County of Sonoma v. Stofen

Citations

• 125 Cal. 32
• 57 P. 681
• 1899 Cal. LEXIS 794

Syllabus

<p>Action against County Treasurer—Conversion of Money—Defense of Robbery — Clear Proof Required.—In an action against a county treasurer and the sureties-on his official bond, for the alleged conversion by him of county funds, it is a proper defense that the treasury was robbed of such funds; but such defense must be clearly and satisfactorily established.</p> <p>Id.—Province of Jury—Rejection of Suspicious Testimony.—Although the evidence of one witness, if credited, is sufficient to establish the defense of robbery, yet the jury are not bound to give credit to the account of the robbery given by the defendant, and may reject it, if there are circumstances of doubt and suspicion‘attending bis account of it, which give basis for an argument against its probability.</p> <p>Id.—Evidence—Efforts to Escape from Vault—Comparative Experiments.—Where the treasurer testified that he was locked by robbers in the vault, and was confined there eight hours, and that he kicked upon the inner door with all his might, but did not kick or strike upon the sheet-iron lining of the sides of the vault, the construction of which was known to him, and that he occasionally heard footsteps passing outside—comparative experiments are admissible which tend to show that if his story were true, and he wished to give an alarm, and escape promptly from the vault, blows upon the resonant sheet-iron sides of the vault would have been much louder and more effective than kicks upon the inner door, if there is nothing to indicate that different atmospheric conditions would have materially affected the result.</p> <p>Id.—Value op Experimental Evidence.—Experimental evidence in corroboration or disproof depends for its value upon the fact that the experiment was made when the conditions affecting the result were substantially identical; but this identity need not extend to nor be shown to exist, as to conditions which have had no causal operation upon the result.</p> <p>New Trial—Newly-Discovered Evid