People v. Dunkin

YORK, P. J. Appellant was charged in an amended information containing four counts with issuing cheeks without sufficient funds, and with a prior conviction of the same offense. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, denied the prior conviction and also pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The jury found him guilty on all four counts; found that the allegation of the prior conviction was true, and that he was sane at the time of the commission of the offenses charged in the amended information.

This appeal is prosecuted from the order denying motion for new trial and from the judgment of conviction.

The sole contention presented is the sufficiency of the evidence to show that appellant had no credit arrangement with the Bank of America to pay the checks at the time they were drawn or issued. In this connection, appellant asserts that by merely ascertaining the fact that he did not have a general credit arrangement with the bank, instead of establishing “whether there was an ‘understanding or credit arrangement’ with the Bank of America with regard to the four checks here in question,” the prosecution failed to prove the offense defined by section 476a of the Penal Code, to wit :

‘ ‘ (Issuance of checlc, draft or order without sufficient funds or credit with intent to defraud: Punishment: ‘Credit’ defined: . . . ) Any person who for himself . . . wilfully, with intent to defraud, makes or draws or utters or delivers any cheek, or draft or order upon any bank ... for the payment of money, knowing at the time of such making, drawing, uttering or delivering that the maker or drawer . . . has not sufficient funds in, or credit with said bank . . . for the payment of such cheek, draft or order, in full upon its presentation, although no express representation is made with reference thereto, is punishable by imprisonment in the county [101]jail for not more than one year, or in the state prison for not more than fourteen years. . . . ‘Credit’ defined: The word ‘credit’ as used herein, shall be construed to mean an arrangement or understanding with the bank . . . for the payment of such check, draft or order.”

The cheeks forming the basis of counts I and II were drawn on the Monterey Park branch of the Bank of America and were cashed by attendants at two Standard Oil Company service stations in the city of Los Angeles on April 1 and 2, 1941. The checks upon which counts III and IV were based were drawn on the Slauson and Vermont branch of the Bank of America and were cashed at Standard Oil Company service stations in Long Beach and Wilmington on May 23, 1941.