Goldyn v. Hayes

Decision Date01 February 2006
Docket NumberNo. 04-17338.,04-17338.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
PartiesJoni GOLDYN, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Loy HAYES, Respondent-Appellee.

Franny A. Forsman, Federal Public Defender, and Paul G. Turner, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Las Vegas, NV, for petitioner-appellant.

Brian Sandoval, Attorney General; Rene L. Hulse, Senior Deputy Attorney General; and Victor Hugo Schulze II, Deputy Attorney General, Las Vegas, NV, for respondent-appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, Roger L. Hunt, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-97-01769-RLH.

Before BEEZER and KOZINSKI, Circuit Judges, and CARNEY,* District Judge.

ORDER

The opinion filed February 1, 2006, and reported at 436 F.3d 1104, is withdrawn, and is replaced by the Amended Opinion, 04-17338. The petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc are DENIED as moot. further petitions for rehearing and rehearing en banc will be accepted. See Fed. R.App.P. 35; Fed.R.App.P. 40.

AMENDED OPINION

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge.

Petitioner spent 12 years in prison for a crime she didn't commit. We vacate her conviction pursuant to Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).

Facts

In November 1987, Joni Goldyn opened checking and savings accounts with the Nevada Federal Credit Union (NFCU). Generous to a fault, NFCU also showered Goldyn with a $1,000 loan, a $500 line of credit attached to her checking account, a credit card and a check guarantee card. The back of the latter card read as follows:

This credit union guarantees payment of cardholder's checks drawn prior to the expiration date by the person whose name appears on the face of this card subject to the following conditions: 1) Check amount shall not exceed $100 cash or $500 for merchandise; 2) Card number and expiration date must appear on the check. . . .

The inscription on the back of the card also imposed certain obligations on the cardholder, triggered "[b]y signing and using the card":

3) Pay the credit union for checks guaranteed with this card if the cardholder's account is insufficient; 4) To surrender this card upon the credit union's request.

The expiration date on the front of the card was November 1989.

By January 1988, Goldyn had depleted the funds in her accounts, used up most of her $500 line of credit and accumulated various bank fees, resulting in a net negative balance. But Goldyn continued writing checks, and merchants continued accepting them, presumably relying on her check guarantee card. More importantly, NFCU continued covering her checks, as the check guarantee card obligated it to do. As NFCU's collection officer testified at trial: "If a member uses a check guarantee card with the check, the bank is liable, and we do have to honor those checks."

Goldyn was convicted by a jury of five counts of Drawing and Passing Checks with Insufficient Funds on Deposit, in violation of Nev.Rev.Stat. 205.130. Because she had previously been convicted of three felonies and one gross misdemeanor — all fraud related — she was sentenced as a habitual criminal to five life sentences. Goldyn asserted her innocence seven times before three courts, but to no avail.1 After taking twelve years of Goldyn's life, the state finally released her on lifetime parole.2 On federal habeas, Goldyn presents the same simple argument she had presented to the state courts: If the bank was obligated to cover her checks, then she can't be convicted of having written bad checks.

Analysis

1. Goldyn was convicted of violating Nev.Rev.Stat. 205.130(1), which makes it a criminal offense for "a person [to] . . . willfully, with an intent to defraud, draw[] or pass[] a check or draft to obtain [money or property] . . . when the person has insufficient money, property or credit with the drawee of the instrument to pay it in full upon its presentation." The elements of this offense are no mystery: To convict Goldyn, the state had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she (1) acted willfully and with an intent to defraud; (2) passed a check in exchange for cash, goods or services; and (3) was unable to cover the check with any of the following: (a) money, (b) property or (c) credit with NFCU.3

It is uncontested that Goldyn passed five checks to various merchants in exchange for items of value, and that she had insufficient money or property in her NFCU accounts to cover the checks. We can further assume for the sake of argument that Goldyn intended to defraud someone when she passed those checks, whether it have been the merchants or the bank: She knew she had insufficient money in her account to pay the merchants and, should the bank pay the merchants for her, she presumably4 had no intention of repaying the bank. Thus, we take it as given that the state met its burden on elements 1, 2, 3(a) and 3(b).

Finally, with respect to element 3(c), it is undisputed that at the time Goldyn wrote the checks at issue, she had already nearly exceeded her $500 line of credit. Thus, the only remaining question is whether Goldyn's check guarantee card was an additional form of credit extended to her by NFCU, as that term is defined by Nev.Rev.Stat. 205.130(4) (defining "credit" as "an arrangement or understanding with a person, firm, corporation, bank or depositary for the payment of a check or other instrument"). If it was, then the checks were covered by Goldyn's credit and the state did not prove element 3(c) of the crime she was charged with. See Jackson, 443 U.S. at 318-19, 323-24, 99 S.Ct. 2781.

2. We start our analysis with the state court's findings, to which we owe great deference. See 28 U.S.C. § 2254(e)(1). This is everything the Nevada Supreme Court had to say in upholding Goldyn's conviction:

Appellant opened her checking account under an assumed name. Appellant received cash or merchandise in return for each of the checks at issue, and did not have sufficient funds in her account to cover the checks. Appellant's check guarantee card carried a $500 line of credit, but appellant's overdrafts far exceeded that amount. The credit union paid the checks because appellant's use of a check guarantee card to draw the checks obligated it to do so. Although the payee of the checks was not injured, the credit union was injured by having to cover appellant's bad checks. The jury could reasonably infer from the evidence presented that appellant, with an intent to defraud, drew and passed each of the checks at issue without having sufficient funds in the drawee institution to cover the checks. (Citations omitted.)

This passage seems to presuppose that Goldyn's check guarantee card and her $500 line of credit were one and the same, and therefore that the check guarantee protection was capped at an aggregate of $500. Checks written after that limit was exceeded were, under this view, not covered by Goldyn's credit. We construe the Nevada Supreme Court's ruling as containing an implicit finding to that effect.5 However, the state court's terse analysis also contains an explicit finding: "The credit union paid the checks [that exceeded Goldyn's $500 line of credit] because appellant's use of a check guarantee card to draw the checks obligated it to do so." If the credit union's obligation to cover the checks grew out of a separate credit arrangement with Goldyn, then this explicit finding would be inconsistent with the implicit finding that Goldyn had no credit to cover the checks. We thus turn to the record to determine which of the findings find support there.

As discussed above, everyone agrees that Goldyn had insufficient money in her account, and insufficient credit left on her $500 line of credit, to cover the checks. Everyone further agrees that Goldyn was in possession of a check guarantee card from NFCU at the time she wrote the checks at issue.6 The question then is whether the check guarantee card merely reflected the $500 line of credit (which Goldyn had exhausted), or whether it represented an entirely separate credit arrangement, whereby the bank obligated itself to cover Goldyn's checks, regardless of her primary $500 credit line.7 In answering this question, we begin with the terms of the check guarantee card itself, quoted above. See p. 1063 supra. Among Goldyn's obligations as written on the card is the following: "Pay the credit union for checks guaranteed with this card if the cardholder's account is insufficient." This promise to repay would, of course, be unnecessary if Goldyn were merely drawing down her credit line. The credit line, after all, already involved a promise to repay; the inclusion of a separate promise to repay clearly suggests a separate contract between Goldyn and the bank.

Furthermore, the check guarantee card is not, by its terms, limited to $500 of aggregate credit, as it would have to be if it were covered only by Goldyn's line of credit. Rather, the $500 limit described on the back of the card applies, as stated, to the "[c]heck amount." And the card speaks of covering "the cardholder's checks" (emphasis added), each of which could be for up to $100 in cash or $500 in merchandise. The agreement does not limit the number of checks the account holder may write, nor does it reference Goldyn's line of credit. And multiple checks of $500 each would, of necessity, exceed Goldyn's $500 line of credit.8

The Nevada Supreme Court in Goldyn's case, in fact, recognized that the bank was obligated to pay the checks, even though Goldyn's line of credit had been exhausted: "The credit union paid the checks because [Goldyn's] use of a check guarantee card to draw the checks obligated it to do so." P. 1065 supra. And the court had a solid basis for this factual finding — the NFCU collection officer that the prosecutor called to the stand gave very clear, uncontested testimony on the point:

Q: The five hundred dollar line of...

To continue reading

Request your trial
53 cases
  • Cordell v. Tilton
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Southern District of California
    • September 17, 2007
    ...on their freedom that are not felt by the common public, are "in custody" and can seek habeas relief. See, e.g., Goldyn v. Hayes, 444 F.3d 1062, 1064 (9th Cir.2006); Williamson v. Gregoire, 151 F.3d 1180, 1182-83 (9th Cir.1998). While deciding that habeas actions may be brought by parolees,......
  • Camel v. Sherman
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
    • July 30, 2019
    ...will be necessary." Frantz, 533 F.3d at 736. In such cases, relief may be granted without further proceedings. See, e.g., Goldyn v. Hayes, 444 F.3d 1062, 1070 71 (9th Cir. 2006) (finding § 2254(d)(1) unreasonableness in the state court's conclusion that the state had proved all elements of ......
  • Frantz v. Hazey
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit
    • January 22, 2008
    ...that the § 2254(a)/§ 2241 requirement is satisfied as well, so no second inquiry will be necessary. See, e.g., Goldyn v. Hayes, 444 F.3d 1062, 1070-71 (9th Cir.2006) (finding § 2254(d)(1) error in the state court's erroneous conclusion that the state had proved all elements of the crime); L......
  • Franklin v. Warden, 2:05-cv-0304 KJM
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Eastern District of California
    • December 30, 2014
    ...argument . . . offered in support" of a claim),cert. denied sub nom. Lee v. Thomas, 134 S. Ct. 1542 (2014); but see Goldyn v. Hayes, 444 F.3d 1062, 1065 n.5 (9th Cir. 2006) (saying it was "not convinced that we are bound by a state court's implicit findings under AEDPA" but recognizing that......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT