Stofen

—This is an action brought by the county of Sonoma against Stofen, its ex-treasurer, and against his bondsmen, to recover the sum of seven thousand eight hundred and fifteen dollars and seventy-nine cents, alleged to have been converted by Stofen while he was treasurer. The defendants denied the conversion, and set up as a defense that Stofen had been robbed of the money. Judgment passed for plaintiff and defendants moved for a new trial. Upon denial of their motion they appealed, both from that order and from the judgment.

It is strenuously insisted that the uncontradicted evidence in *34 this case establishes a robbery. The account of the affair given by the defendant Stofen is as follows: Upon the morning of the twenty-eighth day of December, a Friday morning, he had gone to his office in the county courthouse in the city of Santa Rosa. He entered his rooms at about the usual hour, at 9 o’clock, or a few minutes thereafter. He opened the outer and inner doors of the vault in his office and proceeded to take out the drawers or money trays for use in his daily business. Turning round with a tray in each hand, he confronted a man with an uplifted dagger who ordered him to drop…