Commonwealth v. Smith

Citations

• 4 Pa. Super. 1
• 1897 Pa. Super. LEXIS 73

Syllabus

<p>Criminal law — Banks and banking — Receipt of deposits when insolvent.</p> <p>The three essential elements which the commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt before the jury can find a defendant banker guilty of receiving deposits when insolvent are: 1. Actual insolvency at the time the money was received; 2. Knowledge of insolvency; 3. Receipt of money as a bank deposit. Sufficient proof of these essentials warrants the submission of the question of the defendant's guilt to the jury.</p> <p>Grand jury — Special or adjourned session — Power of court to call.</p> <p>Under the Act of March 18, 1875, R. L. 28, the Quarter Sessions has authority to make an order requiring the grand jury for the August term to meet prior to the first day of that term ; and the fact that the meeting of the grand jury was coincident with a special or adjourned session did not invalidate the order nor convert such special or adjourned session into a regular term; the omission to publish the order in two newspapers thirty days prior to the meeting of the grand jury was not, standing alone, legal ground for quashing an indictment found by the grand jury at such meeting; and even if such publication was necessary to.give validity to the acts of the grand jury, it is to be presumed on appeal, in the absence of affirmative record evidence to the contrary, that the order was duly published, upon the principle, omnia prsesumuntur rite esse acta.</p> <p>Evidence — Embezzlement—Assignee's inventory as evidence of insolvency.</p> <p>The inventory of the assignee of an insolvent banker made within thirty days of the date of the assignment which was made one week after the deposit is admissible in evidence on the trial of the assignor, a banker, who had been indicted for receiving money on deposit as a banker, when insolvent, knowing himself to be so.</p> <p>Such inventory is not conclusive, but it is a necessary step in the proceedings and tends to show the assets in the hands of the assig