United States v. Norton

188 F. 256, 1911 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 244
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Oklahoma
DecidedJune 5, 1911
DocketNos. 515-521
StatusPublished

This text of 188 F. 256 (United States v. Norton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Norton, 188 F. 256, 1911 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 244 (E.D. Okla. 1911).

Opinion

CAMPBELL, District Judge.

In each of the 7 above-numbered cases an indictment has been returned against the defendant, William L. Norton, the several indictments aggregating 42 counts, all relating to offenses under section 5209 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3497), covering offenses by officers and agents of national banks. Each count relates either to an alleged false entry, or misapplication or abstraction of the moneys, funds, and credits of the association. The indictments and counts which allege false entries are No. 515, all 3 counts; No. 516, the first 2 counts; No. 517, all. 6 counts; No. 518, 7 counts; No. 519, first 2 counts; No. 521, first 2 counts. And those indictments and counts which allege misapplication are No. 516, the third count; No. 518, eighth and ninth counts; No. 520, all 10 counts; No. 521, the third count. Those which alleged abstraction are No. 521, fourth and fifth counts. Motions to quash have been filed in each case, attacking on various grounds each count of the respective indictments.

[ 1 ] We will first consider the motions as they relate to the false entry charges. The ground of the motions in this respect most strenuously urged by counsel for the defendant appears in the fourth para[258]*258graph of the motion filed in No. 515, and may be taken as typical of similar contentions set up in the other-motions, and is as follows:

“That said indictment, and each and every count thereof, is defective and bad for duplicity, in that it purports to charge two or more offenses in each count; that is to say, said indictment alleges in each count that a false entry was made in a certain report to the Comptroller of the Currency by the defendant, with the intent on his part to injure and defraud the American National Bank of Bartlesville, and also that a false entry was made by the defendant in such report with the intent to deceive the board of directors and other officers of said hanking association and any agent appointed and designated by the Comptroller of the Currency to examine into the affairs of said banking association, and also that a false entry was made by the defendant in such report with the intent to injure and defraud and deceive the officers of said banking association and any agent appointed and designated by the Comptroller of the Currency to examine into the affairs of said banking association, whereby the defendant is not advised of the offense with which he is sought to be charged.”

In each of the false entry counts, it is charged that the false entry involved was made—

“with the intent to injure and defraud the said banking association, and with the intent to deceive the board of directors and other officers of said banking association, and with the intent to deceive any - agent ax>pointed and designated or thereafter to be appointed and designated by the Comptroller of the Currency to examine into the affairs of said banking association.”

Section 5209 provides as follows:

"Every president, director, cashier, teller, clerk, or agent of any association, who embezzles, abstracts, or willfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds, or credits of the association, or who, without authority from the directors, issues or puts in circulation any of the notes of the association, or who, without such authority, issues or puts forth any certificate of deposit, draws any order or bill of exchange, makes any acceptance, assigns any note, bond, draft, bill of exchange, mortgage, judgment, or decree, or who makes any false entry in any book, report, or statement of the association, with intent, in either case, to- injure or defraud the association or any other' company, body politic or corporate, or any individual person, or to deceive any officer of the association, or any agent appointed to examine the affairs of any such association, and every person who with like intent aids or abets any officer, clerk, or agent in any violation of this section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be imprisoned not less than five years nor more than ten.”

The persons coming within the purview of the statute are the officers and agents of national banks. Any one of those who either em"bezzles, abstracts, or willfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds, or credits of the bank, with intent to injure or defraud the association, or any other company, corporation, or individual, or with intent to deceive any of the officers of the bank, or any agent appointed to examine the affairs of the bank, offends against the statute. The embezzlement, abstraction, and misapplication condemned are each separate and distinct acts, which, when committed with either the intent to injure or defraud, or with the intent to deceive, mentioned in the statute, become separate and distinct offenses under its terms. The fourth act, which may become an offense under the statute, when coupled with either one of the intents mentioned, is that of issuing or putting in circulation any of the notes of the association without [259]*259■authority from the directors. The fifth is the issuing or putting forth, without such authority, any certificate of deposit; sixth, the drawing of any order or bill of exchange without such authority; seventh, the making of any acceptance without such authority; eighth, signing any note, bond, etc., without such authority; ninth, the making of any false entry in any book, report, or statement of the association, with either of the intents mentioned.

It is therefore seen that there are nine distinct acts, each of which, when coupled with the intent to injure or defraud, or with the intent to deceive, mentioned in the statute, becomes a separate and distinct offense. The making of the false entry is not in itself what the statute condemns; but it is the making of it with any one of the several intents mentioned therein. The gravamen of the offense is not the mere making of the false entry; but coupled with the act there must be one of the intents condemned by the statute. A false entry made by mistake, or one knowingly made, but with no intent to injure, defraud, or deceive in any of the respects condemned by the statute, would not be an offense against the statute. “A statute will not generally make an act criminal, however broad may be its language, unless the offender’s intent concurred with his act, because the common law does not.” Bishop on Stat. Crimes, § 132. As, therefore, it is not every false entry, even when knowingly made, but only such as is concurrent with some particular intent named in the statute, which is condemned, it may, I think, be properly said that the criminal’intent is the gravamen of each offense contemplated by section 5209. Evans v. United States, 153 U. S., loc. cit. 594, 14 Sup. Ct. 934, 38 L. Ed. 830.

It is an elementary rule of pleading that an indictment or information must not in the same count charge the defendant with two or-more distinct and substantive offenses, and in case it does so it is bad for duplicity if the offenses are inherently repugnant, or are not different stages in one transaction, or involve different punishments. 22 Cyc. 376, and cases cited. It follows that an indictment which in one and the same count charges an officer or agent of the bank with embezzling and abstracting its funds, or with abstracting and misapplying its funds, or with embezzling its funds and

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Britton
107 U.S. 655 (Supreme Court, 1883)
United States v. Northway
120 U.S. 327 (Supreme Court, 1887)
Evans v. United States
153 U.S. 584 (Supreme Court, 1894)
Crain v. United States
162 U.S. 625 (Supreme Court, 1896)
United States v. Corbett
215 U.S. 233 (Supreme Court, 1909)
Armstrong v. . People
70 N.Y. 38 (New York Court of Appeals, 1877)
Hunt v. Elliott
20 Me. 312 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1841)
Commonwealth v. Andrews
132 Mass. 263 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1882)
Commonwealth v. Ismahl
134 Mass. 201 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1883)
State v. Smith
24 W. Va. 814 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1884)
Beasley v. People
89 Ill. 571 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1878)
Slocum v. People
90 Ill. 274 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1878)
Ker v. People
110 Ill. 627 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1884)
Henderson v. People
17 N.E. 68 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1888)
State v. Goodwin
33 Kan. 538 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1885)
State v. Fisher
37 Kan. 404 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1887)
People v. Sweeney
22 N.W. 50 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1885)
State v. Gibson
19 S.W. 980 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1892)
Morgan v. United States
148 F. 189 (Eighth Circuit, 1906)
Morse v. United States
174 F. 539 (Second Circuit, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
188 F. 256, 1911 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-norton-oked-1911.