Spurr v. United States/Opinion of the Court

by Melville Fuller

United States Supreme Court

174 U.S. 728

Spurr  v.  United States

It was not denied that defendant certified the checks, and that the account of Dobbins & Dazey was overdrawn when the certifications took place. The questions for determination were defendant's knowledge of the state of Dobbins & Dazey's account when the checks were certified, and his intent in the certifications.

Section 5208 made it unlawful for any officer, clerk, or agent of any national banking association to certify any check drawn upon it, unless the drawer of the check had on deposit, at the time such check was certified, an amount of money equal to the amount specified therein, and provided the consequences which should follow on a violation of the section. Then came section 13 of the act of July 12, 1882, which made a willful violation of section 5208 criminal, and denounced a penalty thereon.

These sections were under consideration in Potter v. U.S., 155 U.S. 438, 445, 15 Sup. Ct. 144, and the court said:

'The charge is of a willful violation. That is the language of the statute. Section 5208, Rev. St., makes it unlawful for any officer of a national bank to certify a check unless the drawer has on deposit at the time an equal amount of money. But this section carries with it no penalty against the wrongdoing officer. Section 13 of the act of 1882 imposes the penalty, and imposes it upon one 'who shall willfully violate,' etc., as well as upon one 'who shall resort to any device,' etc., 'to ev de the provisions of the act,' 'or who shall certify checks before the amount thereof shall have been regularly entered to the credit of the dealer upon the books of the banking association.' The word 'willful' is omitted from the description of offenses in the latter part of this section. Its presence in the first cannot be regarded as mere surplusage; it means something. It implies on the part of the officer knowledge and a purpose to do wrong. Something more is required than an act of certification made in excess of the actual deposit, but in ignorance of that fact, or without any purpose to evade or disobey the mandates of the law. The significance of the word 'willful' in criminal statutes has been considered by this court. In Felton v. U.S., 96 U.S. 699, 702, it was said: 'Doing or omitting to do a thing knowingly and willfully implies, not only a knowledge of the thing, but a determination with a bad intent to do it or to omit doing it. 'The word 'willfully," says Chief Justice Shaw, 'in the ordinary sense in which it is used in statutes, means, not merely 'voluntarily,' but with a bad purpose.' Com. v. Kneeland, 20 Pick. 220. 'It is frequently understood,' says Bishop, 'as signifying an evil intent without justifiable excuse.' 1 Bish. Cr. Law, § 428.'

'And later, in the case of Evans v. U.S., 153 U.S. 584, 594, 14 Sup. Ct. 934, 939, there was this reference to the words 'willfully misapplied': 'In fact, the gravamen of the offense consists in the evil design with which the misapplication is made, and a count which should omit the words 'willfully,' etc., and 'with intent to defraud,' would be clearly bad.' * * *

'While it is true that care must be taken not to weaken the wholesome provisions of the statutes designed to protect depositors and stockholders against the wrongdoings of banking officials, it is of equal importance that they should not be so construed as to make transactions of such officials, carried on with the utmost honesty, and in a sincere belief that no wrong was being done, criminal offenses, and subjecting them to the severe punishments which may be imposed under those statutes.'

The wrongful intent is the essence of the crime. If an officer certifies a check with the intent that the drawer shall obtain so much money out of the bank, when he has none there, such officer not only certifies unlawfully, but the specific intent to violate the statute may be imputed. And so evil design may be presumed if the officer purposely keeps himself in ignorance of whether the drawer has money in the bank or not, or is grossly indifferent to his duty in respect to the ascertainment of that fact.

The defense was that defendant had no actual knowledge that Dobbins & Dazey had not sufficient funds in the bank to meet the checks, nor knowledge of facts putting him on inquiry; that, on the contrary, he believed that they had such funds; that this belief was founded on information he received from the cashier or the exchange clerk, the proper sources of information, in response to inquiries which he made in each instance before he certified; that he honestly relied on that information, and that he had the right to do so. Defendant was entitled to the full benefit of this defense, and, in order to that, it was vital that the meaning of 'willful violation,' as used in section 13 of the act of 1882, should be clearly explained to the jury.

It appears from this record that, after the case, had been committed to the jury, and they had had it under consideration for some hours, they returned to the court room, and asked the following question, which was written out: 'We want the law as to the certification of checks when no money appeared to the credit of the drawer.' The court then read to the jury the first part of section 5208 of the Revised Statutes, and inquired: 'Does this answer your question?' To which the foreman replied: 'Yes, sir.' The court again read that part of the section, and made certain observations,-among other things, that a false certification 'is the certifying by an officer of a bank that a check is good when there are no funds to meet it.'

The record shows that then, 'as the jury were retiring, counsel for the defendant said to the court that he thought what the jury wanted was the act of 1882, making it a misdemeanor to willfully violate the section of the Revised Statutes which the court had read to them, and that the court ought to read and explain that act to the jury. The court asked if counsel referred to the act prescribing the penalty for false certification, and, on being answered in the affirmative, stated that the jury had nothing to do with that.' Exception was taken to the reading twice of the part of section 5208, and the failure to read and explain the act of 1882, and to the additional instructions given by the court.

We think that the learned circuit judge clearly erred in declining the request of counsel in respect of section 13.

It is true that it was not part of the function of the jury to fix the penalty, and the remark of the court, 'that the jury had nothing to do with that,' undoubtedly referred to the penalty only, though, as the matter appears in the record, the jury may well enough have understood it differently. But it the act of 1882 that made the certification of checks, if in 'willful violation' of section 5208, a criminal offense, and the word 'willful' 'implies on the part of the officer knowledge and a purpose to do wrong,' and plainly it was in relation to the point of 'willful violation' that counsel wished the court to read and expound that section. It seems to us that it was the duty of the court to do so, if the question put by the jury was answered at all, since 'the law as to the certification of checks when no money appeared to the credit of the drawer' involves civil consequences under section 5208, and criminal consequences under section 13, unless it is to be held that every certification where funds are lacking constitutes a willful violation of section 5208. We cannot accept the view that because, when the court asked the jury whether the first part of section 5208 answered their question, the foreman replied in the affirmative, therefore there was no error in the failure to call their attention to section 13. If the court was satisfied that the law applicable to the case was embodied in the first part of section 5208, the jury were bound to be satisfied also; but we are of opinion that that was an insufficient definition, and was therefore erroenous. However, the court went further, and said:

'I charge you, in addition to the instructions I gave you this morning, that a check drawn upon a bank where the drawer has no funds creates no obligation until it is certified as good by an officer of the bank, and that makes the check good as to the holder of it, and the bank then becomes estopped, although there was no warrant for the drawing of the check, as against the bona fide holder; so that the obligation of the bank to meet it in such case is made so by the act of the officer who certified it to be good. That is what is meant by 'false certification.' It is the certifying by an officer of a bank that a check is good when there are no funds there to meet it.

'You understand what I have said now is to be taken in connection with what I have before instructed you.'

We fear that these instructions, following in direct connection with what had passed in reference to section 5208, may have led the jury to understand the law of the case to be that the false certification thus defined constituted a criminal offense under the statute, and that that impression was not renderd harmless by the admonition that what was then said was to be taken with what had been said before.

At all events, we think it would be going too far to hold that that caution operated to obviate the error in failing to explain section 13 at this particular juncture. The jury had been considering their verdict for several hours, and had then, in effe t, requested a more complete definition of the offense. This the courts assumed to give, but it was incomplete, and what was omitted cannot properly be held to have been supplied, under the circumstances, by the reference to prior instructions. The court had, indeed, in the original charge, used the words 'willfully' and 'willful' in the following instructions:

'If you find, from the proof, that the account of Dobbins & Dazey upon the books of the bank was overdrawn continuously during the period covered by the dates of the checks certified by the defendant, and that the defendant was in fact ignorant of such overdraft, and that he certified the several checks mentioned in the indictment, believing at the time that the exchange deposited by Dobbins & Dazey on the days upon which said checks were certified were sufficient, or more than sufficient, to cover the amount of said checks, besides the overdraft already existing, then he is not guilty, and you should acquit him, unless such ignorance of the overdraft was willful, as elsewhere explained in the court's instructions. In this connection, you will bear in mind what I have previously charged you, that if this was a general, and not a special, account of Dobbins & Dazey, that the exchange which came in was applicable in the first place to the liquidation of the previously existing overdraft before there could be said to be any funds to the account of Dobbins & Dazey to respond to the checks.'

'If the proof fails to satisfy your minds, clearly and beyond a reasonable doubt, that the defendant did actually know, at the time he certified the checks mentioned in the indictment, that Dobbins & Dazey did not have on deposit in the bank sufficient funds and credits to meet the checks so certified, then you should acquit him unless you are convinced by the proof, beyond a reasonable doubt, that he willfully, designedly, and in bad faith these words mean substantially the same thing-shut his eyes to the fact, and purposely refrained from inquiry or investigation for the purpose of avoiding knowledge.'

The court had also said that, 'in general, if the defendant acted in good faith in making these certifications, believing that the state of the account of Dobbins & Dazey justified it, he is not guilty of the offense charged. Mere negligence or carelessness, unaccompanied by bad faith, would not render him guilty.' And other passages of similar purport might be quoted.

But the jury desired further advice as to what constituted criminal certification, or willful violation of section 5208, and preferred a request which required a comprehensive answer. The response was in the nature of a separate charge, and we are unable to conclude that the error in declining at that time to call attention to section 13 was cured by the bare reference to the original charge.

Many other errors were assigned, and pressed in argument; but, as the particular points may not arise in the same way on another trial, we prefer to refrain from expressing any opinion upon them.

The judgment of the circuit court of appeals is reversed. The judgment of the circuit court is also reversed, and the cause remanded to that court, with a direction to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial.

Mr. Justice BROWN and Mr. Justice McKENNA dissented.

Notes