Farmer v. United States

223 F. 903, 139 C.C.A. 341, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1809
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMay 12, 1915
DocketNos. 241-276
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 223 F. 903 (Farmer v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmer v. United States, 223 F. 903, 139 C.C.A. 341, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1809 (2d Cir. 1915).

Opinion

LACOMBE, Circuit Judge.

[1, 2] The indictment contained five counts; the fourth and fifth were dismissed with the consent of the government; we need consider only the first three. Counts 2 and 3 [907]*907charged a violation of section 215 of the Criminal Code. Count 1 charged a conspiracy (section 37) to commit a violation of that section (215). Under the first count, therefore, the government had to sustain a heavier burden of proof as to the intent of the conspirators than under the other two. Under 215 it is sufficient to show an intent on the part of the deviser or devisers of the scheme to defraud some one; it is no longer necessary t:o show an intent to use the mails to effect the scheme, as it was under section 5480, U. S. .Rev. Stat. The deviser of the scheme may, at the time he planned it, have intended to avoid all use of the mails in carrying it out; nevertheless if, in carrying it out, he does use the mails, the offense is committed. There are two elements of the crime, a scheme intended to defraud and an actual use of the mails; both, of course, must he proved to warrant conviction. When, however, the charge is conspiracy to commit the offense specified in section 215, it is necessary to prove an intent, not only to defraud, but also to defraud by the use of the mails. The draftsman of the indictment fully appreciated this; the first count charges an intent to use the mails as well as an intent to defraud.

[3, 4] Upon a careful examination of the record we are satisfied that the government failed to prove an intent by the conspirators named in the first count to use the mails to effect the scheme. Direct evidence of intent is rarely available; it may he shown by circumstances. Usually when the scheme is unfolded it is apparent that it could not he carried out without using the mails, and a jury is therefore warranted, without further proof, in drawing the inference that those who devised the scheme intended to use the mails. We do not find in this record sufficient to warrant the inference that on January 2, 1910, when the conspiracy was formed, the conspirators intended to use the mails. The scheme here revealed is markedly different from others which have been before the courts (mainly under old section 5480), where it was evident that the scheme could not he successfully carried out without using the mails. Thus in the old “green goods game,” no personal interview could be risked until, after an exchange of letters, it appeared that some individual was a person who might be safely trapped. When the scheme is to dispose of stock at inflated prices, advertisements have to he published calculated to bring inquiries by mail from many different places; in that way only can a sufficiently broad field be found for the dissemination of the securities. But in this scheme different tactics are required. Advertising in the hope of bringing responses from persons eager to pay $10,000 or $25,000 or $50,000 for a few books world he a waste of money. The only practical method is to find out by inquiry the names of persons likely to be fooled, and then to have them interviewed by one or more glib talkers and thus persuade them to buy through ingenious representations and the exhibition of letters, telegrams, newspaper dippings, samples, etc. When hooks in seis 'are bought, presumably they are sent by express, and the person who effected the sale personally takes the check that pays for them. Since inference is not enough to make out full intent under count 1, and there is no direct evidence of it, we think conviction under this count should he reversed.

Coming now to the conviction under counts 2 and 3.

[908]*908[5] Error is assigned to the admission of much of the documentary evidence on the ground that the letters, etc., were taken from defendant Farmer against his will in the violation of his constitutional rights. The facts are these: James J. Farmer was arrested November 14, 1912, and held to bail, which was at once furnished. He then went to his office, which was also the office of the corporation defendant, and- found some post office inspectors, who had a subpoena duces tecum calling for all papers, etc., and were threatening to remove them. A heated discussion followed, at the close of which a Mr. Weill, a lawyer who was present as Farmer’s legal adviser, asked the officers if they would give their word that, if the bags were sealed, they would not be opened until defendant Farmer should appear before the grand jury on November 15, 1912. The promise was given, the papers were put in the bags, the bags were sealed, and Weill went with the officers and the bags to Post Office Building, where the bags were deposited in an empty room. They remained in the custody of the government until the trial.

For the purposes of the present assignments of error, without discussing the question or considering the argument of the government as to the soundness of the two assumed propositions, it may be assumed :

1. That the officers exceeded their authority in removing the papers.

2. That the acts of defendant and his counsel (Weill) on the occasion of their removal did not operate as a waiver or estoppel to defeat defendant’s right to assert his constitutional privilege and to insist on their return.

The case of Weeks v. U. S., 232 U. S. 383, 34 Sup. Ct. 341, 58 L. Ed. 652, however, does not apply, because in that case defendant made “timely” application “in due season” for the return of his papers. In the case at bar no application for return was made for nearly two jre'ars, when upon a petition dated October 5, 1914, application was made to the trial judge on October 10, three days before the trial for such return. Thereupon “by consent of counsel for defendant and for the United States” the court directed that the papers should be “placed in the custody of the clerk of the court, and that defendant and his counsel should have access to said papers and full opportunity to read and inspect the same, and to make copies if desired.” This was done.

In the course of the trial defendant Farmer offered to prove that the papers were obtained from him involuntarily; he made no offer to prove that he had applied to any federal court for their return prior to the motion made in October, 1914. We think that defendant’s acquiescence in the disposition made of the papers by the court operated as a waiver of any right he might have had to ask for their return to him.

[6] It is contended that there was a failure of proof under the second and third counts, because the charge was that defendants devised a scheme to defraud divers persons, whose names were to the grand jury unknown. Defendants’ argument treats this as if these counts charged two schemes, one to defraud Mrs. Preston, the other to defraud Evans. They tried to introduce proof to show that when [909]*909the indictment was found the jury knew that both these persons had been defrauded; the testimony was excluded and exception reserved. The objection now urged may be disposed of on the assumption that the grand jury did know of the defrauding of these two persons in 1911 and 1912. The scheme charged in these counts was a general one, not directed to the defrauding of any particular individual then identified, but of any and all persons whom the devisers of the scheme might thereafter persuade to buy their books.

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Bluebook (online)
223 F. 903, 139 C.C.A. 341, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 1809, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmer-v-united-states-ca2-1915.