United States v. Wilson
| Citation | 176 F. 806 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. WILSON. |
| Decision Date | 26 February 1910 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Florida |
John M Cheney, U.S. Atty., and R. P. Marks, Asst. U.S. Atty.
Peter O. Knight, for defendant.
The defendant Wilson is on trial before you charged in an indictment of six counts with having intentionally made sundry false entries in the books of the National Bank of St Petersburg. The defendant interposed the plea of 'not guilty,' which raises the issue of his guilt, that now rests solely upon an honest and impartial discharge of your duty under the guidance of the law which now becomes my duty to explain to you.
By the national bank act, any three or more persons who comply with certain requirements therein set out can obtain a charter to set up a national bank. The primary purpose of the law was to provide a means by which the government might carry on its large fiscal operations so as to invite the public confidence in the banks thus chartered to do business throughout the country, but the law subjects them to certain regulations looking to a wise and safe administration of business, as well as the supervision of the head of the government bureau at Washington, the Comptroller of Currency, whose duty it is to keep a diligent watch over the conduct of the affairs of every national bank in the United States.
It is this recognized responsibility and this known supervision of the conduct of such institutions which invite the public confidence and which the law governing their conduct is made a safeguard. The officers of all national banks are wisely held to a rigid observance of the restrictions of the law and any wrongdoing of such officers is severely denounced by section 5209, Rev. St. (U.S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3497). This section provides:
'Every president, cashier, director, teller, clerk, or agent of any association who embezzles, abstracts, or willfully misapplies any of the moneys, funds, or credits of the association, * * * or who makes any false entry in any book, report or statement of the association, with intent, in either case to injure or defraud the association, or any other company, body politic or corporate, or any individual person or to deceive any officer of the association, or any agent appointed to examine the affairs of the association; and every person who with like intent, aids or abets any officer, clerk or agent in violation of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor. * * * '
The plea of not guilty puts the burden upon the United States to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to your satisfaction every material allegation of the indictment, viz., that T. K. Wilson, as cashier of the National Bank of St. Petersburg, within the Southern district of Florida, within three years before the finding of this indictment, did knowingly and intentionally make a false or false entries in the books of said bank, with the purpose of deceiving or defrauding any agent of the government of the United States charged with the duty of supervising the transactions of said bank or inspecting its books and accounts.
The presumption of innocence is with the defendant, and that presumption accompanies him throughout the trial and until it is overcome by evidence which satisfies your minds of the truth of the charge beyond a reasonable doubt. But when the government by its evidence has satisfied your minds beyond a reasonable doubt that one or more of the alleged false entries were made in the books of said bank, within three years before the finding of the indictment, and you are further satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that such false entries were made with intent to deceive the agents of the Treasury Department who are authorized to inspect and supervise said books, you should find the defendant guilty. If the alleged entries in the books of the bank were false entries, and were capable of deceiving any agent of the Comptroller of Currency, charged with the duty of supervising the books of the bank, the intent of the defendant to deceive and defraud may be reasonably inferred from the making of such false entries. Every person is presumed to intend the natural and probable consequences of his acts knowingly done and that an unlawful act implies an unlawful intent. An entry which is intentionally made to represent what is not...
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Smith v. Seaport Marine, Inc., Civil Action No. 12–0501–WS–B.
...bedrock principles of contract law. 18. The weakness in plaintiff's argument is compounded by examination of United States v. Wilson, 176 F. 806 (S.D.Fla.1910). This 103–year old case from Florida, which consists of nothing more than a block recitation of instructions read to a jury in a cr......
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...such as would be inconsistent with the actions and conduct of an innocent man." (State v. Vogel, 23 Idaho 786, 132 P. 107; United States v. Wilson, 176 F. 806.) the return must be founded on the books of the bank and contain a true statement of its condition, the law is observed when the re......
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