People v. Schainuck

The defendants, father and son, appeal from a judgment convicting them of arson. The charge is that they set fire to a stock of men’s clothing which was owned by a corporation controlled by them. The fire was in a store in Jamaica, Long Island, leased by the corporation and due to open the following day as one of the corporation’s chain of similar shops. Substantially all the proof on which the conviction rests came from the prosecution witnesses Tunick and Leibson who were employees of the corporation at the time of the fire but were later discharged from that employment. Neither testified…