Court Opinion

ID: 9447819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:45:20.300644+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:12.272492
License: Public Domain

BASTIAN, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part, dissenting in part).
I agree with the action taken by my brethren in affirming the convictions of false pretenses. However, I must dissent from affirmance of the convictions of grand larceny.
At the time of the acts complained of, appellant was a high ranking financial officer of the embassy and, in fact, was considered the cashier of the embassy. He had charge of the cash fund and it was his duty to make cash disbursals, and to account for them. It was also his duty to replenish the cash fund from’ time to time, preparing checks for signature by his superiors for that purpose. Such duties are analogous to those of a bank teller.
In my opinion, the nine instances complained of must be viewed within the context of appellant’s employment. I fail to see any basis for segregating the nine checks in question from all the other countless checks the proceeds of which were legitimately disbursed by appellant. Obviously, he had to get money into the cash fund before he could appropriate it. But I do not think this furnishes any basis for holding that the fraud perpetrated in obtaining signatures to the checks vitiated the employer’s consent to appellant’s possession of the proceeds, particularly since the record furnishes no basis for determining whether he took the money as soon as it came into his possession or some time after depositing it with the fund itself in the safe in his office.
This problem points up the wisdom of the recommendation of the American Law Institute, in its Model Penal Code, to abolish the common law crimes against property, with their nice hairline distinctions, such as those between larceny and embezzlement, and to create two new, all-inclusive crimes called “theft” and “breach of trust.” However, until Congress sees fit to adopt this recommendation for the District of Columbia, the common law distinctions remain in force, and it is the duty of his court to enforce them.
I would reverse the convictions of grand larceny.