Maljan

The defendant, Peter Maljan, was convicted of embezzlement in the superior court of Fresno County, and appeals from the judgment and order denying his motion for a new trial.

There was evidence from which the jury were justified in finding the following facts, among others, in this case:

The defendant, Peter Maljan, was a member of a copartnership composed of himself, his brother, and another person, doing business in Fresno as packers, brokers, and shippers of fruit. The prosecuting witness, Homsy, delivered his crop of grapes to the Maljan firm for shipment to, and sale in, the eastern market. The grapes were delivered to the firm and accepted by them upon consignment, to be shipped east and the proceeds were to be paid to Homsy, the defendant’s firm acting in the matter as commission brokers and agents for Homsy. The copartnership received the returns from these grapes amounting to nine hundred dollars, over and above- an advance of two hundred dollars made to Beach & Company, another copartnership, through whom the grapes were delivered to Maljan’s firm. The returns from these grapes were never paid to Homsy.

As is usual in such cases as this, the testimony is complicated…