State v. Twining

• Decision Date: 19 November 1906
• Citation: 73 N.J.L. 683,64 A. 1073
• Parties: STATE v. TWINING et al.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

64 A. 1073

73 N.J.L. 683

STATE

v. TWINING et al.^*

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Nov. 19, 1906.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error to Supreme Court.

Albert C. Twining and David C. Cornell were convicted of crime, and bring error from the Supreme Court (62 Atl. 402), which affirmed the conviction. Affirmed.

Edward M. Colie, Gilbert Collins, and John G. Johnson, for plaintiff in error Albert C. Twining. James B. Vredenburgh and Marshall Van Winkle, for plaintiff in error David C. Cornell. H. M. Nevins, for the State.

MAGIE, Ch. The judgment brought before us by this writ of error was rendered in the Supreme Court, and affirmed the conviction of the plaintiffs in error in the Monmouth county quarter sessions, upon an indictment which charged them with a violation of one of the provisions of the seventeenth section of the act entitled "An act concerning trust companies, Revision of 1899," approved March 24, 1899 (Laws 1899, p. 450). So far as those provisions affect the present case, they make every director or officer of any trust company, who willfully or knowingly subscribes or exhibits any false paper, with intent to deceive any person authorized to examine as to the condition of such trust company, guilty of a high misdemeanor. The indictment charged that plaintiffs in error, as directors and officers of the Monmouth Trust & Safe Deposit Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of this state, intending to deceive a person authorized to examine as to the condition of said company, did exhibit and show to him a certain false paper, of a tenor and effect expressly stated. The falsity of the paper exhibited was expressly charged.

It is first contended on behalf of the plaintiffs in error, that the provisions contained in the seventeenth section of the trust companies act of 1899 did not operate upon the officers or directors of the Monmouth Trust & Safe Deposit Company. This is urged upon the ground that the said company did not fall within the object expressed in the title of that act. It is argued that the title "An act concerning trust companies" neither includes nor expresses any object of legislation respecting safe deposit and trust companies, and is therefore open to the objection that any provision therein respecting such companies is not within the object disclosed by the title. The inclusion of any legislation in this act respecting safe deposit and trust companies is claimed to be obnoxious to the constitutional provision contained in placitum 4, § 7, art. 4 of the Constitution, which reads as follows: "To avoid improper influences which may result from intermixing in one and the same act such things as have no proper relation to each other, every law shall embrace but one object and that shall be expressed in the title." The meaning of this constitutional provision does not admit of the least doubt. It has been thoroughly settled by repeated decisions of our courts, including the court of last resort, that, to accord with this constitutional provision, the title of every act must not only include, but must also express, its object. While the title need not include nor express the means by which the legislation proposed is to effect that object, it must plainly express that object. Rader v. Township of Union, 39 N. J. Law, 509; Stockton v. C. R. Co., 50 N. J. Eq. 70, 24 Atl. 964, 17 L. R. A. 97; Newark v. Mt. Pleasant Cemetery Co., 58 N. J. Law, 172, 33 Atl. 390; Payne v. Mahon, 44 N. J. Law, 213; Mortland v. Christian, 52 N. J. Law, 537, 20 Atl. 673; Johnson v. Asbury Park, 60 N. J. Law, 427, 39 Atl. 693; Amer. Surety Co. v. Great White Spirit Co., 58 N. J. Eq. 526, 43 Atl. 579. It seems to have been proved on the trial of the indictment, and it is conceded in this argument, that the Monmouth Trust & Safe Deposit Company was organized under the act entitled "An act for the incorporation of safe deposit and trust companies," approved April 20, 1885 (Laws 1885, p. 270). That act conferred upon corporations organized thereunder, power to receive for deposit property of every kind, and to collect coupons for interest upon bonds and securities thus deposited. The meager powers that were thus conferred were from time to time greatly extended. By a supplement to the last-mentioned act, passed April 6, 1886 (Laws 1880, p. 207), corporations organized under that act, which had a certain capital, were authorized to act as agents to transfer and register and countersign, and to buy and sell stocks and bonds or other obligations of any other corporation or public authority, and to receive and manage any sinking fund therefor, and to act as assignees, receivers, agents, executors, administrators, or guardians, and to execute trusts of every description. It is obvious that the dual functions which these corporations were permitted to exercise by the original act, viz., the accepting of deposits of property and the execution of trusts, were largely extended by the provisions of the last-mentioned supplement, in respect to the functions last named.

By an amending act, purporting to amend the supplement to the original act (which must be the supplement above mentioned) approved May 6, 1887 (Laws 1887, p. 262), the provisions of that supplement were again enacted, probably because the supplement had not been approved, but had become a law without approval. By a further supplement to the original act, approved February 6, 1888 (Laws 1888, p. 19), any corporation organized thereunder in any city in which there is no national bank of deposit or discount, was authorized to discount notes, bills, and evidences of debt, and to buy and sell bullion, and to buy and sell commercial paper, provided that, by the vote of two-thirds of the stockholders and the unanimous vote of the board of directors, it accepted the privileges thus conferred. By a further supplement to the original act, approved March 13, 1888 (Laws' 1888, p. 164), corporations organized under the original act were permitted to be appointed to any and all trusts by any officer or court of this state, without being required to give security for the discharge of the duties of such trust or appointment to office. By "An act relative to safe deposit and trust companies" approved June 10, 1890 (Laws 1890, p. 431), any safe deposit and trust company organized under any law of this state was authorized to receive money on deposit, and to pay out the same on demand or otherwise, as agreed. By a further supplement to the original act, approved March 14, 1893 (Laws 1893, p. 288), further powers were conferred on any "trust company" incorporated or organized under that act and doing business in any city or village where there is no national or state bank of discount and deposit, to discount bills and perform other functions in buying of bullion and bills of exchange and commercial paper, provided the company obtained the consent of two thirds of the stockholders and a unanimous vote of its board of directors. By a further supplement to the original act, approved April 26, 1894 (Laws 1894, p.' 150), companies organized thereunder were authorized to become surety for receivers, executors, administrators, guardians, trustees or assignees. By an amending act, approved April 26, 1894 (Laws 1894, p. 152), further power was conferred upon corporations organized under the act, respecting discounting of commercial paper and the purchasing of bullion and bills of exchange. A further supplement to the original act, approved May 1, 1894 (Laws 1894. p. 193), seems to permit parties for whom corporations organized under the original act had become surety, to agree respecting the deposit of the moneys and the safe-keeping of the assets, for which they were to be held responsible. By a further supplement, approved March 22, 1895 (Laws 1895, p. 445), additional powers were conferred upon corporations organized under the original act, respecting the appointment of such corporations to an office of trust without being required to give security, when the capital stock and accumulated surplus...