Gallagher

Defendant was convicted of the crime of embezzlement, and appeals from the judgment and from an order denying a motion for a new trial.

The indictment charges that at the county of Alameda one Richard C. Beggs, a clerk, agent and servant of the “Oakland Consolidated Street Railway Company” (a corporation), embezzled $8,500, the personal property of said company, and that the defendant, B. F. Gallagher, did aid and abet said Beggs in such embezzlement.

The first point made by appellant is that Beggs did not commit the crime of embezzlement, as charged in the information. “Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by a person to whom it has been intrusted”: Pen. Code, sec. 503. Section 508 of the Penal Code is in the following language: “Every clerk, agent, or servant of any person who fraudulently appropriates to his own use, or secretes with a fraudulent intent to appropriate to his own use, any property of another which has come into his control or care by virtue of his employment as such clerk, agent, or servant, is guilty of embezzlement.” The crime of embezzlement is a statutory offense, and was unknown to the common law. It is said that in the common-law…