Court Opinion

ID: 9812741
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 22:46:50.716066+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:26:17.401363
License: Public Domain

*55Brogden, J.,
dissenting: C. S., 222(b) requires tbe proper officers of a bank to file a report witb the Corporation Commission on a form prescribed by the Commission, showing “under appropriate heads the resources, assets and liabilities of such bank” and “in a form prescribed by said Corporation Commission a summary of such report shall be published in a newspaper.” Thus, it is to be observed that the statute does not require two reports, one for the Corporation Commission and the other for a newspaper, but only one report. The “summary” to be published in a newspaper is the same report that is made to the Corporation Commission. Obviously a false statement or report cannot be published in a newspaper unless and until a false statement or report has been made.
The defendant was indicted upon two counts, one for making a false statement or report with intent to deceive the Corporation Commission and other corporations and persons dealing with the bank, the other for publishing in a newspaper in Asheville a false report for the purpose of deceiving the identical parties named in the first count. The jury said by its verdict that the defendant was not guilty upon the first count but guilty upon the second count. In other words, the verdict declared that the defendant had not made a false report to the Corporation Commission, but that when the “summary” of said report had been published in a newspaper, he was guilty of a felony. To state the proposition baldly, the publication of a true report lands the defendant in the penitentiary for a substantial period of time.
The verdict was wholly at variance and expressly contrary to the following instruction of the trial judge: “If you should find the defendant not guilty as to the making of said report, in the way and manner charged in the bill of indictment, then, they would not be guilty of publishing or permitting it to be published for they would have no knowledge of its falsity.” That is to say, the judge expressly and unequivocally charged the jury that if the defendant should be found not guilty on the first count, he would therefore not be guilty on the second count. It is true that in subsequent instructions to the jury a different and contrary charge was given. "Which of the conflicting and antagonistic instructions did the jury follow in its deliberations? If they followed the first instruction above quoted, it was the duty of the trial judge to discharge the defendant upon the rendition of the verdict of not guilty on the first count. If they followed subsequent instructions, the verdict can be upheld. However, this position does not help the State for the reason that this Court has held in an unbroken line of decisions that a jury is not required to steer a boat through the troubled *56waters of conflicting and contrary instructions, or to lapse into the language of theology: “to separate the sheep from the goats.”
The case has been thoroughly debated and considered, and it would serve no useful purpose to draw out the discussion,' but I am still wondering how it comes about that a citizen can be sent to the penitentiary for causing to be published in a newspaper in Asheville a false report that was never made or become a felon for publishing in a newspaper a report which a jury has found by its verdict to be true, after a long and tedious trial.