Houston v. United States

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

1. Plaintiff was the general contractor for the construction of new homes to be built on land owned by First Los Angeles Corporation.

2. Plaintiff contracted with Treeline Corporation for Treeline to provide the materials and labor for the framing of some of those homes.

3. Plaintiff informed First Los Angeles Corporation on June 17, 1975 that he was opening a bank account, that the funds in that account would be drawn upon for “Treeline Corporation’s payroll checks, union benefit checks and government checks” and that plaintiff would “do everything possible” to insure that the funds were used for those purposes.

4. On June 18, 1975 plaintiff opened a bank account at the American State Bank. Checks drawn on that account had to be signed by both plaintiff and an officer of Treeline Corporation.

5. From that date, payments due Treeline from First Los Angeles were made payable to Treeline and plaintiff jointly and were deposited in the American State Bank account.

6. The purpose of that method of payment and disbursement and the American State Bank account was to give plaintiff control over funds due Treeline and Treeline’s suppliers.

7.…