People v. White

• Decision Date: 18 February 1937
• Docket Number: Gen. No. 23918.
• Citation: People v. White, 365 Ill. 499, 6 N.E.2d 1015 (Ill. 1937)
• Parties: PEOPLE v. WHITE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

365 Ill. 499

6 N.E.2d 1015

PEOPLE

v.WHITE.

Gen. No. 23918.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Feb. 18, 1937.

Error to Circuit Court, De Kalb County; Max F. Allaben, Judge.

Anna H. White was convicted for uttering, publishing, and passing a forged note, and she brings error.

Reversed and remanded.Archie G. Kennedy and Dennis J. Collins, both of De Kalb, for plaintiff in error.

Otto Kerner, Atty. Gen., Latham Castle, State's Atty., of Sycamore, and A. B. Dennis of Danville, and Lowell B. Smith, of Sycamore, for the People.

HERRICK, Chief Justice.

On June 5, 1935, the grand jury returned an indictment of seven counts in the circuit court of De Kalb county against the defendant, Anna H. White. The first count charged the defendant with forging the name of George E. Clarke to a promissory note for $6,500, dated March 1, 1933, payable to her order. The remaining counts charged her with uttering, publishing, and passing the alleged forged note. On a trial before a jury the defendant was found guilty on all counts. After the motion for new trial was overruled and before judgment was pronounced the People nolled the forgery count. The defendant was sentenced on the remaining counts to the State Reformatory for Women at Dwight. She brings the record here for review.

Numerous grounds for reversal are urged. The major ones will be treated in the course of the opinion. The defendant insists the evidence is such that it will not sustain a verdict of guilty. The record is voluminous. The gist of the evidence will be set forth so far as we deem material.

George E. Clarke was a bachelor 76 years of age when he died testate on September 1, 1934. His next of kin were nephews and nieces. These, some charitable institutions and friends were the beneficiaries under his will. Two nephews are the executors. Some of the relatives live near Sycamore. Clarke never made his home with any of them. The deceased came to Sycamore when he was a small child. He lived on a farm near that city all his life. In later years he made his home with Olin Farr, a tenant on one of the farms owned by the deceased. His estate was valued at approximately $150,000 at the time of his death.

The defendant has lived in Sycamore all her life. She was formerly a stenographer. Her first position was in 1909, when she entered the employment of E. S. Earley, an attorney practicing at Sycamore. In that office she became acquainted with Clarke, who was a client of Earley's. Earley and the defendant were married in 1913. She continued her work in the Earley office until his death, in 1916. A daughter, Grace, was born of the marriage. The defendant was employed in the law office of C. D. Rogers and George Brown in 1919. From there she entered the service of the wire and cable company hereinafter mentioned. She worked there until 1931 but not as a stenographer. Some years after Earley's death she married Edgar J. White. From about the time she became acquainted with Clarke she did stenographic work and bookkeeping for him. In his later years Clarke suffered severe pain from a disease which affected his feet. In the fall of 1931 he sustained a traumatic injury to one of his heels, from which he never fully recovered. This accident aggravated the diseased condition of his feet. Later some of the toes from each foot were amputated.

The defendant's evidence is that in February, 1931, Clarke asked her to quit her employment at the factory and work for him. She objected, telling him she would lose her group insurance and a chance for a pension. He told her she would be taken care of. Upon his request she finally ceased work at the plant in March of 1931 and thereafter rendered services to Clarke until the time of his death. Following the time she quit her job at the factory he called at her home from two to five times a week a have his work done. She also rendered services in treating his feet and attempting to relieve the suffering which they caused him. He owned six farms, which he rented. He had large sums loaned on notes and mortgages. She kept the accounts of the farms and the loans, made inventories of his chattels, indexed and filed his mortgage notes and writings. She also wrote, at his dictation, a history of Mayfield township, that being the township where Clarke had grown to manhood and had spent most of his life. There is evidence tending to corroborate her statement about her work. In April, 1916, following Earley's death, Clarke advanced her $1,600 by two checks with which to liquidate some of the indebtedness of the Earley estate. She stated this loan was repaid when she sold certain of her deceased husband's real estate. There is no evidence contradicting the payment.

Mrs. White testified that Clarke paid her for the first four or five months' services which she performed for him while employed in the Earley office. Clarke then told her that this was money that she had earned as ‘extra’ money, and that she ought to make arrangements with Earley or himself, save the money and keep it all together; that he would invest such savings for her. Thereafter he did not pay her. She further testified that she received $1,000 out of her husband's estate, which sum she delivered to Clarke in 1917 and for which he gave her a receipt dated March 1, 1917. She received $600 rentals in $50 monthly installments, which she delivered to Clarke as the same accrued. He gave her a receipt dated March 1, 1918, for the $600. In February, 1933, Clarke told her that he wanted to make a settlement with her; that he had invested her money in stock of the wire and cable company; that it had doubled and trebled in value, and he was giving her the benefit of the increase for the work she had done for him. He thought $6,500 would be a fair amount, for which he would give her his note. He told her his reasons for giving a note rather than paying her the money. She detailed what he stated were his reasons. She related that he came to her home on March 1, 1933, shortly after the noon hour, produced the note in question, the blanks of which had already been filled in typewriting. He signed the note, using his fountain pen. He handed the note to her, saying it was for her services and the money he had had of hers. She noticed the signature was not distinct and called his attention to that fact. He picked up a reading glass from the table, examined the signature and agreed that it was not clear. She then filled his fountain pen. He thereupon placed a paper weight on a portion of the note, and, using the reading glass, he retraced his signature. Julia Johnson, a sister of the defendant, made her home with the defendant. She corroborated the testimony of the defendant as to when, where, and the manner of the execution and delivery of the note. The defendant's grown daughter, Grace, saw Clarke at her mother's home on this day but was not in the room when the note was signed, although she saw it that same evening in her mother's possession. Grace testified that Clarke told her in the fall of 1933 that her mother had been a good employee and that he had given her this note for her services and for the money of hers that he had had for investment. On receipt of the note Mrs. White surrendered to Clarke the two receipts above mentioned. He took them with him. The reading glass was introduced in evidence. The note bears an indorsement under date of August 27, 1934, that interest was paid thereon to March 1, 1935. The defendant testified that this was paid by Clarke's check. The check is in the possession of the executors but is not in evidence. The executors offered to prove on the trial that the check was procured by improper means. The trial court sustained objections to the offer.

The evidence tends to show that the deceased had a friendly interest in the welfare of the defendant and her family. She testified that in 1925 her husband saw Clarke and requested a loan to make repairs on their home. Clarke saw the defendant alone, told her he had not known White so long and wanted to know how she felt about the loan. He told her he would take her husband's note. He could repay the debt and leave the defendant's money with Clarke intact. The loan was made for $500, evidenced by a note dated September 25, 1925, due three years after date, with interest at 6 per cent., secured by mortgage on the home in Sycamore. This note was renewed on February 24, 1928, for $672.23. It included additional money obtained to pay for the expense of a goitre operation performed on Mrs. White. The renewed loan was likewise secured by the note and mortgage on White and his wife. The more recent note bears twenty indorsements written by Clarke, showing payment at sundry dates of various sums on the principal and interest, reducing the principal to about $200. The mortgage securing the $500 note bears this indorsement, all written by the hand of Clarke:

‘The note described in this mortgage is lost but unassigned to any person whatsoever and the ownership of said note rests in me absolutely. Now therefore, I, in consideration of the war record of Edgar J. White in France, hereby cancel and release the aforementioned Edgar J. White from the said _____ to any person whatsoever.

‘G. E. Clarke.

‘Dated November 10, 1933.’

A portion of the note for $672.23 is missing. It is clear that the absent portion bore writing thereon. Written across the remaining part, in Clarke's writing, is a portion of an apparently similar indorsementas above quoted bearing the same date and signed by Clarke. Formal releases signed and acknowledged by Clarke under date of November 10, 1933, of the two mortgages, are in evidence. The proof also shows a note for $60 given by the daughter, Grace, to Clarke on December 2, 1933, for one year, with interest at 5 per cent. after maturity.

Paul Nehring established a manufacturing company in Sycamore in 1912. Clarke invested with him at that time $1,000. He afterwards put in more money, but not to...