United States v. Giles
United States Supreme Court
300 U.S. 41 (1937)
- Written by Carolyn Strutton, JD
Facts
Giles (defendant) was a teller at the Commercial National Bank of San Antonio, Texas. Giles was responsible for large amounts of cash and for receiving and recording deposited amounts. Giles at one point discovered a shortage in his cash. Rather than reporting this shortage to his supervisors, Giles attempted to cover up the shortage by withholding deposit slips from the bookkeeping department. This caused false balances to be recorded in the bank’s ledgers once deposits were tallied without their correct deposit slips. Giles’s actions were eventually discovered when the bank closed. He was charged with two counts under a federal statute that made it a crime for any employee of a bank to make a false entry in a bank statement or report with fraudulent intent. Giles was convicted and appealed. The court of appeals overturned his conviction, holding that his conviction could not stand because he had not made any false entry in a bank statement himself, as the plain language of the statute required. The prosecution appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (McReynolds, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 832,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,400 briefs, keyed to 994 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
