Ferguson v. United States
Ferguson v. United States
Opinion of the Court
Appellant, H. W. Ferguson, was convicted and sentenced for violating and conspiring to violate 12 U.S.C.A. § 984. It will suffice to examine the substantive offenses. The indictment in separate counts charges that Ferguson, being president of the Dallas Joint Stock Land Bank, did unlawfully, wilfully, knowingly and feloniously abstract and convert to his own use monies belonging to said Bank, with intent to deprive the Bank of the value thereof, to wit: $2,400 on April 28, 1937; $500 July 28, 1937; $3,296 November 9, 1937; $514 September 1, 1937; all said monies being derived from a tract of land conveyed for the benefit of the Bank by Carrie Berkman to one Fowler.
Many of the facts are undisputed. Ferguson had been the Bank’s president for many years, and exercised almost complete control over its business. The Bank held a note of Carrie Berkman secured by mortgage on her farm in Nueces County, Texas. She offered to surrender the laud for the debt. Ferguson declined the offer. On March 17, 1937, she offered tO' the Bank’s attorney to pay $1,000 and surrender the land for the debt. The Bank’s attorney on Ferguson’s authority offered to accept the $1,000 and release Mrs. Berkman from personal liability provided the note and lien securing it should remain in full force and effect, the land to be conveyed to Fowler subject to the note and mortgage. This offer was accepted and papers made accordingly, the deed to Fowler dated March 30, 1937, and release of Mrs. Berkman dated April 9, 1937. Fowler was a farmer living near the land. He did not at first know of the transaction, but later was told and acted as transferee by signing the papers requested of him by Ferguson, through Ferguson’s wife’s brother Craddock, who was field agent for the Bank. The deed to
The Bank thus got all it was ever entitled to under its mortgage. If the oil lease bonus, the rents, and the profit on resale which arose from the land were the Bank’s monies, it must be because the transaction in March with Mrs. Berkman made the Bank the owner of the land. If Fowler had received title for himself or someone else not connected with the Bank, these monies would not have been monies of the Bank. If the Bank had acted by some other officer who permitted Ferguson to take over the land for his wife through Fowler, the monies would have been hers. Because Ferguson was acting as the officer and agent of the Bank and at the same time for himself and wife, laking for her benefits which might have been secured for the Bank, the case is close. If, as the Bank’s attorney testifies, Ferguson at first took the land for the Bank in Fowler’s name, and later decided to advance his wife’s money and take the land for her, his act in her behalf against the Bank.would not be valid, the Bank’s equitable ownership of the land and its proceeds would not cease, and in abstracting the proceeds of the land he would abstract the money of the Bank to its loss. But if in the beginning he acted for his wife in having title put in Fowler, having already for the Bank decided in good faith that the Bank did not wish and would not take the land but would retain only its loan, the land and its proceeds would not be the Bank’s. It is, however, true that even then the Bank could, at its election, hold its officer and agent ■ liable in equity for any profits he made in thus dealing personally in a matter in which he should have dealt’ for the Bank alone; but until the election was made and an account demanded, Ferguson could receive and keep the money without violating this statute. His guilt depends on whether the land became the land of the Bank in March, 1937; and if so, on whether Ferguson wilfully and knowingly abstracted monies, the proceeds of the land and belonging to the Bank, with intent to deprive the Bank of them. On all the evidence Ferguson was not entitled to an instructed verdict in his favor.
But we think the court, impressed with Ferguson’s accountability in equity as an agent and fiduciary of the Bank, erroneously made and refused charges on the critical question. In stating the uncontroverted facts he said: “That instead of conveying the land directly to the Bank they conveyed it to a person to be named by the Bank, called a nominee for the Bank. That nominee was S. K. Fowler.” Thus in the very beginning the jury were told in effect that Fowler took for the Bank and not for Ferguson. Later he said of Fowler: “He was either the nominee, or in a sense trustee, for the equity or the profits that might Sow from the
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for further proceeding not inconsistent with this opinion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FERGUSON v. UNITED STATES
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published