People v. Gallagher

Citations

• 100 Cal. 466
• 35 P. 80
• 1893 Cal. LEXIS 820

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Law—Embezzlement—Statutory Offense—Possession.—The crime of embezzlement is a statutory offense unknown to the common law, and consists of the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been intrusted, and may cover a case in which the personal property fraudulently converted had not been in the possession of the prosecutor.</p> <p>Id.—Blank Checks Payable to Secretary of Corporation—Misappropriation of Funds.—Where a corporation had funds deposited in a bank, and its vice-president and secretary, for the purpose of paying a certain indebtedness, and not knowing the precise amount thereof, signed and delivered two blank checks payable to the secretary of the corporation, who was to fill them out in the proper amounts, draw the money thereon from the bank and pay the indebtedness, and the secretary filled up the checks with a much larger sum than that due, drew the entire amount and converted it to his own use, the money so received by him was that of the corporation, and not that of the bank, and he is guilty of embezzlement of the amount as the personal property of the corporation of which he is secretary.</p> <p>Id.—Excess of Authority of Secretary—Money Received “by Virtue of Employment.”—Where the secretary of a corporation receives . blank checks properly signed by the corporation’s officers, with authority to fill them up in amounts aggregating a certain sum, and to draw the money and pay the creditors of the corporation, but he fills them up for larger amounts than he was authorized to insert, 'and draws the money and converts it to his own use, he receives the money “ by virtue of his employment ” as agent of the corporation, and is guilty of embezzlement.</p> <p>Id.—Principal and Agent—Obtaining Money in Unauthorized Manner—Fraudulent Conversion.—If an agent obtains the money of his principal in the capacity of an agent, but in a manner not authorized, and fraudulently converts the same to his own use, he receives it “in the