State v. Morin

• Decision Date: 15 November 1932
• Citation: 163 A. 102
• Parties: STATE v. MORIN.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

163 A. 102

STATE

v. MORIN.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Nov. 15, 1932.

Appeal and Exceptions from Superior Court, Aroostook County.

Fred P. Morin was convicted of larceny, and he brings exceptions and appeals.

Exceptions sustained.

Argued before PATTANGALL, C. J., and DUNN, STURGIS, BARNES, and THAXTER, JJ.

J. Frederic Burns, of Houlton, for the State.

George J. Keegan, of Van Buren, and Bernard Archibald, of Houlton, for respondent.

STURGIS, J.

The respondent was convicted in the trial court of larceny by fraudulently converting to his own use two automobiles which he held as bailee under trust agreements with the Atlantic National Bank of Boston. The case is here on exceptions and appeal.

The evidence introduced by the state tends to prove that some time prior to July, 1930, the respondent, a dealer in Peerless automobiles in Van Buren, Me., ordered three cars from J. C. Harvey of Boston, who was New England distributor. The cars were shipped direct to the respondent from the factory, but the bill of lading, with draft attached, was sent to the distributor.

The Atlantic National Bank financed the sale. It paid J. C. Harvey the amount of the draft, and, having obtained his indorsement on three unsigned notes aggregating $3,471 sent them, together with corresponding trust receipts evidencing its title in the cars, the bill of lading, and a sight draft for $1,000, to the First National Bank of Van Buren, where the respondent paid the draft and signed the several notes and receipts. Two days later the cars were unloaded.

By the terms of each of the trust receipts, the respondent acknowledged that the automobile therein described was the property of the Atlantic National Bank, taken and held by him solely for storage, and agreed that the car was not to be operated, sold, loaned, or incumbered until the amount stated in the receipt was paid. The sale of two of the cars before payment of the amounts due thereon is the basis of this prosecution.

The respondent, on his trial, insisted that he disposed of the cars in good faith and under a bona fide claim of right growing out of previous arrangements made with those with whom he understood he was dealing. He says he ordered the cars from one Dewey Christmas of Bangor, a subdistributor, and asserts that, so far as he knew, the notes and receipts he signed at the Van Buren bank were to and for J. C. Harvey. His statement that he is an illiterate man who cannot read and that the papers were not read or explained to him is not refuted.

Frankly admitting that he sold two of the cars in the usual course of trade, receiving some money and used cars in payment, the respondent testifies that he remitted a substantial part of the money to J. C. Harvey on account of a car shipped on a prior order and used practically the entire balance in repaying money borrowed to meet freight charges and the sight draft from the Atlantic National Bank. One of the used cars was traded for 250 barrels of potatoes. The other brought junk value only. His claim that the third car covered by the trust receipts was taken by the subdistributor, Dewey Christmas, is not questioned, and his...