A ripple of knowing laughter from the jury box. Samara
the freeloader, the sponger. Not a good image.
MR. JAYWALKER: So did you occasionally sign
checks for Samara?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, if you choose to look at it that way. I prefer to think that I was signing them on behalf of Mr. Tannenbaum, in order to cover some of his wife's expenses.
MR. JAYWALKER: And in the same vein, did you from time to time present Samara with documents for her to sign?
MR. SMYTHE: I did.
MR. JAYWALKER: What sorts of documents?
MR. SMYTHE: Oh, tax returns, driver's li cense renewals, health insurance claims, credit card contracts. That sort of thing.
MR. JAYWALKER: In other words, when there were agencies or entities involved who wouldn't be expected to be comfortable accepting your signature in place of hers?
MR. SMYTHE: That's a good way of looking
at it.
MR. JAYWALKER: And would you characterize Samara as having been extremely diligent in reading through each of the items you presented for her sig nature, or somewhat less than extremely diligent?
MR. SMYTHE: Somewhat less.
A couple of chuckles from the jury box. Samara the
airhead, the bubble-brain. Fine with Jaywalker.
MR. JAYWALKER: In fact, there were lots of times when she'd indicate in one way or another that she didn't want to be bothered and left the reading of the fine print to you. Is that fair to say?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: And even a lot of the large
print?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, again. Except in the case
of tax returns. Those I always made her read before I permitted her to sign.
MR. JAYWALKER: Because the law compels you
to, right?
MR. SMYTHE: And because it's the right
thing to do.
Jaywalker walked over to the prosecution table and asked for the original of the life insurance policy applica tion. It had a tag on it indicating that Burke had had it premarked as People's Exhibit 9. Jaywalker removed the tag and handed the document to the court reporter, asking her to re-mark it as a defense exhibit.
Prosecutors hate it when you do that.
MR. JAYWALKER: Mr. Smythe, I show you what's been marked Defendant's A for identification and ask you if you recognize it.
MR. SMYTHE: Yes. Mr. Burke showed it to
me some time ago.
MR. JAYWALKER: And what do you recognize it
as?
MR. SMYTHE: It's an application for an in surance policy on Mr. Tannenbaum's life. And it ap pears to have been signed by Mrs. Tannenbaum.
MR. JAYWALKER: And the defense stipulates
that in fact it was.
THE COURT: Mr. Burke?
MR. BURKE: So stipulated.
What else could Burke do? Jaywalker had not only co-opted his second-best exhibit, a runner-up to the murder weapon itself, now he was stealing Burke's thunder by conceding that the exhibit bore Samara's signature. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaywalker could see Burke scratch ing a name off his witness list, no doubt that of the hand writing expert. Now, completing his trifecta, Jaywalker offered the document into evidence as Defendant's A. Burke could do nothing but mutter, "No objection."
MR. JAYWALKER: Isn't it a fact, Mr. Smythe, that Samara signed this document only because you placed it in front of her and asked her to?
MR. SMYTHE: That is absolutely not the fact.
MR. JAYWALKER: Yet you've told us that that
MR. SMYTHE: It happened.
MR. JAYWALKER: Routinely?
MR. BURKE: Objection.
exact thing happened rou tinely, didn't you?
THE COURT: Perhaps you'd like to re
phrase the question.
MR. JAYWALKER: Sure. Would you say it hap pened more than once over the years since Barry and Samara married?
MR. SMYTHE: More than once? Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: More than half a dozen times?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: More than a dozen?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
MR. JAYWALKER: More than two dozen?
MR. SMYTHE: Most likely.
MR. JAYWALKER: Routinely?
MR. BURKE: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
Again Jaywalker walked over to the prosecution table and huddled with Burke.
"What is it you want this time?" Burke asked. "My undershorts?"
"Not yet," said Jaywalker. "But I'll take that check over there, the one that paid for the premium."
Burke coughed it up and sat helplessly by as Jaywalker had the exhibit re-marked, identified by the witness and received in evidence as Defendant's B.
MR. JAYWALKER: Do you recognize the signa
ture on that check?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, I do.
MR. JAYWALKER: Would you read us the name
that was signed.
MR. SMYTHE: "Samara M. Tannenbaum."
MR. JAYWALKER: Did Samara in fact sign that
check?
MR. SMYTHE: No.
MR. JAYWALKER: Sorry, I couldn't hear your
answer.
MR. SMYTHE: No, she didn't sign it.
MR. JAYWALKER: Who did sign it?
MR. SMYTHE: I did.
MR. JAYWALKER: You signed Samara's name?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
Jaywalker had a few more questions written down for Smythe, but anything else was going to be severely anti climactic. He knew the accountant would no doubt have a logical explanation for having done what he did. But why give him the chance to rehabilitate himself? Better to leave that to Burke on redirect examination and then come back on recross.
A lot of lawyers never know enough to quit while they're ahead. Jaywalker, who'd been ahead precious little in this trial, was going to be damned if he made that mistake.
"No further questions," he said.
Burke was on his feet before Jaywalker was off his.
MR. BURKE: A few minutes ago Mr. Jay walker asked you about this document, Defendant's A in evidence. Specifically, after conceding that it bears his client's signature, he asked you if she signed it only because you told her to. Do you recall his ask ing you that?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, I do.
MR. BURKE: And you replied, rather em
phatically—
MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained. Leave out the char
acterization, please.
MR. BURKE: And you replied with the words
"absolutely not."
MR. SMYTHE: Yes.
MR. BURKE: Can you tell us why you said,
"absolutely not"?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes. I never gave Mrs. Tannen baum that document to sign. In fact, I'd never even seen it until you showed it to me, several weeks after Mr. Tannenbaum's death.
MR. BURKE: How can you be certain that
you never gave it to Mrs. Tan
nenbaum to sign?
MR. SMYTHE: Because unlike Mrs. Tannen
baum, I read every word of
everything I ever gave her.
Nicely done, thought Jaywalker. But how was Smythe
going to explain away his signature on the check? It turned out it wouldn't take long for him to find out, and he didn't like the explanation any better than he'd liked the previous one.
MR. BURKE: What about Defendant's B in evidence, the check that paid for the premium? You say you signed that yourself. Is that correct?
MR. SMYTHE: Yes, it is.
MR. BURKE: How do you explain that?
MR. SMYTHE: Just as I used to collect Mr. Tan nenbaum's bills as they came in, so did I collect Mrs. Tannenbaum's. When a bill showed up from a life in surance company in the amount of some twentyseven-thousand dollars, I made it a point to question Mr. Tannenbaum about it.
MR. BURKE: Not Mrs. Tannenbaum?
MR. SMYTHE: No, I figured
that wouldn't have
done me much good.
MR. BURKE: Why not?
MR. SMYTHE: Let's just say that Mrs. Tannen
baum doesn't have much of a
head for business.
More laughter, again at the expense of the bubble-brain.
MR. BURKE: And what was Mr. Tannen
baum's response?
MR. SMYTHE: I don't recall his exact words. But as was his habit with just about all of his wife's bills, he told me to go ahead and pay it.
MR. BURKE: You say, "just about all." Were
there exceptions?
MR. SMYTHE: I do recall that on one occasion he declined to cover a twelve-thousand-dollar charge for a bathroom mat in the shape of an elephant. He felt that was a wee bit extravagant, and he made her return it.
MR. BURKE: I see. In any event, when Mr. Tannenbaum told you to go ahead and pay the bill for the insurance premium, what did you do?
MR. SMYTHE: I paid it.
MR. BURKE: And how did you do that?
MR. SMYTHE: I wrote out a check, signed Mrs.
Tannenbaum's name and sent it
off.
MR. BURKE: And the check you wrote out
and signed. Is that Defendant's
B in evidence?
MR. SMYTHE: It is.
And just like that, the last of Jaywalker's "suspects" was, for all intents and purposes, crossed off the list.
Burke had one remaining witness, and following a recess, he called her. Miranda Thomas was a dark-skinned woman in her thirties or forties, with a slight singsong lilt to her voice that suggested to Jaywalker that she might have been born in Jamaica. The Caribbean version, not the Queens one. She was employed as a custodian of records by the Equitable Life Insurance Company. Burke had her identify Defendant's A as an application for a term life in surance policy, submitted by Samara Tannenbaum on the life of her husband, Barrington Tannenbaum, in the amount of twenty-five million dollars. Next he had her identify Defendant's B as the twenty-seven-thousand-dollar check that represented the initial—and, as it turned out, the only—premium paid toward the policy. Then he handed her an original of the policy itself and had it introduced as People's 10 in evidence. It seemed to Jaywalker that Burke derived great satisfaction from finally being allowed to get one of his own documents received as a prosecution exhibit.
MR. BURKE: You used the phrase "term" a
moment ago. What is a term life
insurance policy?
MS. THOMAS: A term policy continues in ef
fect for a stated period of time. During that period,
or term, as well as during any subsequent renewal pe
riods, a term policy pays off in case of death. But un
like a whole life policy, a term policy builds no
equity. Hence, it has no cash value or value that can
be borrowed against. At the end of the term, unless
renewed, it has no worth.
MR. BURKE: What was the term of this par
ticular policy?
MS. THOMAS: Six months.
MR. BURKE: Is that a normal period for a life
insurance policy?
MS. THOMAS: No. A year is much more com mon. But we'll issue a six-month policy if asked to, under certain conditions.
MR. BURKE: What sorts of conditions?
MS. THOMAS: People occasionally take out a short-term policy when they're going to be traveling abroad or engaging in some dangerous occupation. If you were going up in a space shuttle, for example, you might want a policy of that sort.
MR. BURKE: As far as you know, was Mr. Tannenbaum planning on going into space?
MS. THOMAS: Not so far as I know.
MR. BURKE: Are you by any chance familiar
with the date of Mr. Tannen
baum's death?
MS. THOMAS: Yes, I have it right here in my notes.
MR. BURKE: How long before Mr. Tannen
baum's death was this policy
first applied for?
MS. THOMAS: Let me see. Thirty-three days.
MR. BURKE: And paid for?
MS. THOMAS: Twenty-seven days.
MR. BURKE: And issued?
MS. THOMAS: Twenty-two days. Though by regulation, it would have related back to the date the check was put in the mail and postmarked. So in that respect, twenty-seven days, again.
MR. BURKE: Do you know if Mr. Tannen baum was required to undergo a medical examina tion before this policy was issued?
MS. THOMAS: No, he would not have been.
MR. BURKE: Why not?
MS. THOMAS: Because the policy was written with certain exclusions, so as to exempt death from any specified pre-existing medical conditions.As you can see from the application, several of those are typed in under the medical history section. Specifically, had Mr. Tannenbaum died from either cancer or heart dis ease, the policy would not have paid off.
MR. BURKE: Wouldn't you consider those
pretty major exclusions?
MR. JAYWALKER: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. BURKE: Had Mr. Tannenbaum not died during the term of the policy, and had Mrs. Tannen baum elected to renew it for succeeding terms, would the premium have remained the same?
MS. THOMAS: No. As Mr. Tannenbaum got
older, the premium would have increased with each renewal, eventually becoming prohibitively expensive.
MR. BURKE: So as a long-term investment,
how much sense does this sort
of policy make?
MS. THOMAS: No sense at all, really. It only makes sense if you're afraid the individual is likely to die very soon.
MR. BURKE: But not of cancer.
MS. THOMAS: Correct.
The Tenth Case Page 23