State v. Lewis
State v. Lewis
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered hy
— Appellant was, hy information, charged with the crime of larceny. The substance of the charge is that on the 12th day of June, 1900, the appellant was the agent and attorney of one Mary Lambert, and was, by virtue of being such agent and attorney, intrusted by the clerk of the superior court of Spokane county with the sum of $225 of bank notes, money and currency of the United States, of the value of $225, the same being the property of said Mary Lambert; that by virtue of being such agent and attorney, appellant had authority to receive said money and did so receive it in the name and on account of the said Mary Lambert, and that he thereafter unlawfully converted the same to his own use. Appellant entered the pleas of not guilty and of former acquittal. A trial was had before a jury, resulting in a verdict of guilty. Motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment were denied, and judgment was entered upon the verdict of the jury, whereby appellant was sentenced to serve a term of eight years and six months’ imprisonment in the state penitentiary. Prom said judgment this appeal is prosecuted.
It is assigned as error that the court denied appellant’s challenge to the juror Salisbury on the ground that he was at the time a judicial officer of the state of Washington, namely, a justice of the peace. The examination shows that the juror is by occupation a farmer, but that he was then filling the office of justice of the peace in his precinct. Appellant had passed him for cause, and after examining another, the point was urged against Mr. Salis
It is assigned that the court erred in denying appellant’s motion to require the state to furnish a hill of particulars, and also to elect whether it relied upon the fiduciary relation of attorney and client, or that of principal and agent, since it was alleged in the information that appellant was both the attorney and agent of the said Mary Lambert. The motion for hill of particulars was denied, and, in response to appellant’s motion, the state announced that it elected to rely upon the fiduciary relation of principal and agent, and not that of attorney and client. We think the election which was made by the state fully met the requirements of appellant’s motion to require an election. And as to the motion for a bill of particulars, we think the information sufficiently advised appellant of the material facts, within the holding of this court in State v. Turner, 10 Wash. 94 (38 Pac. 864). The essential elements of the information, as summarized in the above case, are that the accused shall he shown to he a person or an agent, and if an agent, he shall have received the property of his principal by virtue of the agency, and that he fraudulently and feloniously converted it to his own use. All this appears in the information in the case at bar. The specific property received and converted is described and the time and manner of its receipt are also described. It does not appear that more specific information could have been furnished by a hill of particulars, and it was, therefore, not error to deny it.
It is assigned that the court erred in submitting this cause to the jury, inasmuch as it appeared from the evidence that a civil action is pending between the appellant and the prosecuting witness, involving a dispute over the appellant’s right to possession of the same property, the
“If the defendant W. A. Lewis in good faith claimed a lien upon the moneys of Mary Lambert in his hands for a general balance due him, or the firm of which he was a member, as attorneys’ fees for services performed by the said W. A. Lewis or the firm of which he was a member for the said Mary Lambert, the mere fact that the defendant retained the whole of said money in his possession and failed or refused to turn the same over to the said Mary Lambert until the amount of said claim for*83 attorneys’ fees should he adjusted and paid would not of itself constitute an offense under the law, but you must further find from the testimony that the defendant fraudulently converted to his own use moneys belonging to the prosecuting witness Mary Lambert, which he did not in good faith claim as attorneys’ fees.”
A claim of lien, not made in good faith, cannot be a good defense. A claim of lien confers no right to convert the funds to one’s own use, but merely a right to hold them until the claim is settled; and it would be possible for one to assert a claim of lien not in good faith, in order that he might retain possession of the funds, and thus avoid any immediate disclosure of an actual conversion thereof. It is undisputed that appellant withdrew the the last of these funds from the clerk’s office on the 12th day of June, 1900. The complaint in the action to enforce the alleged lien was verified May 28, 1901, nearly one year after the balance of the funds came into appellant’s possession. The testimony of the prosecuting witness is that she did not know of the withdrawal of the money by appellant at the time, and that appellant repeatedly told her the money ¡must remain in the clerk’s office until the determination of her motion for new trial, and pending her appeal if she should appeal to this court; that she learned that Mrs. Muerling had received her money, and, upon asking appellant why she could not also receive hers, he replied that, if Mrs. Muerling had withdrawn her money, she must have given a bond, but that Mrs. Lambert could not withdraw hers without dropping all further proceedings in the case; that similar statements were repeated, and that in January, 1901, she told appellant she would go to the clerk’s office and inquire about getting the money herself; that thereupon appellant replied, “If you dare to ■do that, Mrs. Lambert, I will fine you for contempt of
Error is assigned upon the ground that the state did not traverse appellant’s plea of former acquittal, and it is urged that the plea therefore stands confessed. It has been held that, when the plea of former acquittal is not bad upon its face, it can be avoided only by replication. State v.
The only record evidence upon this subject shows a mere dismissal by the prosecuting attorney of another charge against appellant, which appellant claims was for the same offense covered hy the information in the case at bar. The state insists that the offense charged in the first information is not the same as that charged here. But, even conceding that it may be the same, the order of dismissal was not a bar to another prosecution for the same offense, since the offense charged is a felony. Section 6916, Bal. Code. Even if the pleadings had properly presented the issue of former acquittal, there was, as we have seen, no competent evidence to support it, and therefore nothing to submit to the jury upon that subject.
“The prosecution is not held to strict proof as to the number, quantity, or value of the articles, whether the indictment charges the embezzlement of money or of other property.” 7 Enc. PI. & Pr., 454.
The cases cited in support of the above text hold that proof of either a smaller or larger amount than that specified in the charge will sustain a conviction. The court, therefore, did not err in the particular named.
It is assigned that the court erred in its instruction wherein the word “attorney” was used in describing appellant, it being contended that the state had elected to rely upon the relation of agency, and not upon that of attorney and client. While the word may have been used as descriptive of appellant, yet the gist of the instruction was that, if they found that W. A. Lewis received the money, and was intrusted therewith on account of Mrs. Lambert, he thereby became the agent of the owner. W. A. Lewis was a person, and, as such, if he was intrusted with money on account of the prosecuting witness, he thereby became her agent. There was no material error in the instruction.
Error in the court’s instructions on the subject of attorney’s liens is assigned. The instructions come within the views of the court heretofore expressed in the discussion of the subject of good faith in the assertion of the lien. We will, therefore, not pursue that discussion further. Eurther error is alleged upon the refusal of the court to
It is urged as error that the agreed testimony of James A. Drain was admitted. An affidavit for continuance on behalf of the state was presented before the beginning of the trial, showing the absence of said witness from the state, and also showing what would be his testimony if present. It was agreed by the defendant that, subject to objections for immateriality and incompetency, the affidavit might be considered as testimony actually given by the witness at the trial. The testimony was material, since it related to the payment of the money by the witness, as clerk, to appellant. We therefore think it was not error to admit it. A defendant may waive his constitutional right to have the witnesses produced against him. Wharton, Criminal Pleading & Practice (9th ed.), § 595; State v. Wagner, 78 Mo. 644 (41 Am. Rep. 131); Hancock v. State, 14 Tex. App. 392. Appellant waived that right in this case by his ante-trial agreement. The testimony as to the fact of payment by the witness to appellant is not, however, disputed. The only additional element in the testimony is that he paid appellant “bank notes, money, and currency of the United States,” and the time of the payment is also stated. Thus the testimony described the property, was all material under the issues, and was properly admitted under the appellant’s waiver.
It is urged as error that the court refused admission in evidence of some large, leather-bound books or journals which appear to have been the office books of the appellant and his firm, containing accounts with their general clientage. Portions of the books were also specially offered, containing accounts with Mrs. Lambert. We think these
Error upon the personal conduct of both the court and the prosecuting attorney during the progress of the trial is assigned; but we do not find in the record anything of that nature which we believe amounted to reversible error, or which calls for our criticism here.
The principal errors have been discussed. Many questions involved in other errors assigned have been more or less discussed in this opinion, and we do not believe any good purpose will be served by a further discussion of the matters urged.
It is insisted that an excessive sentence was imposed by the trial court, and that it erred in that behalf. The sentence is, however, for a period within the limitation of the statute, and we shall not disturb the judgment on that ground from anything that appears in the record.
The judgment is affirmed.
Eullerton, O. J., and Mount, Dunbar and Anders, JJ., concur.
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- JURORS-COMPETENCY-WAIVER OP OBJECTIONS. Under Bal. Code, § 4736, which provides that the verdict of a jury shall not be affected by reason of the incompetency of a juror, unless the juror was challenged for specific cause before verdict, a ground of objection to a juror will be deemed waived when the specific point was not urged as the basis of a challenge. SAME-JUSTICE OF PEACE AS JUROR-GROUND OF CHALLENGE. The provision of Bal. Code, § 473'6, that judicial officers shall not be compelled to serve as jurors is merely a privilege granted such officers, and is not a ground of challenge for cause. SAME. The fact that the prosecuting attorney is the legal adviser of justices of the peace, and that a juror may have had cases before him as justice in which the prosecuting attorney was engaged for the state, would be too remote to disqualify a justice of the peace from sitting as a juror in a criminal case, when no special personal relations are shown to exist between the juror and the prosecuting attorney. EMBEZZLEMENT-CLAIM OP LIEN FOR ATTORNEY’S PEES-GOOD FAITH -QUESTION FOR JURY. In a prosecution of an attorney for the embezzlement of funds belonging to a client, the court is warranted in submitting the cause to the jury, although there may be a civil action pending between the attorney and his client involving the right to such funds under a claim of lien, when there is evidence tending to show that the claim of lien was not asserted in good faith. SAME-EVIDENCE. Under an information charging the embezzlement of a specific sum of money, proof of the receipt and conversion of a part of the fund is sufficient to sustain a conviction. CRIMINAL LAW-INFORMATION-BILL OP PARTICUI.ARS. The denial of a bill of particulars upon a prosecution for larceny by embezzlement was not error, when the information showed that the defendant received certain property as an agent for another, which he fraudulently converted to his own use, and set forth a description of the specific property converted, with the time and manner of its receipt. SAME-PROSECUTION FOB EMBEZZLEMENT-ELECTION BETWEEN CHARGES. In a prosecution for embezzlement, a motion requiring the state to elect whether it relied upon the fiduciary relation of attorney and client, or of principal and agent was fully met by the state’s announcement that it elected to rely upon the fiduciary relation of principal and agent, and not that of attorney and client. SAME-PLEA OF FORMER ACQUITTAL-REPLY UNNECESSARY. A plea of former acquittal .does not stand admitted by reason of a failure to reply thereto, in the absence of a statute requiring the denial of such a plea. SAME-ALLEGATIONS OF PLEA. Semble, that under Bal. Code, § 6900, requiring a plea of former acquittal to state the date of judgment, the absence of such allegation would render the plea bad. SAME-INSTRUCTIONS. In a prosecution for embezzlement in which the state relied upon the relation of agency instead of that of attorney and client, the use of the descriptive word “attorney” in the court’s charge, in referring to the defendant, would not constitute error, where the gist of the instruction dealt with the relation of agency. SAME-MEET WITNESS FACE TO FACE-WAIVER. A defendant’s constitutional right to have the -witnesses against him produced in court may be waived; and an agreement by a defendant, in order to avoid a continuance, that one of the state’s absent witnesses would testify to certain facts would constitute such waiver. SAME-EVIDENCE-ADMISSIBILITY OF ACCOUNT BOOKS. In the prosecution of an attorney for the embezzlement of his client’s money, the office books of defendant’s firm, containing accounts with their general clientage, including the prosecuting witness, were properly excluded, where they contained self-serving entries made without the knowledge of the prosecuting witness.