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Opinion of the Court.

would be able to repay the same when required, they would not be guilty of the intent to defraud the bank as charged; but, on the other hand, if they acted in bad faith, and did not believe, and had no reasonable ground to believe, that the cabinet company could repay such overdrafts when required to do so, then they had no lawful right to make such overdrafts or allow them to be made."

But this instruction should be read in connection with the paragraph following, which is as follows:

"Every person is presumed to intend the natural and ordinary consequences of his own acts. Hence, if the natural and ordinary consequences of the acts of Haughey and the defendants, as shown by the proofs, were to injure and defraud the bank as charged, you would be authorized to find that such was their intent, if such intent is in harmony with the other proofs in the case."

It cannot be disputed that a bank president not acting in good faith has no right to permit overdrafts when he does not believe and has no reasonable ground to believe that the moneys can be repaid. And if, coupled with such wrongful act, the proof establishes that he intended by the transaction to injure and defraud the bank, the wrongful act becomes a crime.

XI. This embraces assignments of error Nos. 49 and 50, which allege error in the giving of the following instructions: "If, however, the entry truly represents an actual bona fide transaction, then it would not constitute a false entry.

"But if the paper was never accepted or discounted by him. for the bank, but was simply left with the bank as a mere memorandum and not as a deposit and for the fraudulent purpose of enabling fictitious entries to be made on the books of the bank with the intent to deceive or defraud as charged, such entry on the books of the bank would constitute a false entry."

These sentences were contained in the following paragraph of the charge of the court:

"An entry knowingly and purposely made on the books. of the bank, with intent to deceive or defraud, as charged, which represents as an actual transaction, one which does not

Opinion of the Court.

and did not exist, or an entry knowingly and purposely made, with intent to deceive and defraud, as charged, which in a material part falsely and untruly represents an actual and existing transaction, would constitute a false entry within. the meaning of the statute. If, however, the entry truly

represents an actual bona fide transaction, then it would not constitute a false entry."

The objection to this portion of the charge is that it assumes that an entry is false unless it represents a transaction entered into in good faith and without fraud. It is contended that this instruction is within the condemnation of this court as expressed in its former opinion, 156 U. S. 463, where it was said:

"The exception reserved to the charge actually given by the court (on the subject of false entries) was well taken, because therein the questions of misapplication and of false entries are interblended in such a way that it is difficult to understand exactly what was intended. We think the language used must have tended to confuse the jury and leave upon their minds the impression that if the transaction represented by the entry actually occurred, but amounted to a misapplication, then its entry exactly as it occurred constituted a false entry;' in other words, that an entry would be false, though it faithfully described an actual occurrence, unless the transaction which it represented involved full and fair value for the bank. The thought thus conveyed implied that the truthful entry of a fraudulent transaction constitutes a false entry within the meaning of the statute. We think it is clear that the making of a false entry is a concrete offence which is not committed where the transaction entered actually took place, and is entered exactly as it occurred."

The objection is not meritorious. The trial court carefully distinguished between an entry based upon an actual discount of paper and credit predicated thereon, and a credit not representing an actual deposit or discount. The expression bona fide was used in the sense of "real," and but emphasized the word "actual." Nor is there force in the suggestion that the instruction "must have tended to confuse the jury and

Opinion of the Court.

leave upon their minds an impression that if the transaction represented by the entry actually occurred, but amounted to a misapplication, then its entry, exactly as it occurred, constituted a false entry."

It is claimed that under the proof these instructions were wholly irrelevant. Reliance is placed upon a statement in the bill of exceptions "that the evidence showed that all the paper upon which the credit mentioned in said thirty-ninth count was based was retained in said bank as a part of its assets until the same matured, when it was renewed by other paper of the same kind, and again renewed from time to time as it matured, until said bank failed, at which time said paper, so renewed, was in possession of said bank as a part of its assets and passed as such into the possession of the receiver, by whom it was held as a part of the indebtedness of the cabinet company to said bank, secured by the mortgage executed (to Haughey as trustee for said bank) by said cabinet company to secure the indebtedness of said cabinet company to said bank."

But this is entirely consistent with the claim that the original paper" was simply left with the bank as a mere memorandum, and not as a deposit," etc. The fact that other notes were substituted for this paper does not necessarily import that the original transaction was an actual one if the notes. were originally given to the bank as a mere pretext to enable the false entry to be made, and the subsequent renewals were equally unreal and made for a like purpose. The receiver was empowered, finding them in the hands of the bank, to retain them as a part of its assets. Prior to the statement in the bill of exceptions, which we have quoted, the following recital appears: "It was claimed on behalf of the government, and evidence was by it introduced tending to show, that the paper was not bona fide paper, representing the value for which the same was credited or any substantial value, and that said paper was not actually discounted by said bank or actually received as a genuine deposit, but was only received as a memorandum deposit to serve for the time being only, for the purpose of giving the Indianapolis Cabinet Company an apparent credit upon the books of the bank, which in fact

Opinion of the Court.

it did not have, and that said entries represented no actual transactions whatever." We think this extract clearly indicates that the charge as given was relevant to the issue.

XII. This heading alleges error in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment. We do not deem it necessary to consider it at length. It is predicated on the assertion that six of the seven counts upon which conviction was had were bad, because it alleged that the bank had been "heretofore" created and organized under the laws of the United States. If we assume that the word should have been "theretofore" in order to make it certain that prior to the finding of the indictment the association had been incorporated, and if we further assume that the allegation as to the incorporation of the bank was material, the averment was only an imperfect statement of that which the law implies to be true after verdict. Wharton Crim. Plead. Ev. 760. Under this heading it is moreover contended that the thirty-ninth count was defective, because the principal offender was charged with having made the false entries with the intent to injure and defraud the bank, and also with the intent to deceive any agent appointed and any agent or agents who might thereafter be appointed by the Comptroller of the Currency to examine the affairs of the association, whilst the aiders and abettors were charged only with having had an intent to deceive the agent appointed by the Comptroller. The answer is self-evident. It was wholly immaterial that the principal offender should have had several intents, provided the principal and the aider and abettor were both actuated by the criminal intent specified in the statute. The alleged additional intent on the part of the principal offender might well have been treated as surplusage; besides, it appears from the recital in the bill of exceptions that there was evidence tending to show that the purpose of Haughey in causing the false entry to be made was to deceive any officer who might be sent by the Comptroller of the Currency to make an examination of the bank, and that the paper upon which the entry was made, as stated in the count, was furnished by the defendant Coffin at the request of Haughey with a like intent.

Syllabus.

This completes the review of all the very numerous grounds of error which have been pressed upon our consideration, and the result is that we find that they are all without merit.

The judgment is, therefore,

PUTNAM v. UNITED STATES.

SAME v. SAME.

Affirmed.

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Nos. 573, 574. Submitted January 28, 1896. — Decided May 4, 1896.

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An indictment against its president for defrauding a national bank, described the bank as the National Granite State Bank," "carrying on a national banking business at the city of Exeter." The evidence showed that the authorized name of the bank was, the "* National Granite State Bank of Exeter." Held, that the variance was immaterial. Conversations with a person took place in August, 1893. In December, 1893, he testified to them before the grand jury which found the indictment in this case. On the trial of this case his evidence before the grand jury was offered to refresh his memory as to those conversations. Held, that that evidence was not cotemporaneous with the conversations, and would not support a reasonable probability that the memory of the witness, if impaired at the time of the trial, was not equally so when his testimony was committed to writing; and that the evidence was therefore inadmissible for the purpose offered.

On the trial of a national bank president for defrauding the bank, a witness for the government was asked, on cross-examination, as to the amount of stock held by the president. This being objected to, the question was ruled out, as not proper on cross-examination, the government "not having opened up affirmatively the ownership of the stock." Held, that, as the order in which evidence shall be produced is within the discretion of the trial court, and as the matter sought to be elicited on the cross-examination for the accused was not offered by him at any subsequent stage of the trial, no prejudicial error was committed by the ruling.

When an offence against the provisions of Rev. Stat. § 5209 is begun in one

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