Court Opinion

ID: 9883316
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 01:40:09.765469+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:22.618458
License: Public Domain

Beery, Judge,
concurring in the dissenting opinion:
I concur in the dissenting opinion written by Judge Calhoun and filed in this case but I wish to add a few comments on the legal effect of the majority opinion. The evidence quoted by him from the record of the trial, in my opinion, makes it crystal clear that the case was one for jury determination, and the verdict of the jury was justified.
The majority opinion is based on the premise that the evidence upon which the jury’s verdict was returned was circumstantial alone. This is not correct as clearly shown by the evidence in the record and therefore the authorities used by the majority to sustain their position in this case are not applicable and the disposition is therefore without legal support or justification. It is true that no witnesses testified that they saw the defendant personally type or have typed the transmittals in the name of companies which did not do the work in question, but there is direct evidence that the defendant knew that the work was done by the Pioneer Construction Company and requested that the invoices for such work which had been first properly submitted in the name of the Pioneer Construction Company be resubmitted in the names of other companies which did not do the work. The only oth*619er person -who supervised the preparation of trans-mittals of invoices denied that he prepared any such falsifications as were shown to have been submitted. There is direct evidence that the defendant knew what company did the work because she had been on the ground and had kept some of the time herself. In other words, there is direct evidence that the defendant first suggested the falsifications and later was solely responsible as a supervisor for the submission of the invoices and transmittals concealing the true state of the account regardless of who might have prepared them routinely as a typist.
It is also true that the defendant denied some of the testimony offered by the state in connection with the matter related above, but this in itself makes the question one for the jury to determine.
The defendant and one other person distributed or approved the distribution of time charges which became the invoices on which the transmittals rested, and that other person denied complicity; it then became a jury question as to whether defendant’s denial prevailed against the strong evidence that she was the one responsible.
The majority opinion means that notwithstanding all of the evidence introduced by the state directly indicating the guilt of the defendant of the charge contained in the indictment, the trial court at the conclusion of all the evidence should have directed the jury to return a verdict of not guilty, because some of the evidence indicated that some person other than the defendant may have routinely prepared the transmittals showing the work done by companies other than the Pioneer Construction Company, which actually did the work. This is clearly an invasion of the province of the jury and such disposition cannot be justified under the law governing such matters and no legal authority warrants such action.