State v. Fields
| Decision Date | 17 October 1898 |
| Citation | 76 N.W. 802,106 Iowa 406 |
| Parties | STATE OF IOWA v. WILLIAM FIELDS, Appellant |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Buchanan District Court.--HON. A. S. BLAIR, Judge.
THE defendant was convicted of the crime of fraudulent banking and from the judgment rendered against him he appeals.
Reversed.
H. C Hemenway, Powers, Lacy & Brown, Mullan & Pickett, Hemenway & Grundy, and J. B. Powers for appellant.
Milton Remley, Attorney General, for the State.
The indictment charges that the offense of which the defendant was convicted was committed as follows: "The said William Fields on the 15th day of May in the year of our Lord 1893, in the county [Blackhawk] aforesaid, being then and there president of the First National Bank of Cedar Falls Iowa a corporation duly organized under the laws of the United States for the purpose of carrying on and transacting a banking business, and such First National Bank being then and there insolvent, he, the said William Fields, as such president, with knowledge of such insolvency, did then and there, willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously, permit to be received by the First National Bank of Cedar Falls, Iowa and did receive and accept for the First National Bank of Cedar Falls, Iowa from one Ben Hesser, acting as clerk of Ed. Wilson, as a deposit, about one hundred and ninety dollars in money, bank bills, treasury notes, and currency of the United States, circulating as money or currency, and of the value of about one hundred and ninety dollars ($ 190.00), and the property of the said Ed. Wilson, contrary to the form of the statutes, and against the peace and dignity of the state of Iowa." The defendant appeared to the indictment, waived formal arraignment, and entered the plea of not guilty; reserving the right, however, to withdraw the plea for the purpose of filing a motion, or demurring to the indictment, or entering a challenge to the grand jury. Afterwards, on proper application, the place of trial was changed from Blackhawk to Buchanan county, and the cause was there tried.
The indictment on which the conviction of the defendant is based was returned by the grand jury of Blackhawk county in September, 1895. It is the second one returned by that body for the same act,--the receiving from Hesser, for Ed. Wilson, of the sum specified, on the date stated. The first indictment was returned in September, 1893. The cause was transferred to Buchanan county. A demurrer to the indictment was there sustained, and it was ordered that the defendant be discharged. An appeal was taken by the state, and the judgment of the district court was reversed. See 98 Iowa 748. It is insisted by the appellant that the judgment rendered by the district court on that demurrer was a final adjudication as to his guilt, and a bar to a second indictment for the same offense. The language of the two indictments is substantially the same, excepting the first indictment does not contain that portion of the second one which appears between the words "permit to be received," and "from Ben Hesser," which is as follows: "by the First National Bank of Cedar Falls, Iowa and did receive and accept for the First National Bank of Cedar Falls, Iowa." The demurrer which was filed to the first indictment and sustained stated "* * * that the indictment contains matter which, if true, constitutes a legal defense and bar to the prosecution of this action, in this, to wit." Grounds of demurrer were then set out in seven distinct paragraphs. All but one of these were based upon the theory that as the bank of which the defendant was president, and for which the deposit in question was received, was a national bank, organized under and regulated by acts of congress which applied to national banks, the general assembly of this state lacked the power to prohibit or punish the act with which the defendant is charged; that the act of the general assembly under which the indictment was returned does not, for that reason, apply to national banks and their officers; that, so far as the act purports to apply to such banks and officers, it is unconstitutional; and that the state courts have no jurisdiction to try the defendant for the offense charged. The sixth ground of the demurrer was stated as follows: "The indictment does not substantially conform to the requirements of the Code of Iowa and fails to state facts sufficient to constitute a crime under the laws of the state, in this: That said indictment fails to state that the money named in the indictment was deposited in or received by the First National Bank of Cedar Falls, Iowa as a deposit, and fails to state that the defendant knowingly received said money, or knowingly authorized or permitted said money to be received, as a deposit." The demurrer was sustained upon all grounds but the sixth, and as to that ground it was overruled, and it was ordered that the defendant be discharged, and that his bonds be released. The defendant pleaded to the second indictment the action thus had as an acquittal, and that plea was withdrawn from the jury by an instruction of the court.
The statutes which applied to this cause in the district court are found in the Code of 1873. Section 4347 of that Code provides that issues of law shall be tried by the court. Section 4352 provides that "the defendant may demur to the indictment when it appears upon its face either (1) that it does not substantially conform to the requirements of the Code, (2) that the indictment contains any matter which, if true, would constitute a legal defense or bar to the prosecution." Section 4356 provides that, "if the demurrer is sustained because the indictment contains matter which is a legal defense or bar to the indictment, the judgment shall be final, and the defendant must be discharged." Section 4357 provides that if the demurrer is sustained on any other ground than that the offense charged is within the exclusive jurisdiction of another county of this...
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