Case Title: State v. Schrader

Citation: 324 P.2d 1025, 64 N.M. 100

Docket Number: 

State: new-mexico

Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Date: 1958-04-30T00:00:00Z

Document:
324 P.2d 1025 (1958) 64 N.M. 100 STATE of New Mexico, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Glenn D. SCHRADER, Defendant-Appellant. No. 6354. Supreme Court of New Mexico. April 30, 1958. Neal & Neal, Hobbs, for appellant. Fred M. Standley, Atty. Gen., Robert F. Pyatt, Alfred P. Whittaker, Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee. LUJAN, Chief Justice. This is an appeal from the district court of Lea County, New Mexico. Appellant was convicted of the crime of embezzlement and from the verdict and judgment entered thereon he appeals. An information was filed against the appellant in four counts. The first three counts charged him with the crime of embezzlement and the fourth count with the crime of obtaining property with intent to cheat and defraud by false or fraudulent representations. The trial resulted in conviction on count No. 1, and acquittal on count No. 2. The district attorney, prior to trial, dismissed count No. 3. and the court below sustained a motion made by the district attorney to dismiss count No. 4. This appeal concerns itself only with count No. 1, which, stated briefly, charged that appellant, while city clerk in and for the city of Eunice, New Mexico, embezzled monies belonging to the said city. This is a statutory crime under § 40-45-22 of the New Mexico Statutes Annotated, 1953, which reads as follows: The problem presented by this appeal deals with the manner in which the shortages of money, necessary to show a crime under the statute, may be proved at the trial. Over objection of defense counsel, the court admitted testimony of an accountant relating to shortages in the accounts of the city of Eunice. The books and records were not produced at the trial, but photostatic copies of parts of these records were admitted into evidence as exhibits. In an embezzlement prosecution may a certified public accountant testify as to his findings from an examination of books and records not in evidence and not produced at the trial? The exact point has never been passed upon by this court. There is no need for citation of authorities for the proposition that a qualified person may testify as to a summary based upon his examination of complicated books of accounts and records. The split in authorities only goes to the necessity of having the books of accounts and records present in the court for purposes of cross examination. As ably pointed out by the respective attorneys in their argument before this court there is authority both ways. One group of authorities, and by far the fewer, require the actual books and records to be physically present in the court-room. The better view accepts an alternative and is well stated by Judge Huxman of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Board of County Commissioners v. William J. Howard, Inc., 230 F.2d 561, 564. The following is a partial listing of authorities from sister states and the federal courts which permit a qualified person to testify in regard to a summary of voluminous records which that person has examined without the necessity of requiring the records themselves to be in court. Burton v. Driggs, 1873, 20 Wall. 125, 87 U.S. 125, 22 L. Ed. 299; Alabama Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Alabama Penny Savings Bank, 1917, 200 Ala. 337, 76 So. 103; State ex rel. Sullivan County v. Maryland Casualty Co., 1933, 334 Mo. 259, 66 S.W.2d 537; Bible v. Somers Const. Co., 1944, 197 Ga. 761, 30 S.E.2d 623; Linnell v. London & Lancashire Indemnity Co., 1946, 74 N.D. 379, 22 N.W.2d 203; Scott v. Caldwell, 160 Fla. 861, 37 So. 2d 85; Evans v. Boggs, 35 Tenn. App. 354, 245 S.W.2d 641; Keen v. O'Rourke, 48 Wash. 2d 1, 290 P.2d 976; Sprague v. Boyles Bros. Drilling Co., 4 Utah 2d 344, 294 P.2d 689. The trend in American jurisprudence is toward the greater admissibility of evidence consonant with the need to safeguard the rights of the opposite party. Here the rights of the accused were not prejudiced by the admission of the testimony of the certified public accountant relevant to the summary of the books and records of the city of Eunice. *1027 The availability of the records of the city made it possible for the appellant to make any examination of the mass of data he saw fit to make. The certified public accountant testifying in regard to the summary based upon his own examination of the data was available for cross examination. Thus, there were sufficient safeguards for the rights of the appellant. The record indicates sufficient substantial evidence upon which a jury could base a verdict. The only grounds moved for reversal was the admission of testimony by a certified public accountant relative to his findings from an examination of books and records not in evidence and not produced at the trial. Such testimony is admissable and is not reversible error. The judgment will be affirmed. It is so ordered. SADLER, McGHEE and COMPTON, JJ., concur.