United States v. Pihakis

123 F. Supp. 859, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3104
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 13, 1954
DocketNo. 13606
StatusPublished

This text of 123 F. Supp. 859 (United States v. Pihakis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Pihakis, 123 F. Supp. 859, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3104 (W.D. Pa. 1954).

Opinion

MURPHY, District Judge.

Defendant found guilty by verdict of a jury on two counts of wilful misapplication, 18 U.S.C.A. § 656, Id. § 2, and on one count of violating the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1341, Id. § 2, moves in arrest of judgment and for a new trial.

Defendant’s motion based upon the sufficiency of the indictment as to counts 1 and 2, being similar to reasons asserted in United States v. Caplan, D.C., 123 F.Supp. 862, will for the reasons therein stated be denied. As to count 3, see Webb v. United States, 10 Cir., 1951, 191 F.2d 512, at page 514; Bauman v. United States, 5 Cir., 1946, 156 F.2d 534, at pages 536-537; Rosenbloom v. Hunter, 10 Cir., 1944, 143 F.2d 673, at page 676; United States v. Crummer, 10 Cir., 1945, 151 F.2d 958, at pages 962-963.

In support of his motion for a new trial, defendant argues1 that as a mat[860]*860ter of law, the evidence is insufficient to support a conviction under count 3; that as to all counts, in view of the evidence presented by defendant, the court erred in not affirming his theory of defense as stated in his points for charge. Absent a request therefor by either party, we do not have the aid or benefit of a transcript of testimony and must therefore rely upon notes and memory.

Applying the usual test in support of the verdict, see United States v. Stoehr, D.C., 100 F.Supp. 143, at page 149, it appears from substantial competent and credible evidence that defendant and his wife had a joint account under the name of Olympic Restaurant in the Citizens Trust Company of Cannonsburg, Pennsylvania, their home town. They were not depositors in the First National Bank of Cecil, some seven or eight miles away.

Upon the death of John F. Wagner, vice president and cashier of the Cecil bank, FDIC examiners, upon assuming charge of the bank’s affairs, found among its papers sixteen unposted checks of defendant dated over a two year period, including those in counts 1 and 2.

From an examination and analysis of the records, books and accounts in both banks insofar as they affected the defendant and from admissions by the defendant, the evidence showed that over a period of eighteen months the defendant, knowing that the balance in his account was under $10, at frequent intervals — two or three times weekly — drew checks thereon to cash, aggregating on each occasion over $4000. By pre-arranged plan with Wagner defendant cashed the checks at the Cecil bank, either through Wagner or by his express authorization. The cheeks were then transmitted through the mails to the Pittsburgh branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and in turn to the Citizens Trust Company, to be charged against defendant’s account and the Cecil bank credited accordingly. Meanwhile, usually on the day of the check’s arrival at the Citizens Trust Company, defendant would make a deposit to cover. Most of the time other checks were enroute, all drawn upon a meager and inadequate balance.

Counts 1 and 2 represented checks which followed the usual pattern, except that upon arrival at the Citizens Trust Company there were not sufficient funds to meet them, the deposit of that day being applied to payment of defendant’s checks previously issued; whereupon they were returned in the mails through the usual channels to the Cecil bank as NSF (not sufficient funds). Upon arrival at the Cecil bank they were not charged against defendant but merely placed to one side by Wagner. Thereby through the collaboration of Wagner and the defendant and with their knowledge, without legal authority to do so and with intent to defraud the Cecil bank, the moneys, funds and credits of the Cecil bank were converted to defendant’s use and the Cecil bank was not secured, repaid or reimbursed for the moneys in question.

Defendant admitted writing checks when he had an insufficient balance in his account to cover — in fact, $4.12 to meet checks of $3,600 and $400 respectively — ; that he knew the checks in question, although cashed elsewhere, would have to be cleared through the Citizens Trust Company, and ordinarily to be charged to his account.

Count 3 charges that defendant and Wagner’s scheme embraced the foregoing and the evidence amply supports it. Here we have a course of action continued over a period of months; checks knowingly drawn on an inadequate balance and therefore not good checks in the usual sense. The use of the mails was an integral and essential part of the required delay, affording an [861]*861opportunity to cover as well as an opportunity to conceal defendant’s and Wagner’s peculations. To constitute a violation it was not necessary to show defendant actually mailed the checks; it was sufficient to show that he caused it to be done. Pereira v. United States, 1954, 347 U.S. 1, at page 8, 74 S.Ct. 358.

The elements of the offense are (1) a scheme to defraud and (2) the mailing of a letter for the purpose of executing the scheme. Although it is not necessary that the scheme contemplate the use of the mails as an essential element, United States v. Young, 232 U.S. 155, 34 S.Ct. 303, 58 L.Ed. 548, the scheme here involved actually embraced it. See United States v. Decker, D.C. Md.1943, 51 F.Supp. 15, affirmed Decker v. United States, 4 Cir., 1944, 140 F.2d 378, at page 379, 151 A.L.R. 754. When one does an act with knowledge that use of the mails will follow in the ordinary course of business, or where such use can reasonably be foreseen, even though not actually intended, he “causes” the mails to be used. United States v. Kenofskey, 243 U.S. 440, 37 S.Ct. 438, 61 L.Ed. 836; Newingham v. United States, 3 Cir., 1925, 4 F.2d 490; Goodman v. United States, 3 Cir., 1938, 97 F.2d 197, at pages 198, 199; United States v. Berg, 3 Cir., 1944, 144 F.2d 173, at page 176, and see United States v. Decker, supra. As to defendant’s participation, see Pereira v. United States, supra, 347 U.S. at page 11, 74 S.Ct. at page 364.

Defendant relying upon Kann v. United States, 323 U.S. 88, 65 S.Ct. 148, 89 L.Ed. 88, and Dyhre v. Hudspeth, 10 Cir., 1939, 106 F.2d 286, at page 288, argues that the fraud, if any, had been consummated once the cheeks were cashed; that the use of the mails was not for the purpose of executing any scheme or artifice. We do not agree. Obviously the factual situation here is materially different from that presented in either of those cases. As to the law, see United States v. Sheridan, 329 U.S. 379, at pages 386 to 391, 67 S.Ct. 332, 91 L.Ed. 359; Decker v. United States, supra; United States v. Carruthers, 7 Cir., 1945, 152 F.2d 512, at pages 515, 517; Mitchell v. Hunter, 10 Cir., 1946, 152 F.2d 959, at page 960; United States v. Citrin, D.C., 58 F.Supp. 766, at page 770; United States v. Lowe, 7 Cir., 1940, 115 F.2d 596, certiorari denied 311 U.S.

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Related

United States v. Young
232 U.S. 155 (Supreme Court, 1914)
United States v. Kenofskey
243 U.S. 440 (Supreme Court, 1917)
Kann v. United States
323 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1944)
United States v. Sheridan
329 U.S. 379 (Supreme Court, 1947)
Pereira v. United States
347 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1954)
United States v. Wicoff
187 F.2d 886 (Seventh Circuit, 1951)
Webb v. United States
191 F.2d 512 (Tenth Circuit, 1951)
United States v. Matsinger
191 F.2d 1014 (Third Circuit, 1951)
United States v. Broxmeyer
192 F.2d 230 (Second Circuit, 1951)
United States v. Stoehr
196 F.2d 276 (Third Circuit, 1952)
Savitt v. United States
59 F.2d 541 (Third Circuit, 1932)
United States v. Carruthers
152 F.2d 512 (Seventh Circuit, 1945)
United States v. Crummer
151 F.2d 958 (Tenth Circuit, 1945)
Dyhre v. Hudspeth
106 F.2d 286 (Tenth Circuit, 1939)
United States v. Stoehr
100 F. Supp. 143 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1951)
United States v. Caplan
123 F. Supp. 862 (W.D. Pennsylvania, 1954)
United States v. Feldman
136 F.2d 394 (Second Circuit, 1943)
United States v. Lowe
115 F.2d 596 (Seventh Circuit, 1940)
Newingham v. United States
4 F.2d 490 (Third Circuit, 1925)
Johnson v. United States
95 F.2d 813 (Fourth Circuit, 1938)

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123 F. Supp. 859, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-pihakis-pawd-1954.