Walsh v. United States

174 F. 615, 98 C.C.A. 461, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5230
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 5, 1909
DocketNo. 1,469
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 174 F. 615 (Walsh v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Walsh v. United States, 174 F. 615, 98 C.C.A. 461, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5230 (7th Cir. 1909).

Opinion

HUMPHREY, District Judge.

Plaintiff in error was found guilty upon each of 54 counts of an indictment, charging him with a violation of section 5209, Rev. St. U. S. (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3497), by willfully misapplying moneys, funds, and credits of the Chicago National Bank with intent to injure and defraud the said bank.

The record is voluminous, and a large number of errors are assigned. Only the more serious contentions will be discussed here. .

. It is contended that the court was not legally organized. This involves a construction of Act March 3, 1905, c. 1427, 33 Stat. 992 (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1909, p. 123), changing the boundaries of judicial districts in Illinois, and we think presents no difficulties. _

_ Judge Dandis had power to call the grand jury, which returned the indictment. The statute under which he was appointed is couched in broad general terms, and it is evident that the term “Northern district of Illinois” is used to designate the district as it existed both before and after the passage of the act. The purpose of the statute was to give to the new judge all the power possessed by a judge for the Northern district of Illinois.

The provisions of section 23 of the act (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1905, p. 96; Supp. 1909, p. 130) support this view:

“That all prosecutions for crimes or offences heretofore committed within either the Northern or Southern districts of Illinois, as hitherto constituted, shall be commenced and proceeded with in each of said districts respectively, the same as if this act had not been passed.”

In other words, for past offenses, the old Northern district of Illinois was preserved, and in creating the office of district judge for the Northern district of Illinois Congress created the office of judge for the old Northern district for past offenses and of judge for the new Northern district for future offenses.

The same reasoning applies in answer to the objections made to Judge Anderson, who presided upon the trial in the court below, sitting by assignment for the Northern district of Illinois.

It is urged on behalf of plaintiff in error that the verdict is not sustained by the evidence because the record as a whole does not show any guilty intent, and also that the trial court erred in permitting the jury to consider evidence of other acts of the defendant of a kindred nature, not counted upon in the indictment.

Where fraudulent intent is an essential element of the offense charged, evidence of other acts of defendant of a kindred nature are competent to illustrate the character of the transaction in question, and throw light on the intent with which this particular act was done. We see no error in admitting evidence of similar transactions to prove intent.

[618]*618We cannot agree with counsel for the plaintiff in error in calling the transactions complained of in the indictment “legitimate and proper banking transactions.” For a promoter of various enterprises to obtain the funds of a bank on the security of unmarketable bonds of his own enterprises at the risk of the interests of the bank is not proper and legitimate banking, and the entries on the books of the bank as loans and investments do.no.t conceal the fraud thus perpetrated upon the bank.

The language of Judge Archbald in his concurring opinion in Lear v. U. S., 147 Fed. 359, 77 C. C. A. 537, is applicable:

“A reckless act, moreover, is always regarded as tlie equivalent of a willful one, and that at least was here. The possibility of injury was apparent on the face of the transactions, notwithstanding which the interests of the instituí ion of which he was the trusted head were put aside, and his own made paramount .in utter disregard of the outcome.”

' But even if the transactions were legitimate and proper per se', we see' no error. Evidence of similar transactions was admissible on the question of intent, and we think the instructions of the lower court correctly laid down the law on the point of criminal intent. This question was left to the jury under instructions which were unexceptionable as matter of law and were applicable to the facts of the case, and the finding of the jury is supported by the record. Agnew v. U. S., 165 U. S. 36, 17 Sup. Ct. 235, 41 L. Ed. 624; Coffin v. U. S., 162 U. S. 664, 16 Sup. Ct. 943, 40 L. Ed. 1109 ; U. S. v. Harper (C. C.) 33 Fed. 471; Peters v. U. S., 94 Fed. 127, 36 C. C. A. 105; United States v. Allis (C. C.) 73 Fed. 165.

Objection is made to the charge of the court, and especially to the following:

■ .‘‘The law presumes that every man intends the natural, legitimate, and necessary consequence of liis acts. Wrongful acts, knowingly or intentionally committed, can neither be justified nor excused on the ground of innocent intent. The color of the act determines the complexion of the intent. The intent to injure or defraud may be xiresumed when the unlawful act which results in loss or injury is proved to have been knowingly committed.”

The parts of the,charge excepted to must be read in context with and interpreted by the paragraph preceding and the paragraph following the parts excepted to, because they relate to and are explanatory of the same subject-matter. Coffin v. U. S., 162 U. S. 664, 16 Sup. Ct. 943, 40 L. Ed. 1109; Agnew v. U. S., 165 U. S. 36, 17 Sup. Ct. 235, 41 L. Ed. 624.

Neither detached phrases nor detached sentences relating to a given subject-matter may be singled out for construction or interpretation without reference to the context, involving the same subject-matter.

The complete instruction as given by the court on this subject was as follows:

: “If the defendant withdrew moneys from the hank for the use of the Illinois Southern Railway Company, the Southern Indiana Itailwny Company, flu1 Chicago Chronicle Company, the Bedford Quarries Company, the Equitable Trust Company, or the Wisconsin & Michigan Railway Company, or any of them, by means of checks drawn by these companies on said bank when the company drawing the check had no funds or moneys on deposit against which [619]*619to draw, if the defendant acted in good faith, honestly believing that the corporation or company so withdrawing the funds or moneys would he able to repay the same, when required, then the defendant would not "be guilty of the intent to defraud the bank as charged; lmt, on the.other hand, if the defendant acted in bad faith, and did not believe, and lmd no reasonable ground to believe, that the company or corporation so withdrawing such moneys or funds could repay such overdrafts when required to <lo so, then the defendant had no lawful right to make such overdrafts, or allow them to be made.
“The acts constituting criminal misapplication must be done or committed with intent to injure oi' defraud the bank. This intent 1o injure or defraud is made by the statute an ingredient or element in this offense.

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Bluebook (online)
174 F. 615, 98 C.C.A. 461, 1909 U.S. App. LEXIS 5230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walsh-v-united-states-ca7-1909.