State v. Larson

• Decision Date: 22 March 1922
• Docket Number: 16977.
• Citation: 205 P. 373,119 Wash. 259
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. LARSON.

205 P. 373

119 Wash. 259

STATE v. LARSON.

No. 16977.

Supreme Court of Washington

March 22, 1922

Department 2.

Appeal from Superior Court, Pierce County; Wm. D. Askren, Judge.

O. S Larson was convicted of violating the banking law, and appeals. Reversed and remanded, with direction to dismiss the proceeding.

See also, 204 P. 1041.

Tucker & Hyland, of Seattle, and Hayden, Langhorne & Metzger, of Tacoma, for appellant.

J. W Selden and J. A. Sorley, both of Tacoma, for the State.

MAIN J.

The defendant was charged by indictment with the crime of loaning money of a banking corporation of which he was an officer to himself without such loan first having been authorized by resolution of the board of directors as required by the statute. Upon the trial, after the state had offered its evidence and rested, the defendant moved for a directed verdict, one of the grounds of the motion being, in effect that the evidence had failed to support the charge as alleged in the indictment. This motion was overruled, and the defendant thereupon rested and offered no testimony in his behalf. Upon the record made by the state's evidence the cause was submitted to a jury and a verdict of guilty returned.

From the judgment and sentence entered with verdict the defendant appeals. The charging part of the indictment reads as follows:

'That the said O. S. Larson, in the county of Pierce and state of Washington, on or about the 27th day of June, 1919, then and there being an officer of the Scandinavian-American Bank of Tacoma, a banking corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Washington, did then and there on behalf of such corporation unlawfully and feloniously loan to himself the sum of $6,000, the money and property of said banking corporation, without a resolution authorizing the same and approved by a majority of the directors at a meeting at which said defendant was not present having been first entered in the corporate minutes contrary to the form of the statute,' etc.

The evidence offered by the state tended to show that on June 6 the appellant drew and signed a note payable to the order of the Scandinavian-American Bank of Tacoma of which he was an officer, for the sum of $6,000. On the face of the note appears this: 'Pending adjustment of salary account board of directors.' The note bore interest at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum. This note on the day following its date, or June 27 1919, came into the hands of the note teller of the bank and was entered upon the books on that day. At the time the note was given the defendant had an overdraft in the bank in the excess of $6,000. When it was given it operated to cancel the overdraft to the extent of $6,000. The appellant received no money on the note at the time it was given or subsequently. A witness on behalf of the state who was a note holder of the bank on cross-examination testified as follows:

'When this note was executed on June 27, 1919, Mr. Larson's account with the Scandinavian-American Bank was overdrawn a little in excess of $6,000. Q. So that when that note for $6,000 was executed that overdraft was reduced to that extent upon it? A. Yes.'

The question is whether the defendant by giving the note on June 27 was loaning money to himself as an officer of the bank without first having such loan authorized by resolution of the board of trustees as the statute requires. Section 52 of chapter 80 of the Laws of 1917 provides:

'No bank or trust company shall, nor shall any officer or employee thereof on behalf of such corporation, directly or

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