White v. State

1929 OK CR 49, 275 P. 1067, 42 Okla. Crim. 50, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 369
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 9, 1929
DocketNo. A-6251.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1929 OK CR 49 (White v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
White v. State, 1929 OK CR 49, 275 P. 1067, 42 Okla. Crim. 50, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 369 (Okla. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

CHAPPELL, J.

The indictment cha'rges E. T. White and I. E. Pacey jointly with the offense of receiving a deposit in the Bank of Commerce, an insolvent bank at Sulphur, Okl>a., knowing at the time said bank was insolvent. Severance was ordered, and plaintiff in error, E. T. White, hereinafter called defendant, was put upon trial, and by a verdict of the jury he was found guilty as charged; the jury fixing his punishment at 2 years in the penitentiary and a fine of $500. The court, in rendering judgment on the verdict, fixed his punishment at confinement in the penitentiary for a period of 18 months. From this judgment he appeals.

*52 On February 23, 1922, defendant White, who was then in charge of the bank, caused the bank to close its doors to the public and transferred its affairs into the custody of the bank commissioner. After an exhaustive examination of the books, records, notes, accounts, and cash of the bank, the bank commissioner found that its assets at the time of the closing were exceeded by its liabilities by more than $51,000. The particular deposit in question was received on the 20th day of February, 1922, three days before its affairs were turned over to the bank commissioner. Charles A. Bryan was the acting vice president and cashier of the bank. Defendant White was a cashier and director, 'and for a time had been its vice president. I. E. Pacey was president, director, and teller. All of these parties on occasions acted in other capacities. White may not have known the full extent of the frauds and irregularities disclosed by the evidence, but the fact that the defendant was a banker of many years’ experience, and the further fact that he himself had made some of the fraudulent entries in the books of the bank, and had participated in the making of other fraudulent entries and transactions, all tended to show that he knew that this bank was insolvent, covering a period of several months before it closed.

This prosecution is based on section 4128, C. O. S. 1921, as follows: “No bank shall accept or receive on deposit, with or without interest, any money, bank bills or notes, or United States treasury notes, gold of silver certificates or currency, or other notes, bills, checks or drafts, when such bank is insolvent; and any officer, director, cashier, manager, member, party or managing party of any bank who shall knowingly violate the provisions of this section, or be accessory to or permit or connive at the receiving or accepting of any such deposit, shall be guilty of a felony, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand *53 dollars, or by imprisonment in the penitentiary not exceeding five years or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

Under the provisions of this statute, knowledge of the insolvency of the bank is an essential element of the offense.

It appears from the evidence that the defendant White, with others, acted as teller; that he and others had charge of the cash, made remittances, book entries, received deposits, and had access to the notes and accounts; and that he was acquainted with the contents of the books and records of the bank and its assets and liabilities. The particular deposit here in issue is shown by Plaintiff’s Exhibit No. 28, being entry in the pass-book of the “Artesian Hotel in Account with the Bank of Commerce, Sulphur, Oklahoma, February 20, 1922, deposited $41.00.” This exhibit and other testimony shows that this deposit was received by the codefendant, Pacey, but the records also show that on this day and days prior thereto, and thereafter until the 23d day of February, 1922, both Pacey and the defendant systematically worked together in receiving deposits from various depositors, thus indicating that the act of one was the act of both.

The first error complained of by the defendant is in the refusal of the court to give defendant’s requested instruction No. 2, which instruction is as follows:

“You are further instructed that a bank shall be deemed to be insolvent, first, when the actual cash market value of its assets is insufficient to pay its liabilities; second, when it is unable to meet the demands of its creditors in the usual and customary manner; third, when it fails to make good its reserve as required by law. It is not necessary that the bank shall have on hand sufficient cash to pay all of its depositors, or any considerable number of them on the same day or in case of a run bn the bank of some extraordinary demand beyond the usual *54 and customary manner. It is only necessary for it to have on hand cash, or available assets sufficient to meet the demands that are usually made on it from day to day in the ordinary course of business. In determining the value of the assets, you should take into consideration the actual cash market value of the assets on the 21st day of February, 1922.
“If, therefore, you find from the evidence, beyond a reasonable doubt that the actual cash market value of its assets was not sufficient to pay its liabilities on the 21st day of February, 1922, or if you find from the evidence ia, reasonable doubt that the Bank of Commerce was not able to meet the demands of its creditors in the usual and customary manner, or if you. find from the evidence beyond a .reasonable doubt that the Bank of Commerce failed to make good its reserve' as required by law, then in either event, if you so find, you are instructed that the Bank of Commerce was an insolvent banking corporation and you should so find. If, on the other hand, you fail to find the Bank of Commerce was an insolvent banking corporation as defined in these instructions, or if you have a reasonable doubt of the insolvency of the Bank of Commerce on February 21, 1922, you should give the defendant benefit of such doubt and acquit him.”

It will be observed this goes far beyond the instruction given in the case of Appelget v. State, 33 Okla. Cr. 125, 243 P. 251. In this case this court held: “It certainly was not the legislative intent to make criminal the accepting or receiving of deposits in a bank insolvent in that technical sense in which the word is used in section 4124, where a bank may be deemed insolvent when it shall fail for a period of 30 days after notice to restore its reserve.” It will be noted that, in the instruction requested, the defendant asked the court to instruct: “Third, when it fails to make good its reserve as required by law.” This court, in the case of White v. State, 36 Okla. Cr. 57, 252 P. 455, held: “That a bank might be insolvent for a failure to maintain its cash reserve as required by law has no application in a criminal prosecu *55 tion.” The instruction also failed to state the truth as to the facts alleged. The instruction fixed the date of the insolvency as February 21, 1922, when the indictmént alleged the bank to be insolvent as of February 20, 1922. Even though the balance of the instruction might clearly state the law, it was not reversible error for the court to refuse to give the requested instruction, under the rule laid down in the Appelget and the White Cases heretofore cited. , ' j

This court, in Dennison v. State, 25 Okla. Cr. 236, 219 P.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1929 OK CR 49, 275 P. 1067, 42 Okla. Crim. 50, 1929 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-state-oklacrimapp-1929.