50 P. 799 | Or. | 1897
delivered the opinion. .
During the year 1895 the defendant was the treasurer of the Mazzini Society, a fraternal organization in the City of Portland, and as such received about $1,500 of its funds. The financial embarrassment of his bondsmen prompted the society in October, 1895, to look after its money, and a committee for that purpose waited upon the defendant, but, being unable to get a satisfactory settlement, caused his arrest and commitment to await the action of the grand jury upon a charge of embezzlement. On January 13, 1896, a new set of officers having been elected, a demand in writing was made upon him to turn over to his successor in office all the money and property of the society in his hands. This he failed to do at the time, and a few days later the indictment upon which he was tried and convicted was returned against him. While the amount of money alleged to have been embezzled by the defendant is the sum of $1,500, his conviction depended largely, if not entirely, upon the fact as to whether a certain loan of $1,150 made by him to Arata, one of his bondsmen, on April 30, 1895, was wrongful, and made with intent to steal the money. Concerning this loan, the defendant, who ' offered himself as a witness in his own behalf, testified, among other things, that at the time he made it he took a note therefor payable to himself, which he indorsed over to Cordano, the president of the
Now, it was clearly competent, as bearing upon the question of his intent, to show that he treated the note as the property of the society, and as such
It is also claimed that the evidence was immaterial because it was not shown that the president was acting in his official capacity when he received
There are several other questions discussed in the briefs, but as many of them are not very clearly presented by the record and may not arise on another trial we have thought it unnecessary to consider them at this time. Judgment reversed and new trial ordered.
Reversed.