State v. Meininger

• Decision Date: 11 January 1926
• Docket Number: No. 26638.,26638.
• Parties: STATE v. MEININGER.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

290 S.W. 999

STATE v. MEININGER.

No. 26638.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

January 11, 1926.

Motion for Rehearing Denied March 20, 1926.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Franklin County; R. A. Bruer, Judge.

Arthur O. Meininger was convicted of a violation of Rev. St. 1919, § 3365, and he appeals. Affirmed.

James Booth, of Pacific, W. L. Cole, of Union, and Anderson, Gilbert & Wolfert and Harvey & Baer, all of St. Louis, for appellant.

North Todd Gentry, Atty. Gen., for the State.

HIGBEE, C.

On February 3, 1922, appellant was charged by indictment returned in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, with assenting to the reception of deposits in the Night & Day Bank of the city of St. Louis, after he had knowledge that said bank was insolvent. The venue was changed to the circuit court of Franklin county, where he was tried, found guilty, and his punishment assessed at three years' imprisonment in the penitentiary. Judgment and sentence were rendered accordingly. After unsuccessful motions for new trial and in arrest of judgment, appeal was granted to this court.

The record shows that the Night & Day Bank was a banking corporation engaged in the general banking business in the city of St. Louis, Mo., with a capital stock of $75,000, surplus $15,000, and undivided profits 10 cents. Appellant was its cashier, director, and managing officer, and directed the employees of said bank in the discharge of their duties. On December 27, 1921, Irene Michel deposited $385 in this bank, $300 of which was in cash. A teller in the bank accepted this deposit and gave her a deposit slip showing the amount and date of such deposit.

Appellant would direct the head teller to credit the deposits of certain persons with certain sums. The teller would then make out a deposit slip showing that the person named by appellant had deposited a certain sum of money, when in fact he had made no deposit. The teller would then make out a charge slip against such person and hold it as cash, give the party named by appellant credit for the amount without taking note or obligation of any kind from him.

For example, on August 29, 1921, appellant directed the teller to make out a deposit slip to the credit of Meyer Katz for $17,500 and carry the amount on a charge slip as cash. The teller gave Katz credit for $17,500 without receiving any cash or taking any written obligation of any kind from him. In this manner Katz, between June, 1921, and January 1, 1922, was given credit for more than $100,000 on the books of the bank.

L. D. Thompson, then state treasurer, deposited a part of the state money with this bank. There was no record of this account on the books of the bank. This account was charged to the cash items account. Three checks, totaling $100,000, drawn on this bank by L. D. Thompson, state treasurer, and two checks totaling $75,000, drawn by appellant payable to state treasurer, L. D. Thompson, were all paid out of some fund in the bank, but the books of the bank show no record of these transactions. The two checks totaling $75,000 drawn by appellant were held by the teller as cash. The bank had no assets of any kind representing the $100,000 paid to Katz, or the $175,000 it paid out of its own funds on the checks of appellant and the state treasurer. These items total $275,000, which is more than three times the capital stock and surplus of the bank. On December 17, 1921, after appellant had received notice from the banking department that the bank would soon be examined, he directed the bookkeeper to charge off cash items totaling $568,656.66, and charge that amount on the statement book as cash in the American Trust Company, thereby showing a credit of $672,000 actual cash in said trust company to the credit of the Night & Day Bank, when in fact it had only $54,435.24 in cash in said trust company on said date. The inventory filed by the commissioner of finance on January 6, 1922, shows cash $85,856.77, and cash items $783,535.91. The dates of the unpaid cash items shown in evidence range from May to December, 1921. On December 27, 1921, the day the deposit in question was made, appellant signed his name to a $50,000 note to the American Trust Company, and on December 30 he signed a similar note for $100,000 and placed the $150,000 to the credit of the Night & Day Bank.

During the time in question, appellant attended the meetings of the board of directors of the bank and at said meetings represented to the board that the bank had on hand approximately $800,000 in cash. The board of directors did not know that the bank was carrying these cash items and did not know that appellant had borrowed $150,000 and placed it to the credit of the bank in the latter part of December, 1921. The cash items and these notes were never seen or examined by the board of directors.

State's Exhibits 4 and 5, being the cash book, State's Exhibit 3, being the book showing the daily statements of the bank, and Exhibit 6, being the general ledger of the bank, were all introduced in evidence but are not preserved in the record. These exhibits show the transactions of the bank on each day for several months immediately prior to the closing of the bank. The daily statements of the bank for each day covering a period of several months prior to December 27, 1921, were contained in Exhibit 3, none of which are preserved in the bill of exceptions, except the statement of December 27, 1921, which was supplied by appellant after submission of the case in this court. This bank was closed by order of the finance commissioner on January 5, 1922, and has never reopened, and is being liquidated by the commissioner of finance, and creditors are filing claims against it.

The foregoing statement, prepared on behalf of the state, fairly outlines the salient facts in the case. The first count of the indictment charges, in substance, that Henry H. Hohenschild and Arthur O. Meininger were, on December 27, 1921, officers and directors of the Night & Day Bank of St. Louis, Mo., a corporation, etc., duly organized and doing business in the city of St. Louis, Mo.; that said bank was insolvent on said day, as said Hohenschild and Meininger, officers and directors as aforesaid, then and there well knew; that, well knowing said bank to be insolvent, they unlawfully, knowingly, designedly, and feloniously did on said day assent to the reception of a deposit and did then and there, etc., receive for, on, and as a deposit in the said bank a deposit of $300 lawful money of the United States of the value of $300, the money and personal property of Irene Michel; and so the said Henry H. Hohenschild and Arthur O. Meininger the said money and personal property of the said Irene Michel on the day and in the manner and form aforesaid unlawfully and feloniously did steal, take, and carry away, etc.

The indictment is based on section 3365, R. S. 1919. As the state elected to stand on the first count of the indictment it is unnecessary to refer to the second count. The defendant was granted a severance, tried, found guilty, and sentenced as aforesaid. He was cashier of the bank from its organization in October, 1910, and the active manager thereof continuously until It was closed by the commissioner of finance on January 5, 1922.

Frank J. Schneider testified:

"I was employed by Meininger in the Night & Day Bank, July 6, 1916. I had been employed with the Union Biscuit Company, trucking boxes and filling orders. I had no experience in bookkeeping or banking. Meininger practically learned me everything. I checked for a few months in the savings account. From there I went to the clearing house and then savings teller, and when the war came on I got practically into everything — became general bookkeeper in 1918. I was directed by Meininger from one department to the other. I had a slight knowledge about bookkeeping then. As general bookkeeper I kept the cash book, the general ledger, and daily statement. Meininger gave me my orders. The bank started with a capital stock of $75,000 and surplus of $15,000. I posted the entries in the daily statement, the cash book, and ledger. The daily statement under date of August 27, 1920, shows cash and cash items $431,482.35; the cash book shows cash $228,910.69, cash items $202,571.66. I had a conversation with Meininger about those cash items in September, 1920. The examiners came in and examined the books, and Meininger told me to charge those cash items into the individual accounts; that reduced the cash items and reduced the liability to the depositors. That was done as of August 27th, and September 10th and it wiped out the cash items that totaled $200,000. The daily statement on September 10, 1920, shows cash and cash items $309,233.95; the cash book shows cash $231,933.98, but no cash items. The daily statement shows cash on September 20, 1920, $256,496.02; the cash book shows the same amount of cash but no cash items. The daily statement on December 17, 1920, shows cash and cash items $328,736.43; the cash book shows all this as cash but no cash items on that day.

"I was at the bank all the time. Mr. Wall, one of the state bank examiners, came in about September 20th but couldn't examine the bank; he came back about December 17th. I knew the state treasurer had an account in the bank; I had nothing to do with it; it was kept in the individual books. About February 28th, the state treasurer was given checks or drafts for $75,000; these entries, the $75,000, were made in Meininger's handwriting, and he explained to me it was carried as an item."

On that day the daily statement shows cash and cash items $408,195.46; the cash book shows cash $333,195.45, and items $75,000. On March 4, 1921, the daily statement shows cash and cash items $509,112.35, while the cash book shows cash $384,112.35 and cash items $125,000. On April 1, 1921, the daily statement shows cash and cash items of $466,456.03; the cash book shows cash...