Fain v. United States

209 F. 525, 126 C.C.A. 347, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1808
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedDecember 4, 1913
DocketNos. 3,797, 3,798
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 209 F. 525 (Fain 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
Fain v. United States, 209 F. 525, 126 C.C.A. 347, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1808 (8th Cir. 1913).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

[1] The defendants below, Rain and Baker, were convicted of conspiracy to induce persons to make false entries on public lands, to procure and to hold for sale for their own profit relinquishments by homestead entrymen, and to make and cause to be made false and pretended contests of homestead entries for the purpose of preventing the lands covered by them from being entered by other qualified entrymen until they could sell their relinquishments for their own benefit; in violation of section 5440, Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3676). That section reads in this way:

“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 purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy all the parties to such conspiracy shall be liable to a penalty,” etc.

The defendants specify as error the admission and the denial of a motion at the close of the trial to strike out evidence of the following acts which were pleaded in the indictment as overt acts committed to accomplish the object of the conspiracy.

It was .established by the evidence, and is conceded, that Kammerer, Strunk, and Rogers made honest and valid homestead entries of their respective tracts of land. If a view of the evidence challenged by the objection and motion now under consideration most favorable to the United States be taken, it goes no further than to tend to show' that in September, 1909, the defendants purchased the relinquishments of these homesteaders; that in October, 1909, Baker instituted a contest against Kammerer on the grounds that he had offered his, relinquishment for sale, and had sold it to one Smith, when the fact was that he had not sold it to Smith, but had sold it to defendants, and that he had abandoned bis homestead for more than six months; that Kammerer’s relinquishment was not filed until November 3, 1909, when Baker withdrew his contest and Rrnest C. Collier, to whom Kammerer’s relinquishment had been sold, entered the land as his homestead; that on September 7, 1909, Rain filed an affidavit of contest against Strunk on the ground that he had offered his relinquishment for sale, and had sold it to one Dennis Y. Hennold, when the fact was that he had not sold it to Hennold; that two other contests of Strunk’s claim were filed on September 7, 1909; that on October 14, 1909, Rain filed an amended affidavit to the effect that Strunk had abandoned his homestead for more than six months; that five junior contests for this tract of land were subsequently instituted; that the relinquishment of Strunk has. never been filed, and Rain’s contest'is still pending; that on October 25, 1909, the defendants caused K. T. Coffey to file an affidavit of contest of Rogers’ entry, on the ground that he had abandoned his tract for more than six months, and Rogers’ relinquishment was never filed.

How did these acts of the defendants tend “to effect the object of the conspiracy,” how did they tend to “defraud the United States ?” Counsel for the government answer:

[528]*528“Tlie entries of Karomerer, Rogers, and Strunk took the land temporarily from the public domain and placed it beyond the reach of other entrymen, and it retained that status as to the other entrymen and as to the United States until the relinquishments were filed, or until the contests were terminated one way or the other, and if these defendants purchased the relinquishments and withheld them from the records, and in the meantime covered the records with contests, they thereby kept the land out of the public domain and beyond the reach of other entrymen, and in that way interfered with the due administration of the law and worked a fraud upon the government. This is the theory of this case.”

And in support of this theory counsel cite and rely upon the authorities which have sustained prosecutions for conspiracies to defraud the commission into the acceptance of candidates for positions by forging vouchers, and by false impersonations at the civil service examinations, and upon other cases of that class. United States v. Plyler, 222 U. S. 15, 32 Sup. Ct. 6, 56 L. Ed. 70; Curley v. United States, 130 Fed. 1, 11, 12, 64 C. C. A. 369-380; United States v. Bunting (D. C.) 82 Fed. 883; Haas v. Henkel, 216 U. S. 462, 479, 30 Sup. Ct. 249, 54 L. Ed. 569, 17 Ann. Cas. 1112; United States v. Moore (C. C.) 173 Fed. 122, 124-131; McGregor v. United States, 134 Fed. 187, 195, 69 C. C.A. 477, 485.

The preliminary homestead entries of Kammerer, Strunk, and Rogers segregated the lands they entered from the public domain, and withheld them from entries by others until their entries should be canceled of record in the land office. James v. Germania Iron Co., 107 Fed. 597, 603, 46 C. C. A. 476, 482; Hartman v. Warren, 76 Fed. 157, 160, 22 C. C. A. 30, 33.

These entries gave to them the right to the use and occupation of the land so long as they remained of record in that office. Stearns v. United States, 152 Fed. 900, 906, 82 C. C. A. 48, 54; United States v. Turner (C. C.) 54 Fed. 228; Bentley v. Bartlett, 15 Land Dec. Dept. Int. 179; St. Paul, M. &.M. R. R. Co. v. Forseth, 3 Land Dec. Dept. Int. 446. Hence no claim is made, and none could be sustained if made, that any of the acts of the defendants in reference to them tended to deprive the United States of the use or possession of the land, or in any way to defraud it out of anything of pecuniary value. The' attempt to sustain the introduction of the evidence regarding these acts is founded on the theory that they “interfere with the due administration of the law,” and thereby “work a fraud upon the government.” But the chief object of the due administration of the law is to protect every one in his person, his lawful business, and his_ property, and to secure to him an opportunity, without fear or favor, and without criminal prosecution, to litigate his personal and property claims before impartial tribunals and officers, to receive from them full and patient hearings and just decisions and those who present their claims, even though they are not sustained, to such tribunals or officers are not liable to criminal prosecutions, even though the administration of justice is interfered with and delayed by the use of the time required to adjudge them.

When the defendants bought these relinquishments the lands to which they relate, their use and occupation, were withheld by the entry-[529]*529men from entry and possession by others until their entries should be canceled on the records of the land office. The Act of May 14, 1880, c. 89, 21 Stat. 140 (U. S. Comp. St 1901, p. 1392), provided that the entry of each of these homesteaders might be canceled, and the land he had entered might be opened to settlement and entry again (1) upon his filing a written relinquishment of his claim in the local land office, and (2) upon a successful contest of his claim by any person, and that the successful contestant, in the cqse of such a contest, should have thd right to enter the land in preference to others for 30 days after he received notice of the cancellation of the entry.

These homesteaders had made their entries in April, 1909, under Act March 2, 1907, c. 2536, 34 Stat.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
209 F. 525, 126 C.C.A. 347, 1913 U.S. App. LEXIS 1808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fain-v-united-states-ca8-1913.