The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1900-05-11
WHEAT STORAGE Law
Pertinent Instructions to the
Jury in Clifford Case.
Law Regulating Warehouse Mana
gers, AS Laid Down BY
Judge Brents.

/ Ill
handling OF grain. Following is pre
| sented the sections of the charge of Jndp,
IhOs. II. Brents of Wala Wala to tn,
jury which disagreed at eight for con
vlctiOn and four for acuuittal in the Cliff
iord case last week, which bear upon thC
law as touching warehouses. Genera
lnstructlOns-such as are given in every
case-are omitted because Of the spact
they would occupy:
Judge Brents' Instructions,
Gentlemen OF the jury: The statute
OF this state declares that if anv agent
O1hcer, servant or person to whom any
property shall be intrusted, with or
without hire, shall fraudulentIy convert
to his own Use, or shall fail to account
to the person so intrusting it to him. he
shall be deemed guilty of larceny.
The information in this case which Won
will have with you in your iuryrOom.
accuses the defendant, William Clifford
with the violation of this statute. II
charges, in substance, specifically that.
IN this county, from and including the
lst day OF June, 1899, until and includ-
ing the 18th day of January, 1900, he
was the duly elected, qualified and act
ing general manager and agent of the
Shawnee Warehouse Company, a cor
pOratiOn organized and existing under
and by virtue of the general laws of this
state and engaged in the warehouse
business of receiving grains for storage.
charging and receiving compensation
therefor, with its place of business at
Shawnee Siding in this county and state,
where its warehouse was then situate:
that it was his duty as such manager
AMI agent, imposed by law and the terms
OF his employment, to receive any and
all grain, delivered at said Shawnee
warehouse COmpany's warehouse, for
storage, and to issue receipts therefor,
and to deliver said grain upon demand
at said warehouse and the return of said
receipts, lndOrsed by the stOrer of said
grain, and the payment OF the storage
charges on said grain, as provided bg
the rules of said Shawnee Warehouse
Company as shown upon the face of said
receipts, and that he was expressly for
hidden, at the time OF his employment as
such manager and agent, to remove, or
permit to be removed, from said ware
house, any grain except as in said inform
alton set forth; that, during the month
OF September, 1899, tO-wit, on the Dist,
22d, 23d, 25th, Goth, 9th and both
days OF that month, and on the Sd and
4th days OF October of that year, he, in
the regular course of his employment as
such manager and agent, received and
took into his custody from one George
Streib for storage and safe custody,
and that the said George Streib
and the said Shawnee Warehouse Com
pany then and there intrusted him, the
said William Clifford, as such manager
and agent, and without any authority
to sell, transfer, negotiate or dispose
thereof, with 129,7SO pounds of number
one wheat at said warehouse, then and
there being OF the personal property of
said George Streib, and that said Clifford,
as such manager and agent of said Shaw
nee Warehouse Company, duly issued to
said Streib warehouse receipts for the
same; that afterward, on the 18th day
November, 1899, as such manager and
agent and in accordance with his duties,
he delivered to the order of said Streib,
upon due demand, 36,850 pounds of
said wheat and received back into his
custody the receipts so issued by him as
such manager and agent for said $3.50
pounds of said wheat; that afterward,
on the 4th, 7th, 10th and 24th days of
November, 1899, said Clifford, the de-
fendant now on trial, as and by virtue of
his position as such manager and agent,
being then and there in the entire and
exclusive possession of the remaining
90, $50 pounds of said wheat, and with
intent then and there to fraudulently, fel-
oniously and knowingly convert to his
own use and embezzle the same, and
without the knowledge or consent OF
said Streib, or of said Shawnee Ware
house company, wilfully, knowingly,
fraudulently and felOniOusly transferred,
sold, delivered and converted to his own
use said 92,930 pounds of said wheat,
then and there being, of the property of
said Streib and of the value OF $62O.OO.
and for the safe keeping of which said
Shawnee Warehouse company and he,
said Clifford, the defendant herein, as
such manager and agent, was then and
there specially charged, and that he as
such manager and agent, in this county
and state, on the 10Th day of February,
1900, unlawfully, Wilfully, knowingly,
fraudulently and felOniOusly failed and
refused and still so fails and refuses to
account to said Shawnee Warehouse
company and said Streib, or to either
of them, for said wheat, or any portion
thereof, or for the value or any portion
OF the value thereof, with the intent will
fully, unlawfully, knowingly, fraudulent
ly and felOniously to convert to his own
use and embezzle the said 80, $50 pounds
of said wheat and the value thereof, so
received by him, as such manager and
agent.
1t is not necessary, however, that all
the specifications OF the charge, as laid
in this information, should be proved
precisely as made therein. For instance,
it is not necessary that it be proved by
the evidence in the case that the wheat
described in the information was received
from George Streib on the precise day or
days specified in that information, if the
evidence shows that it were received by
the defendant, as manager and agent of
the Shawnee Warehouse company at
any time between the 1st day of June,
1899, and the 29th day of January,
1900, and before the same was con-
verted by the defendant, if you find there
was such conversion by him; nor is it
necessary that the evidence should prove
that all the wheat described in that in
formation was either received or con-
verted by the defendant. If any of it
was received and converted by him as
charged in that information, however