The Washington times., 1914-05-27
RC|S|ON INTERESTS
BANKERS GENERALLY
Masters and Kinnear Granted
New Trial on Charge of
Embezzlement.

decision of far-reaching Importance
TO the banking and business world, and
one that is being generally perused to-
DAY by business men and corporation
attorneys, was handed down by the
district Court of Appeals late YESTERDAY,
when Samuel J. Masters and John g.
Kinnear. former officials of the organ
'Zation known as the Modern Wood
men Of the World. were granted a new
trial
Masters and Kinnear were G.avicted
in Criminal Court last June on an in
iictment charging embezZlement OF
certain funds Of the order. The opin-
ION was by Justice Van Orsdel.
The banking community was given a
shock last June by Justice Stafford 6
.harge to the jury in the original case
director to really borrow funds for him.
self through the medium OF an employe
constituted wrongful conversion and
that conversion being established as
wrongful as a matter of law. intent was
immaterial. This holding. il is declared
materially affected a good bit of bank
ing business.
of Wide Interest.
The case has been one of wide inter-
est Masters and Kinnear. in addition
10 being, respectively president and
secretary of the Modern Wo-llmen OF
the World. an insurance organization.
also conducted a brokerage business un-
der the name of the Metropolitan Loan
Company.
IN loaning money from the funds of the
insurance company. commissions were
taken from the borrower by the loan
company, and in other cases the counts
charged that the defendants at times
had borrowed money from the insur-
~ nv NM @AI ~
their employees, the money borrowed
being really for the defendants use.
Justice Stafford. after the case had
been vigorously contested for several
lays. held that in the first instance the
commission charged should have gone
10 the insurance company, and, there
fore. as a matter of law. there was a
wrongful conversion; and. in the sec
ond instance, for a director to really
borrow funds for himself through the
medium of an employe. also constituted
wrongful conversion, and the court
further held that the conversion being
established as wrongful as a matter of
law. the intent with which the party
fid the act wss imn:aterial.
Evidence Ruled Out.
Therefore. a large volume of evil
dence offered by Attorneys Wilton J.
lambert and J. +. NJ. Norton was re-
fused admission by Justice Stafford.
HHu COuHscI were HOl permitted 10 ar
que the -Oint
The courts charge in the lower ca Sc
-loses with this paragraph:
so my instruction is that the
law is such, upon the undisputed
evidence in the case, that you
ought to render verdict Of
guilty upon the counts I have
submitted to you. and not guilty
upon other counts"
With respect to this portion of the
-harge. the Appellate Court opinion
says:
"of course it is beyond the pow
er of court to instruct a jury to
return a verdict of guilty in a
criminal case, either directly or in
directly by the use of language
which amounts to the direction OF
verdict"
RemarkinE that this is against the
guarantee OF the Constitution, the opin-
on continues:
In this instance. what the court
did amounted TO taking from the
Jury all questions OF fact. and charg-
ing them that under the law. Il
was their duty to find the defend
ants guilty. This instruction in the
PRESENT case constitutes reversible
er-or
The court fell into this error in
interpreting the statute to mean that
the mere conversion Of the funds
constituted n wrongful conversion.
and. that therefore the uuetion Of
criminal intent was not an element
of the crime to be proven, as in
common law felony"