Donald M. Wollam v. United States

244 F.2d 212, 1957 U.S. App. LEXIS 3074
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMay 2, 1957
Docket14744_1
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 244 F.2d 212 (Donald M. Wollam 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
Donald M. Wollam v. United States, 244 F.2d 212, 1957 U.S. App. LEXIS 3074 (9th Cir. 1957).

Opinion

CHAMBERS, Circuit Judge.

This case is a companion of Simpson v. United States, 9 Cir., 241 F.2d 222.

Here Donald M. Wollam was a witness before the same Congressional subcommittee (before which Simpson appeared) conducting an investigation on June 19, 1954, and he refused to answer the following questions:

1. Mr. Wollam, what is your present address, sir?

2. Now, Mr. Wollam, what is your present employment?

3. Did you ever attend elementary school; and if so, where?

4. Did you ever attend high school, Mr. Wollam?

5. Now, did you ever attend college, Mr. Wollam?

Various grounds were variously stated by Wollam for the refusal to answer which he made. None was later relied on except the claim that an answer might, tend to incriminate. It is asserted that he was protected by the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution, the safety of which he claimed.

Indictment with a count for each refusal followed on December 1, 1954. Trial by jury and conviction on each count followed on January 19, 1955. Identical concurrent prison sentences were imposed on each count. In addi *214 tion, there was a fine of $250 levied on the first count.

As we said in Simpson, if the conviction is valid on the first count, we need not examine the other four counts. In our opinion, the judgment is correct on the first count.

The approach of the appeals in Wollam and MaeKenzie varies in some detail from that presented in Simpson; thus, this second opinion.

Appellants contend that the indictment did not plead or prove the pertinency of the questions. Where the question (Mr. Wollam, what is your present address, sir ?) is obviously simply one of identification of the witness the pertinency is not obscure. If the witness had been asked if he was familiar with some dolphin in the Willamette River, then an explanation of its pertinency might be required in the indictment. Details of the dolphin’s relevance should follow in the proof.

It is argued that it is not evident from any testimony what relevance defendant’s address had to the purpose of the investigation. Testimony of any kind must be laid stone on stone. The first relevant point is: Who is the witness, anyway? Certainly the test of per-tinency is not whether the question itself was in the ultimate area of investigation: Communist activities in the Pacific Northwest states. It is pertinent if the question is a usual and necessary stone in the arch of a bridge over which an investigation must go.

We next come to the problem of whether defendant was insulated by the Fifth Amendment from answering: “Mr. Wol-lam, what is your present address, sir ?”

-In Simpson we said that at the committee interrogation, or at least no later than his trial, the witness or his counsel must demonstrate how the question might be dangerous for him to answer ; i. e., lead to a disclosure which he had a right to protect against. Here on appeal counsel import by their own leave a committee hearing report containing the testimony of earlier witnesses who testified of Communist underground activities. These witnesses had testified that underground Communist members conceal their addresses, ages, jobs. Also, it was related that homes were used by Communists in the underground as “mail drops.” It is well settled since Sinclair v. United States, 279 U.S. 263, 49 S.Ct. 268, 73 L.Ed. 692, that the trial judge decides and tells the jury whether the defendant had a right to claim the privilege which he, the defendant, asserted. This background of testimony prior to Wollam’s appearance was never presented to the trial court by the defendant, although he, Wollam, had abundant opportunity to do so. Strange indeed would it be if we were to receive the evidence offered for the first time here and find it justified the defendant’s refusal to answer. This court reviews the trial court’s record. Able counsel for the defendant know this. We, therefore, do not consider this collateral record tendered us, other than to decide we should not consider it. 1

Under the historical development of the privilege against self incrimination, it is only in direct defense of a crime that a defendant does not have to be sworn (or affirm) and take the stand. 2 If within the territorial limits of jurisdiction, a witness must respond to a subpoena and take the stand for *215 grand jury and congressional investigations. We assume that he must state his name. Ordinarily we would think that he should identify himself sufficiently to distinguish himself from all the other David Wollams.

Some accommodation must be made to the subpoena power. Suppose five David Wollams were subpoenaed. Suppose each refused to state where he lived on the ground it might tend to incriminate. We don’t think a committee ordinarily has to stand for that.

We do not hold that there can never be a case where a witness cannot refuse to state his residence. We do think that a factor to be considered in determining privilege is that it is a rare, rare case where disclosure of address would lead to incrimination. If the case on trial is such a case where address might tend to lead to incrimination, it ought to be pointed out how somewhere before the case goes to the jury, or the possibility should appear to the trial court in the record it had. It was absent here.

Defendant complains that the indictment failed to allege that the refusal was willful. The charging part of the indictment was identical with Simpson’s. What we said there on this point, we adhere to now. We are satisfied that the question of defendant’s intentional refusal to answer was properly submitted to the jury. Also, the instructions are amply adequate.

It is claimed that under Quinn v. United States, 349 U.S. 155, 75 S.Ct. 668, 99 L.Ed. 964, and Emspak v. United States, 349 U.S. 190, 75 S.Ct. 687, 99 L.Ed. 997, and Fagerhaugh v. United States, 9 Cir., 232 F.2d 803, the committee chairman did not properly instruct the defendant to answer. These cases do not stand for the proposition that the last words on the subject of any question must be a demand that the witness answer. In our judgment adequate demand to ansv/er was made. This really must be tested by a fair reading of the record. Therefore, we add as an appendix the record as the trial court had it on what transpired at the congressional hearing with reference to Donald Wollam. 3 This appendix is also useful in examining the setting of the questions which Wollam refused to answer, as the trial court had the setting of the questions for study and examination.

We do not rest our decision on the next point.

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244 F.2d 212, 1957 U.S. App. LEXIS 3074, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/donald-m-wollam-v-united-states-ca9-1957.