Opinion ID: 1547054
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Harry Hedrick.

Text: This defendant especially insists upon the insufficiency of the evidence to charge him, chiefly based upon his supposed withdrawal from New York on August 10th. We cannot agree in the argument. Among them all he was the head and front; his name was used on all the circulars and correspondence, and more generally than that of any one else in oral communications with customers. It is incredible that this should have been done without his consent, even if Resnick is wrong in supposing that she heard Maloney and McCluskey use his name within his hearing in selling Parco stock. It is, indeed, true that he left New York before affairs were in extremis, but that by no means proves that he had cut his communications with the business. On the contrary, he stopped over at Wyoming for several days to examine the well, where he must have learned the facts. It is argued that he could not be held criminally responsible for what took place in his absence, on the theory that a man may not commit crime through an agent. But we do not to-day distinguish between principals and accessories before the fact, the only distinction which was ever important in the subject. That crime may not be imputed to a principal through implied authority is not to the point. Hedrick left an organization in New York which he had created more than any one else; it used his name and would presumably keep on. He knew that it would sell stock, and he had been privy to its sales. Until he dissociated himself from his fellows, he remained in the scheme and in the conspiracy. If those who were left had diverged widely from the earlier common practices, a question might arise; but they did not. The conduct of the sales, at least through August, the jury might find to be part of a scheme to which Hedrick remained a party. However, it is not necessary to depend upon his personal observations at Wyoming, or what was done when he left, for it was clearly a question for the jury how far Sweet, on his return in June, told him the truth, especially about casing in a 50-barrel well, and how far Brown's wires throughout July served to open his eyes. It is hardly credible that these men were engaged in deceiving each other. The jury was to say how much he was informed of the facts, how far he believed that the stock had value, and whether while directly in charge he supposed that the scheme was honest. Finally, there was no warrant whatever for saying that all the Parco shares were treasury stock, conceding that the 250,000 shares which Hedrick got for the well were such, though the asset had no market value at the time. The only other shares which could possibly be regarded as treasury stock were 750,000 issued to Hedrick on August 8th, for the leases at Nitro. At best only 40 per cent. of the capitalization of the company had ever become treasury shares, and only 10 per cent. when the prospectus was issued, which stated that all shares were such. The peculiarly indefensible sales to Tefft served to throw light upon Hedrick's honesty.