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See also:EMBEZZLEMENT (A.-Fr. embesilement, from beseler or besillier, to destroy) , in See also:English See also:law, a See also:peculiar See also:form of See also:theft, which is distinguished from the See also:ordinary See also:crime in two points: (I) It is committed by a See also:person who is in the position of clerk or servant to the owner of the See also:property stolen; and (2) the property when stolen is in the See also:possession of such clerk or servant. The See also:definition of embezzlement as a See also:special form of theft arose out of the difficulties caused by the legal See also:doctrine that to constitute See also:larceny the property must be taken out of the possession of the owner. Servants and others were thus able to steal with impunity goods entrusted to them by their masters. A See also:statute of See also:- HENRY
- HENRY (1129-1195)
- HENRY (c. 1108-1139)
- HENRY (c. 1174–1216)
- HENRY (Fr. Henri; Span. Enrique; Ger. Heinrich; Mid. H. Ger. Heinrich and Heimrich; O.H.G. Haimi- or Heimirih, i.e. " prince, or chief of the house," from O.H.G. heim, the Eng. home, and rih, Goth. reiks; compare Lat. rex " king "—" rich," therefore " mig
- HENRY, EDWARD LAMSON (1841– )
- HENRY, JAMES (1798-1876)
- HENRY, JOSEPH (1797-1878)
- HENRY, MATTHEW (1662-1714)
- HENRY, PATRICK (1736–1799)
- HENRY, PRINCE OF BATTENBERG (1858-1896)
- HENRY, ROBERT (1718-1790)
- HENRY, VICTOR (1850– )
- HENRY, WILLIAM (1795-1836)
Henry VIII. (1529) was passed to meet this See also:case; and it enacted that it should be See also:- FELONY (0. Fr. felonie, from felon, a word meaning " wicked," common to Romanic languages, cf. Italian fella, fellone, the ultimate origin of which is obscure, but is possibly connected either with Lat. fel, gall, or fallere, to deceive. The English " fel
felony in servants to convert to their own use caskets, jewels, See also:money, goods or chattels delivered to them by their masters. " This See also:act," says See also:Sir J. F. See also:Stephen (See also:General View of the Criminal Law of See also:England), "assisted by certain subtleties according to which the possession of the servant was taken under particular circumstances to be the possession of the See also:master, so that the servant by converting the goods to his. own use took them out of his own possession qua servant (which was his master's possession) and put them into his own possession qua thief (which was a felony), was considered sufficient for See also:practical purposes for more than 200 years." In 1799 a clerk who had converted to his own use a See also:cheque paid across the See also:counter to him by a customer of his master was held to be not guilty of felony; and in the same See also:year an act was passed, which, See also:- MEETING (from " to meet," to come together, assemble, 0. Eng. metals ; cf. Du. moeten, Swed. mota, Goth. gamotjan, &c., derivatives of the Teut. word for a meeting, seen in O. Eng. Wit, moot, an assembly of the people; cf. witanagemot)
meeting the difficulty in such cases, enacted that if any clerk or servant, or any person employed as clerk or servant, should, by virtue of such employment, receive or take into his possession any money, bonds, bills, &c., for .or in the name or on See also:account of his employers, and should fraudulently embezzle the same, every such offender should be deemed to have stolen the same, The same definition is substantially repeated in a Consolidation Act passed in 1827. Numberless difficulties of See also:- INTERPRETATION (from Lat. interpretari, to expound, explain, inter pres, an agent, go-between, interpreter; inter, between, and the root pret-, possibly connected with that seen either in Greek 4 p4'ew, to speak, or irpa-rrecv, to do)
interpretation arose under these acts, e.g. as to the meaning of " clerk or servant," as to the difference between theft and embezzlement, &c.
The law now in force, or the Larceny Act 1861, defines the offence thus (See also:section 68) :—" Whosoever, being a clerk or servant, or being employed for the purpose or in the capacity of a clerk or servant, shall fraudulently embezzle any See also:chattel, money or valuable See also:security which shall be delivered to or received or taken into possession by him for or in the name or on the account of his master or employer, or any See also:part thereof, shall be deemed to have feloniously stolen the same from his master or employer, although such chattel, money or security was not received into the possession of such master or employer otherwise than by the actual possession of his clerk, servant or other person so employed, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the See also:court, to be kept in penal See also:servitude for any See also:- TIME (0. Eng. Lima, cf. Icel. timi, Swed. timme, hour, Dan. time; from the root also seen in " tide," properly the time of between the flow and ebb of the sea, cf. O. Eng. getidan, to happen, " even-tide," &c.; it is not directly related to Lat. tempus)
- TIME, MEASUREMENT OF
- TIME, STANDARD
time not exceeding fourteen years, and not less than three years," or imprisonment with or without hard labour for not more than two years. To constitute the offence thus described three things must concur:-(I) The offender must be a clerk or servant; (2) he must receive into his possession some chattel on behalf of his master; and (3) he must fraudulently embezzle the same. A clerk or servant has been defined to be a person See also:bound either by an See also:express See also:contract of service or by conduct implying such a contract to obey the orders and submit to the See also:control of his master in the transaction of the business which it is his See also:duty as such clerk or servant to transact. (Stephen's See also:Digest of the Criminal Law, See also:Art. 309.)
The Larceny Act 1901, amending sections 75 and 76 of the Larceny Act 1861, also describes similar offences on the part of
persons, not being clerks or servants; to which the name embezzlement is not uncommonly applied. The act makes the offence of fraudulently misappropriating property entrusted to a person by another, or received by him on behalf of another a See also:misdemeanour punishable by penal servitude for a See also:term not exceeding seven years, or to imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding two years. So also trustees fraudulently disposing of See also:trust property, and See also:directors of companies fraudulently appropriating the See also:company's property or keeping fraudulent accounts, or wilfully destroying books or See also:publishing fraudulent statements, are misdemeanants punish-able in the same way.
In the See also:United States the law of embezzlement is founded mainly on the English statute passed in 1799, but the statutes of most states are so framed that larceny includes embezzlement. The latter is sometimes denominated statutory larceny. The See also:punishment varies in the different states, otherwise there is little substantive difference in the See also:laws of the two countries.
Statutes have been passed in some states providing that one indicted for larceny may be convicted of embezzlement. But it is doubtful whether such statutes are valid where the constitution of the See also:state provides that the accused must be informed of the nature and cause of the See also:accusation against him.
End of Article: EMBEZZLEMENT (A.-Fr. embesilement, from beseler or besillier, to destroy)
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