Blair v. United States

241 F. 217, 154 C.C.A. 137, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 19, 1917
DocketNo. 2688
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 241 F. 217 (Blair v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blair v. United States, 241 F. 217, 154 C.C.A. 137, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747 (9th Cir. 1917).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The indictment in question is based on sections 37 and 10 of the Criminal Code of the United States (Act March 4, 1909, c. 321, 35 Stat. 1088 [Comp. St. 1913, §§ 10201, 10174]), the former of which reads:

“If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United. States in any manner or for any [230]*230purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the- conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.” .

And the section which the defendants are charged with having conspired to violate, so far as here applicable, is as follows:

“Whoever, within the territory or jurisdiction of the United States, * * * hires'or retains another person, * * * to go beyond the limits or jurisdiction of the United States with intent to be enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign prince, state, colony, district, or people, as a soldier, or as a marine or seaman, on board of any vessel of war, * * w shall be fined not more than one thousand drollars and imprisoned not more than three years.”

[ 1 ] It is well settled that, when a case is submitted upon an agreed statement of facts, the sufficiency of the facts so agreed on to sustain the judgment entered may be reviewed on writ of error. United States v. Eliason, 16 Pet. 291, 300, 10 L. Ed. 968; Henderson’s Distilled Spirits, 14 Wall. 44, 53, 20 L. Ed. 815; Hipple v. Bates County, 223 Fed. 22, 138 C. C. A. 436. See, also, Kennedy v. Brent, 6 Cranch, 187, 3 L. Ed. 194; Brent v. Chapman, 5 Cranch, 358, 3 L. Ed. 125.

[2] The Constitution of the United States provides:

“The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have- directed.” Article 3, § 2.

And by the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution it is declared:

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.”

The constitutional right thus secured to one charged with crime means a trial by jury according to the course of the common law, which right cannot even be waived. Thompson v. Utah, 170 U. S. 343, 346, 349, 353, 18 Sup. Ct. 620, 42 L. Ed. 1061; Freeman v. United States, 227 Fed. 732, 142 C. C. A. 256. And in the case of Sparf and Hansen v. United States, 156 U. S. 51, 105, 15 Sup. Ct. 273, 294 (39 L. Ed. 343), the Supreme Court distinctly adjudged that:

' “It is not competent for the court, in a criminal case, to • instruct the jury peremptorily to find the accused guilty of the offense charged or of any criminal offense less than that charged.”

See, also, Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. United States, 172 Fed. 194, 96 C. C. A. 646, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 756; United States v. Taylor (C. C.) 11 Fed. 470.

Therefore the trial court in the present case had not the power to order the jury to. return a verdict of guilty, regardless of its own view respecting the proper conclusion to be drawn from the facts agreed upon. And a little consideration will show why this is necessarily so.

[231]*231As appears from the bill of exceptions, the entire case of the government was made to rest upon the statement of facts agreed upon in writing, signed by the attorneys of the respective parties and filed for record, respecting which the bill of exceptions expressly recites;

“The foregoing ‘Agreed Statement of Facts’ and the Exhibits A, B, O, D, E, F, and G thereto attached, constituted and was the whole and entire showing of fact made in the above-entitled cause; and no other showing of fact or facts, save and except said ‘Agreed Statement of Facts’ and said exhibits attached thereto, was presented in said cause to said court and jury, or either of them, and no testimony or evidence of any character or description, whether oral or written, was received by or placed before said court or jury in addition to the above-mentioned ‘Agreed Statement of Facts' and said exhibits thereto attached.”

It will he readily seen, not only from the stipulation itself, but from the foregoing declaration contained in the bill of exceptions, that there was no agreement between the parties in regard to any inference or deduction to be drawn from the actual facts agreed on. Obviously, all such inferences and deductions were left to be drawn, and only could be properly drawn, by the jury upon submission of the case to them, after opportunity of argument by the counsel of the respective parties. It might have been, and doubtless would have been, argued to the jury, as it is argued here to this court, that the agreed statement of facts wholly fails to show that the present plaintiffs in error, or, indeed, any of the defendants to the indictment, ever within the territory of the United States, conspired to “hire or retain,” or ever did “hire or retain,” any of the persons named in the indictment, or any other person or persons, to go beyond the limits and jurisdiction of the United States with the intent or purpose specified in the indictment. The defendants thereto might well have contended before the jury, as the plaintiffs in error do here, that what they did, as shown by the agreed statement of facts, was in effect to aid and assist the persons referred to in the indictment and in the agreed-statement of facts to go beyond the limits of the United States with the intent and for the purpose charged, and was in no respect the hiring and retaining them prohibited by the statute.

[3] Now it is thoroughly settled that agreed statements of fact rest upon the consent of the parties, and upon that only. Manifestly, therefore, it is not permissible to import into such a statement, by inference, deduction., or otherwise, anything not expressly stated as a fact. Pomeroy’s Lessee v. Bank of Indiana, 68 U. S. (1 Wall.) 592, 603, 17 L. Ed. 638; The Clara, 102 U. S. 200, 202, 26 L. Ed. 145; Old Colony R. R. Co. v. Wilder. 137 Mass. 536, 538; Friedman v. Jaffe, 206 Mass. 454, 92 N. E. 704; Vera v. Mercantile F. & M. Ins. Co., 216 Mass. 154, 103 N. E. 292; Texas Mexican Ry. Co. v. Scott, 60 Tex. Civ. App. 482, 129 S. W. 1170, 1178; Crandall v. Amador County, 20 Cal. 72, 74.

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Bluebook (online)
241 F. 217, 154 C.C.A. 137, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 1747, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blair-v-united-states-ca9-1917.