the Federal Beserve Bank at Minneapolis for bonds of the denominations and in the aggregate amount corresponding to the individual subscriptions. Each subscriber to one of these cards agreed to purchase the bond, or bonds, indicated, and to pay into the Bosebud State Bank the face value thereof, either in a lump sum or by the installments authorized. by the government. The bank, by its subscription, agreed likewise with the Federal Beserve Bank to purchase the bonds indicated by its subscription, and to pay therefor upon the installment plan. The bank made its several payments, and received the bonds into its custody. It is not made certain by the record whether every individual subscriber fully paid his subscription into the bank. It does appear that many of them did not pay promptly as the installments became due, and that the bank was compelled to advance the money; but for the purpose of this case we may assume that everyone met his obligations by the time the bonds were received by the Bosebud Bank.

[336]*336Hugh Lynch subscribed for one $500 bond of this issue, and indicated upon his card that payment would be made therefor to the Rosebud Bank, in which institution he then had on deposit sufficient money to pay his subscription in one payment, but he did not give special directions as to the manner of payment, except that the bank was authorized to deduct from his deposit the amount or amounts necessary to discharge his subscription obligations. As a matter of fact, the bank employed the installment plan, and charged Lynch’s account with deductions which in the aggregate equaled the total of his subscription, the last deduction having been made in August, 1918. On November 15, 1918, the Rosebud State Bank was indebted to the First National Bank of Miles City on an overdraft in the sum of $60,000 in round numbers, and demand was then made that it be covered at once. To this end it was agreed between the two institutions that satisfactory securities should be sent by the debtor to the creditor bank. About November 17 the Rosebud Bank, acting through this defendant as cashier, sent its three promissory notes to the Miles City Bank, one note for $17,650, to which were attached as collateral Liberty Bonds of the aggregate value of the face of the note; one note for $24,017.08, with warrants of that value attached as collateral security; and one note for $23,332.92, with bills receivable attached as collateral. The purpose of the Rosebud Bank was to secure a loan from the Miles City Bank for $65,000, pay out of this its overdraft, and leave a small credit balance in its favor. At the time these securities were forwarded, entries were made upon the books of the Rosebud Bank. The Miles City Bank’s account was charged with $65,000 and bills payable credited with a like amount. Two or three days later the Miles City Bank notified the Rosebud Bank that it declined to make the loan for $65,000, but that it had applied the bonds and warrants as cash items toward the payment of the overdraft, and had retained the bills receivable as collateral for the balance, with the right in the Rosebud Bank to withdraw the bonds and [337]*337warrants at any time upon paying the face value thereof, with interest at eight per cent per annum. Some days later the Eosebud Bank’s three notes were returned to it. On November 26, after receipt of a reconcilement from the Miles City Bank disclosing the then status of the Eosebud Bank’s account with it, the assistant cashier of the Eosebud Bank entered upon the books of that bank a credit to the Miles City Bank’s account of $23,332.92; that being the difference between $65,000 and the aggregate face value of the bonds and warrants. On December 19 or 20 defendant made entries upon the Eosebud Bank’s books, as follows: The warrant account was credited with $27,469.36; the Miles City Bank’s account was charged with $3,452.28 — apparently the accrued interest on the warrants — -and the bills payable account was charged with $24,017.08. This still left a credit of $17,650 in favor of the Eosebud Bank, but with no corresponding entries upon its books showing the proper, or any, disposition of that amount. To malee up entries covering this item, the defendant at the same time charged the bills payable account with $17,650, designating opposite the entry, M. C. L. Bonds, meaning Miles City Liberty Bonds. To balance this entry, defendant credited the loans and discounts account with $9,386.71, the interest account with $238, and withdrew from the note file of the bank the note of J. F. Edgerton for $1,780, with interest due, $178; the note of C. L. Bachelor for $6,406.71; the note of McEae and Wallin for $1,200, with interest due, $60; and also credited individual deposit accounts as follows: W. J. Wallin, $5,760.78; Mrs. O. B. Jentry, $100; O. B. Jentry, $700; O. B. Jentry, $64.51, “Lumpy Jaw”; B. J. Jentry, $1,400. In May, 1919, the superintendent of banks made an official examination of the Eosebud Bank during the absence of the defendant, and at that time the Edgerton note and the McBae-Wallin note were found locked in the defendant’s desk. In June, 1919, the Liberty Bonds were redeemed from the Miles City Bank, returned to the Eosebud Bank, and there[338]*338after, upon demand, were delivered to the subscribers according to their respective subscriptions.

The information herein was filed February 11, 1920. The allegations of that information material to a determination of questions presented by these appeals are: (1) That on December 20, 1918, Hugh Lynch was the owner of Liberty Bond No. 673169; (2) that defendant then had the bond in his possession, custody, or control as bailee; and (3) that defendant then converted the bond to his own use with the felonious intent to deprive the true owner of his property. The evidence, as exhibited by the foregoing résumé, fails to prove, and does not even tend to prove, any one of these allegations.

[1] 1. Notwithstanding Lynch’s testimony that on December 20, 1918, he owned the particular bond No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
199 P. 285, 60 Mont. 332, 1921 Mont. LEXIS 115, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-wallin-mont-1921.