Beck v. United States

33 F.2d 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2674
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1929
Docket7993
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 33 F.2d 107 (Beck v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beck v. United States, 33 F.2d 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2674 (8th Cir. 1929).

Opinion

MeDERMOTT, District Judge.

The plaintiff in error (hereafter called the defendant) was a real estate operator in St. Louis, of good character and standing. He conceived the idea of building houses for those desiring homes, letting the purchaser select his lot and general plan of his house. The idea consisted of doing this in. a wholesale way; employing a staff of competent architects working on a salary instead of a percentage; employing competent builders to supervise the construction, on a salary instead of a percentage; eliminating subcontractors’ profits by direct installation; purchasing materials in wholesale quantities instead of at retail. He believed such a plan would eliminate a considerable part of the duplicated percentage profits encountered by the man who builds on his own, and save a part, at least, of the retail materialman’s profit; a saving whieh could be divided between him and his clients. The plan is in use by many companies, sometimes affiliated with building and loan associations. The client was to advance 10 per cent, or more of the estimated cost; 60 per cent, could be financed through insurance companies or almost any ■financial channel; the balance to be carried on a second mortgage, for whieh the market is more limited.

For such purposes he formed a corporation, called the Federal Home Building Corporation, of $25,000 authorized capital. Beck was the president, and one Edward J. Barrett was .first a salesman, later sales manager, and then general manager. When the spring opened in 1923, the campaign was launched; advertisements were carried in the St. Louis papers, and salesmen employed. The response was immediate, and, in fact, overwhelming. By late July about 355 contracts had been .entered into; about $266,000 was advanced by .contract holders; construction of 47 houses was. Under way, and two of them were practically complete; others were in the course of settling the plans and specifications. It appears that mortgages cannot be floated until the roof is on, and there is no evidence that money, in any appreciable degree at least, had started coining in from the proposed financing, although many of the houses were rapidly approaching the stage when mortgages could be floated. A force of ten or more architects and draftsmen were busily engaged; the labor payroll had reached $9,000 a week; much material had been purchased and paid for. Without any preliminary warning, a contract holder applied for and obtained a receiver; nothing much was salvaged, and the contract holders lost heavily.

In April and May certain letters, set out in the indictment, and purporting to be signed by Barrett, were received through the mail by contract holders. These letters are in themselves inoffensive, notifying a contract holder of acceptance of his contract, or calling for a payment, or making an appointment. Beck turned over to the receiver, from his personal funds, $10,000 in cash for the purpose of an audit; turned over to voluntary trustees for the contract holders trust deeds of a face value of about $43,000, and his equity in certain real estate valued by him at more than $100,000. There was dissension among the contract holders; the deeds of 'trust were sold by the trustees at a 20 per cent, discount, and the $32,000 cash received is not clearly accounted for, unless it was applied on mortgages on the real estate turned over, whieh the- trustees now say is worse than worthless. At any rate, the $43,000 of securities is gone, whieh perhaps accounts for the dissension.

In December, 1925, the defendant, Barrett, and four others were indieted under section 215 of the Penal Code (18 USCA § 338) for wrongful use of the mails. There were two trials. On the first trial, the defendants other than Beck and Barrett were dismissed out of the ease; the jury convicted Barrett, and disagreed as to Beck. Beck was convicted on the second trial; was sentenced to three years in the federal penitentiary and to pay a fine of $1,000. This appeal follows.

Various assignments of error are urged, the principal ones of which will be discussed. One of them challenges the sufficiency of the proof. Knowing that this would require an examination of the entire record of this ten days’ trial, counsel have made no effort to lighten the labors of the court by a narrative statement of the evidence, although the mat *109 ter has been called to the attention of the bar many times. Stunz v. U. S. (C. C. A.) 27 F.(2d) 575; Marr v. U. S. (C. C. A.) 8 F.(2d) 231. The ease at bar is peculiarly aggravated. A great many contracts were introduced in evidence; counsel must have known they were identical, except as to name and amount; but this court did not know it, and must read the same contract again and again, all printed in full; long leases for office rooms are copied verbatim, although only the dates and amounts are important. An auditor was put on the stand to show the total receipts of the company, the totals expended in construction, in commissions, in salaries, in advertising, etc. Yet 88 printed pages of cross-examination, as to $5 checks and the like, are in the record, to say nothing of pages of bank records and checks read into the record and not even listed. The court’s admonitions to the jury on each separation are carefully preserved for our judicial review, although no error is predicated thereon. If in this garbled mass of irrelevant detail there should be a kernel of fact overlooked by the court, counsel are not in position to complain. Such practice is a totally unnecessary drain on the resources of the client who pays the bills. To counsel who may be interested, reference is made to Barber Asphalt Paving Co. v. Standard Asphalt & Rubber Co., 275 U. S. 373, 48 S. Ct. 183, 72 L. Ed. 318, where the court ordered a new transcript printed, and assessed the offending attorneys $5,009 for their error; and to Fairbanks, Morse & Co. v. American Valve & Meter Co., 276 U. S. 305, 48 S. Ct. 317, 72 L. Ed. 737.

1. The Indictment. The indictment was originally in ten counts. The first count set out a scheme to obtain money by false pretenses; counts 2 to 9 set out the mailing of the letters, incorporating the allegations of the first count by reference; the tenth count charges a conspiracy to violate section 215, incorporating by reference the allegations of the first count.

The tenth count was dismissed before submission to the jury on the first trial. Eight of the remaining counts allege the mailing of the letters; incorporate by reference the averments of the first count; and allege that such letters were mailed for the purpose of executing the scheme set out in the first count. We turn then to the first count to find the charge relied upon.

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Bluebook (online)
33 F.2d 107, 1929 U.S. App. LEXIS 2674, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beck-v-united-states-ca8-1929.