People v. Rittenhouse

LANGDON, P. J.

This appeal is taken from a judgment of conviction of the crime of embezzlement and of the crime of forgery, charged in the third and fourth counts of an indictment against the defendant, which indictment contained five counts. Appellant was found “not guilty” on count one and the district attorney, prior to the trial, dismissed as to counts two and five.

Appellant contends that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict. The defendant, Rittenhouse, in July, 1920, was employed as a bookkeeper for the Valley Oil Company, in Fresno, California. Among his duties- were those of keeping the books of the company and of signing checks of the company, jointly with the president, Edward L. Tobin. The Valley Oil Company kept a checking account in the Bank & Trust Company of Central California, in Fresno, which bank, a short time prior to the date of the alleged commission of the crimes' herein considered, had changed its name to the Fidelity Trust & Savings Bank. Mr. Tobin, as president of the Valley Oil Company, secured a loan from this bank in the sum of $2,500 and had it deposited in the bank to the credit of the Valley Oil Company. By some mistake occurring during the transfer of the bank’s business from the old name to its new name, the bank inadvertently credited the Valley Oil Company with two deposits of $2,500 each. The second deposit was credited on May 12, 1920, the day after the first deposit was credited. The defendant was in a position to become aware of this error and it afforded him an opportunity for embezzlement. It was shown by the bank’s ledger sheet that on July 29, 1920, $600 was drawn from the company’s account; on the following day, the ledger shows that $1,900 was withdrawn, making a total of $2,500, the amount of the duplicate deposit. This amount was checked out without the consent of the president. The company was a small one and was virtually controlled by its president, Mr. Tobin. All checks required the signatures of Tobin as president

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and of the defendant as secretary. It appears from the evidence that on some occasions Tobin signed his name as president to certain blank checks to be used in the business. The evidence was conflicting as to whether or not Tobin, as president, had left checks signed in blank which the defendant might have used for securing this $1,900 from the bank. That question was, therefore, submitted to the jury as to whether or not they believed that the defendant had forged Tobin’s name to the $1,900 check or had utilized one of the checks which had been signed in blank lay Tobin and intrusted to the defendant for company purposes. The jury determined that the defendant was not guilty of forgery, but found him guilty of embezzlement of $1,900, so that question drops out of this case. True, the prosecution was unable to produce the two checks, one for $600 and the other for $1,900, but the inference from the evidence is very strong, indeed compelling, that the defendant destroyed these checks. The card retained by the bank which was signed by the person obtaining the canceled checks of the company was produced. It contained two signatures of “Valley Oil Company,” one on July 20, 1920, and one on August 2, 1920. The handwriting expert at the trial identified these signatures as the handwriting of the defendant. When the bank discovered the mistake and went to check up the matter with the Valley Oil Company, the defendant had left his employment and was not to be found, and the two checks which would have been evidence against the defendant had also disappeared. In the light of these facts and of other evidence of defendant’s guilt contained in the record, the inference that he secreted or destroyed these checks as a part of his scheme and to avoid detection is not unjustified.