State v. Hanks
| Decision Date | 21 November 1944 |
| Docket Number | 8504. |
| Parties | STATE v. HANKS. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Sixth Judicial District, Gallatin County; Benjamin E. Berg, Judge.
R. F Hanks was convicted of obtaining property by false pretenses and he appeals.
Judgment affirmed.
Ernest A. Peterson, of Bozeman, for appellant.
H. A Bolinger, Jr., of Bozeman, and R. V. Bottomly, Atty. Gen and Fred Lay, First Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction of the crime of obtaining property by false pretenses, which was rendered against him pursuant to the verdict of a jury. The grounds of appeal are that the information fails to state a public offense, and that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the verdict.
Defendant Hanks arranged by correspondence with R. A. Shumate, the owner of a stallion, to have the animal sold and delivered to him at Belgrade, the agreed price for the animal and for its delivery there being $260. Before the date set for delivery Shumate received through the mail a card purporting to be signed by one L. D. Neavitt indicating that the latter was the purchaser and Hanks his agent. Subsequently, on June 26, 1943, Shumate delivered the animal to Hanks at Belgrade, together with a bill of sale naming Neavitt as the purchaser. At the same time Hanks gave Shumate a check on a Dillon bank for $260 purporting to bear Neavitt's signature, and also a letter purporting to have been written by Neavitt and stating that, being unable to come to Belgrade, Neavitt had sent his check to Hanks. Hanks then hired another man to haul the animal to a ranch across the road from Hanks' home near West Yellowstone and the Idaho line, and gave him a like check for $20 purporting to have been signed by Neavitt.
Both checks were rejected by the Dillon bank because there was no account there in Neavitt's name. Shumate then wrote to Neavitt at Dillon, but the letter came back with the notation that Neavitt was unknown. Diligent inquiry resulted in finding no one who had ever heard of Neavitt. Hanks' story was that Neavitt lived in Dillon, had a ranch near Idaho Falls, and had met him at Ashton, Idaho, pursuant to prior correspondence; that Hanks described the animal to Neavitt although he had never seen it, and that Neavitt commissioned him to buy it and gave him $10 in cash for his services, together with two blank checks on the Dillon bank with verbal authority to write and use them for the payment of the purchase and delivery charges, signing Neavitt's name to them.
Upon Shumate's complaint the sheriff of Gallatin County went to West Yellowstone on July 29, 1943, and made inquiry of Hanks, who told him that the stallion had been taken away for Neavitt by two men with a green Chevrolet coupe and trailer. Hanks claimed to have some letters from Neavitt in his desk; but he was unable to find them, although he had correspondence piled in chronological order going back for many years. Later he explained that he had caused some letters to be burned and that the ones from Neavitt must have gotten in with them by mistake. The only items found with Neavitt's name were an envelope and letter which Hanks had written and directed to Neavitt at Dillon with the bill of sale and the inspection certificate for the animal in question; but the letter was returned by the post office marked "unclaimed." The letter was dated June 26, 1943, the day of purchase, and stated that the animal "was trucked from Belgrade as per your orders to Idaho." Hanks left the sheriff on the pretense of a short errand and did not return until morning. Meantime the sheriff had found the animal in the road about a half mile from defendant's house. He testified that on Hanks' return next morning Hanks stated that he had decided to tell the truth and that the horse was in a corral across the Idaho line; that the defendant then took the sheriff to the corral and stated that he had had the stallion picketed out in the timber across the road when the sheriff arrived the day before; that during the night he had taken it to this corral, and that the horse had escaped to the road through a gate which defendant had not known was open; that defendant then said to his mother in the sheriff's presence that he was guilty, and that his mother had replied that she had not brought him up that way. At the trial defendant denied making these statements, but admitted his mother's reply and said that it was merely in answer to the statement that he was accused of the crime.
On being confronted by Shumate at the jail, Hanks authorized the sheriff to pay some $30 of his money to Shumate to defray the latter's expense in connection with the transaction. Shumate also received back the stallion a few days later. According to Shumate's testimony defendant said to the sheriff "all the money that I have, with the exception of a little to get back to West Yellowstone, I want you to turn over to Mr. Shumate, partly in restitution of what I have done." Hanks did not deny this but stated as his reason for authorizing the payment that "I feel (felt) that if he had been wronged and he had come this far after the horse, I was entitled to pay his expenses, anyway, on the assurance that I had made him beforehand." Hanks claimed to have promised to reimburse Shumate if the Neavitt check was not good, but Shumate denied that Hanks had made any such promise or suggestion concerning the check.
At the trial two letters received by Shumate were admitted in evidence. One was postmarked at Idaho Falls on July 3, 1943, was signed "L. B. Neavitt" and acknowledged receipt of the stallion. The other was written and signed by Hanks under date of September 20, 1943, after his arrest and said: Defendant admitted writing this letter but explained it as merely expressing his regret at having subjected Shumate to trouble and expense by involving him in the transaction, but without any admission of personal guilt. A bank cashier who qualified as a hand-writing expert testified that in his opinion these two letters, the two checks, the "Neavitt" letter delivered by defendant to Shumate with the $260 check, another letter from Hanks to Shumate, and Hanks' signature to the sheriff's inventory of property impounded on his arrest, were all written by the same hand. Defendant admitted having signed the checks with Neavitt's name and insisted that he had oral authority from Neavitt for doing so. Confronted with the fact that Neavitt's letter, which he delivered to Shumate with the $260 check, said that Neavitt had "sent check by bearer Mr. Hanks," the defendant testified that he was unable to see any discrepancy between that statement and his own testimony that Neavitt had orally authorized him to write a check himself and sign Neavitt's name to it.
The evidence cannot be held insufficient to sustain the jury's verdict. By the use of the check Hanks got possession of the stallion. He kept the animal...
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