William S. Bennett v. United States

Appellant Bennett was charged in a thirty-nine count indictment with the offenses of theft of bank property over $100, 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (b), conspiracy to misapply bank funds, 18 U.S.C. §§ 656 , 371, and aiding and abetting the misapplication of bank funds, 18 U.S.C. §§ 656 , 2. A jury verdict resulted in Bennett’s conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (b); he was acquitted of all counts in which he was alleged to have acted with his eodefendant, Don C. Silver-thorne. Five errors are asserted by Bennett in this appeal, four of which we do not discuss. We shall devote our attention to the proposition that § 2113(b) makes unlawful only a trespassory taking of the bank’s property, not a taking by some other means, and whether the evidence shows a taking within the scope of the statute.

Jurisdiction in the district court rested on 18 U.S.C. § 3231 , and rests here on 28 U.S.C. §§ 1291 and 1294.

That portion of § 2113(b) with which we deal is:

In LeMasters v. United States, 378 F.2d 262 (9 Cir. 1967) (decided by this court after the instant case was tried in the district court), we entertained the issue now before us. There, the appellant had impersonated a bank depositor by producing…