235 A.D. 289 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1932
The indictment against the defendants charged that the defendants, on September 11, 1930, in the county of New York, did buy, receive, conceal and withhold, knowing the same to have been stolen, the following stocks: 270 shares of British Type Investors; 20 shares of North American; 20 shares of United States Financial; 50 shares of Dixton, Inc.; 500 shares of Ardsley Butte Corporation; and 35 shares of Maxwell Corporation, which said
The evidence presented to the grand jury showed that the defendants admitted receiving the stolen securities from Bruen and another man named Denis on September 11, 1930, the day after the securities had been stolen. The law is well settled that possession of goods recently stolen of itself merits the inference that such possession is a guilty one, and places upon the defendant the burden of explaining such possession. The defendants claimed that all they knew about Bruen was that he had worked upstairs and had come into their office and “ talked on baseball.” The defendants professed not to know where Bruen lived, except that he lived in “ some hotel around the Plymouth vicinity.” The evidence showed that the defendants had paid Bruen $2,500 in cash an hour before the Deputy Attorney-General and the complainant’s lawyer had arrived at their office. The evidence also showed that on the same day the defendants received the stock from Bruen, on September eleventh, they gave the stock to Spiegelberg & Plone, as brokers, for Spiegelberg & Plone first to transfer the securities and then sell them. A witness in the employ of Spiegelberg & Plone testified that this was “ sometimes, very often done in the usual course of business.” It is quite evident that by transferring the stock first the defendants could ascertain whether the true owner had placed his stop on the stock and would avoid any future stock stop after the transfer of the securities had been made. Spiegelberg & Plone, as brokers, sold the stock in question and made payment to the defendants September 12, 1930, two days after the stocks were stolen. Payment to the defendants was made by a check of Spiegelberg & Plone to the order of “ J. S. Fried & Company ” for the sum of $2,587. Before the Attorney-General the defendants testified
We are of the opinion that the court erred in dismissing the indictment because of the absence of “ direct proof or circumstances that when the complainant’s stock was placed in the hands of the defendants they had no knowledge or reason to believe that the property had been criminally obtained or stolen.” Direct proof is not essential to establishment of the crime charged. (People v. Dowling, 84 N. Y. 478; People v. Conroy, 97 id. 62; People v. Wilson, 151 id. 403.) The Court of Appeals in People v. Dowling (supra, at p. 485) wrote as follows: “ The direct proof of knowledge of the larceny is not needed to convict of receiving stolen goods with guilty knowledge. That knowledge may be gathered from the circumstances of the case, of which one is the buying the goods at an under valuation. (1 Hale, 619; 2 East’s P. C., chap. 16, § 153, p. 765.)” The evidence shows that the defendants, claiming to be
The order appealed from should be reversed and the indictment against the defendants reinstated.
Finch, P. J., McAvoy, Martin and Sherman, JJ., concur.
Order reversed and indictment reinstated.