State v. MacCullough

• Decision Date: 12 July 1932
• Citation: 115 Conn. 306,161 A. 512
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE v. MacCULLOUGH.

161 A. 512

115 Conn. 306

STATE v. MacCULLOUGH.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 12, 1932

Appeal from Superior Court, New Haven County; John Rufus Booth Judge.

C. E MacCullough was convicted of Embezzlement, and he appeals.

No error.

Samuel Campner and Everett B. Morris, both of New Haven, for appellant.

Samuel E. Hoyt, State's Atty., Abraham S. Ullman, Asst State's Atty., and Irving Sweedler, all of New Haven, for the State.

Argued before MALTBIE, C.J., and BANKS, HAINES, HINMAN, and AVERY, JJ.

BANKS J.

The first count of the information, with which alone we are here concerned, alleged that the accused took into his possession, as agent of Mary D. Myers, 224 shares of the General Electric Company, and unlawfully appropriated it to his own use, with the felonious intent to defraud her of it, thus charging the commission of the statutory crime of embezzlement. Gen. St. § 6517, Revision 1918, now section 6365, Revision 1930 (Gen. St.).

Numerous assignments of error are predicated upon the denial of requested changes in the finding, upon the overruling of the claims of law made by the accused, upon certain rulings on evidence, and upon the conclusion reached by the trial court that the accused was guilty as charged. The latter assignment raises the ultimate question of whether upon all the evidence the trial court was justified in finding the accused guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and makes unnecessary a detailed consideration of the claims for correction in the finding, since the rights of the accused are fully protected by the comprehensive inquiry as to whether upon all of the evidence the accused could be found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Frost, 105 Conn. 326, 332, 135 A. 446; State v. Guilfoyle, 109 Conn. 124, 139, 145 A. 761; State v. Schofield, 114 Conn. 456, 459, 159 A. 285.

The essential subordinate facts found by the court were either undisputed or fully supported by the oral and documentary evidence. The accused was the owner of all the common stock, except a nominal number of qualifying shares, in a corporation known as C. E. MacCullough & Co., Inc., which was engaged in a general stock brokerage business in New Haven. Prior to February 15, 1930, the Bank Commissioner had made an examination of the books of the corporation, had found a deficit of $78,000 in its surplus, and had informed the accused that it would be necessary to increase the assets of the corporation immediately by the sum of $30,000 in cash. On or about February 15, 1930, the accused visited Mrs. Myers at her home in Bristol, and talked with her about the purchase of North American Trust shares. Mrs. Myers informed him that she owned 224 shares of General Electric stock, the market value of which was then about $72 a share. He thereupon agreed that, if she would deliver to him this stock, indorsed in blank, he, acting in his individual capacity, would pledge it at his bank as collateral security for a loan, and with the money thus obtained would buy 2,000 North American Trust shares at $10 a share; that he would immediately deliver to her 1,000 shares, and hold the other 1,000 shares until the market price of her General Electric stock reached $90 a share, when he would sell it at that price, deliver to her the other 1,000 shares of North American Trust stock, and adjust with her any balance due on the transaction. Mrs. Myers, on the following day, delivered her General Electric stock, indorsed in blank, to a local representative of the MacCullough corporation, and received from him a receipt for the same containing an entry of the price, ninety, at which the stock was to be sold, and the words " G. T. C.," meaning " good until cancelled" : all in accordance with the agreement made with the accused.

On February 19, 1930, these certificates were delivered at the office of the MacCullough corporation, and on the same day at the direction of the accused, the stock was sold in the market for $16.664.94. On February 21st an entry was made on the cash receipt book of the corporation at the direction of the accused, as follows: " C. E. MacCullough donated surplus $16,664.94," and on the same day there appeared upon the check record book of the corporation an item " Deposit by C. E. M., draft $16,664.94," both of which entries represented the proceeds of the sale of the General Electric stock made at the direction of the accused. On the same day there was entered upon the cash receipt book an item C. E. MacCullough, Cr. donated surplus $14,000," which, with the $16,664.94 received from the sale of the General Electric stock, made up the $30,000 required by the bank commissioner to be added to the assets of the corporation. The customers' ledger of the corporation contained an account in the name of Roy D. Myers, the husband of Mary D. Myers,...