Nolan v. State

213 Md. 298, 131 A.2d 851 (1957)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D was manager of Federal Discount Corporation's D.C. office. D was responsible for everything that went on in the office. He opened all the mail, looked at the money and checks, passed on loans, and received payments in the office. D was bonded. There were two employees. D recommended that Mrs. Biggs be employed. She was a cashier. She entered the payments, made out daily report sheets and balanced out those sheets. D quit his job on November 2, 1952, when he was instructed not to take business from an automobile dealer named Metcalf. Mrs. Biggs quit the same day. An accountant was called in to audit the books the same day. Shortages were discovered. D came up with a scheme that after Mrs. Briggs balanced her cash drawer, he would go over the sheets with her. D would tell her to take out of the cash an odd amount, such as $251.24, an amount that could not be checked back through the receipts to pinpoint specific accounts. She would then rerun the tape to show the short additions so when the daily report sheets were prepared, she would show a total which would not agree with the total amount actually received or the correct total of the items shown on the sheets, but only the amount that would go into the bank account. The cash that was not deposited in the bank would be taken by D and put in his pocket. Deposits for each day were short totaled. Mrs. Briggs knew what she and D were doing was wrong. D kept part of the money, and Mrs. Briggs was also given money by D. If anything was left, it was kept in the top drawer of a desk in her apartment. There was between $25,000.00 and $30,000.00 in that desk drawer. D took the money from her desk drawer and told her he had buried it in the basement of his home. She purchased a 1951 Cadillac for herself in February 1952, for about $3,000.00. She bought another Cadillac in September 1952, in Philadelphia, in the presence of D, for about $5,300.00 in cash, which Nolan paid for. The certificate of title was made out to her and later put in their joint names. She also purchased a mink coat in Washington for $5,500.00, plus tax. Eventually, the scheme was discovered. D was convicted of embezzlement and appealed. Ds had actually been tried in the District of Columbia and Mrs. Briggs was acquitted of a charge of embezzlement and D's case was disposed on a directed verdict. D contends that, even assuming there was adequate corroboration of Mrs. Biggs' testimony, the evidence produced made the crime larceny and not embezzlement, as charged in the indictment.