Forman v. United States

361 U.S. 416, 80 S. Ct. 481, 4 L. Ed. 2d 412, 1960 U.S. LEXIS 2018, 5 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 808
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedFebruary 23, 1960
Docket43
StatusPublished
Cited by238 cases

This text of 361 U.S. 416 (Forman v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forman v. United States, 361 U.S. 416, 80 S. Ct. 481, 4 L. Ed. 2d 412, 1960 U.S. LEXIS 2018, 5 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 808 (1960).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Clark

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this criminal conspiracy case, petitioner raises questions of double jeopardy. Petitioner and one Seijas, his former partner in the pinball business, were convicted1 of conspiracy to commit the offense of willfully attempting to evade the individual income taxes of Seijas and his wife, in violation of § 145 (b) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1939,2 and of furnishing false books, records, and financial statements. to officers and employees of the Treasury Department for the purpose of Concealing the true income tax liabilities of Seijas and his wife, in violation of 18 U. S. C. § 1001.3 The trial was prior to our [418]*418decision in Grunewald v. United States, 353 U. S. 391 (1957). The petitioner requested, and the trial judge included in his charge, language similar to that given in the charge in the Grünewald prosecution directing that petitioner should be acquitted unless the jury found that the partners entered into a subsidiary conspiracy, continuing to within six years of the indictment, to conceal their conspiracy to attempt to evade Seijas’ and his wife’s taxes, At the time of the appeal, our Grünewald opinion had come down. Citing Grünewald, the Court of Appeals reversed petitioner’s conviction and remanded the case with instructions to enter a judgment of acquittal. 259 F. 2d 128. On''rehearing, however, the Court of Appeals decided that “the case might have been tried” on an “alternative theory,” namely, that “certain of the overt acts listed in the indictment and charged to have occurred in 1948, 1951 and 1952, involving false statements, could well have been in furtherance of and during a conspiracy, having as its objective not the concealment of the conspirators’ conspiracy but tax evasion.” 261 F. 2d 181, 183. If modified its original order for an acquittal and ¿ntered one directing a new trial. Petitioner then contended that having once ordered his acquittal, the Court of Appeals, by directing a new trial, violated the command of the Fifth Amendment that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” Petitioner’s motion for rehearing was denied. 264 F. 2d 955. We granted certiorari. 359 U. S. 982. We affirm the order directing a new trial.

The facts are detailed in the original opinion of - the Court of Appeals, 259 F. 2d 128, and it is sufficient here merely to summarize them. In 1941 petitioner and Seijas, a lawyer, formed a partnership to engage in the operation of pinball machines in Kitsap County, Washington. Receipts, less expenses, from the individual machines, were to be divided equally between the partners [419]*419and the location owners. Beginning in 1942 and continuing until • December 1945, however, the partners robbed the machines by extracting “holdout” money from those located at the more profitable locations. These sums, without being split with the location owners, were divided between the partners. None of these amounts were entered on the books of the partnership, nor were they included in its tax returns. Seijas maintained diaries and kept a record of the amount of “holdout” income that he received, but he paid no tax on it. During this period, tax returns omitting the “holdout” income were filed each year. The Court of Appeals found that “there was abundant proof” of petitioner’s participation in a conspiracy to “evade Seijas’ income taxes for the years 1942 through 1945” through concealment of the “holdout” income during that period. It also found that “numerous false statements” were made by both Forman and Seijas in furtherance of. this conspiracy and within the six-year period immediately prior to the indictment. The record shows, as the Court of Appeals indicated, that the concealment of the “holdout” income continued until soon before the indictment, at which time Seijas' turned over to the agents his diaries covering the receipt of this income for the years 1942-1945. The Court of Appeals, on the original submission, however, found that the case was submitted to the jury on the theory of Grünewald as expounded in 233 F. 2d 556, namely, that a subsidiary conspiracy to conceal the main conspiracy to attempt to evade Seijas’ tax may be implied from circumstantial evidence showing that the latter conspiracy was kept a secret. This subsidiary conspiracy would make the prosecution timely under the applicable statute of limitations. But the Court of Appeals pointed out that the reversal of that case by this Court soon after the trial of petitioner gave it “an advantage . . . that the trial court did not have” and required the conviction to be reversed and the [420]*420case' remanded “with directions to enter judgment for the appellant” Forman.

On rehearing,4- as here, the Government contended that the essence of the conspiracy charged in the indictment filed November 19, 1953, was. to evade the tax on the “holdout” income and that at least five overt acts were committed within six years of the return of the indictment for the purpose of furthering that conspiracy to evade. Contrary to what the trial court found, the Government said that the conspiracy did not end with the filing of the false income tax returns in the years 1943 through 1946, but embraced the subsequent efforts, made during the years 1947 through 1952, to evade those taxes. The only flaw in the record to the contrary, it claimed, was the erroneous “subsidiary conspiracy” instruction, which it now points out was injected therein by the petitioner himself. The Government concluded that the interests of justice required the entry of an order directing a new trial rather than a judgment of acquittal. Although finding that the Government conceded “that the case was submitted to the jury on an impermissible theory,” the Court of Appeals read the indictment as alleging that the conspiracy was one “ 'to .violate . . . § 145 (b) of the Internal Revenue Code . . . by furnishing officers and employees of the Revenue Department false books and records and false financial statements, and by making false statements to such officers and employees, for the purpose of concealing from the Treasury Department their share ' of the unreported [holdout]. income . . . and for the purpose of concealing . . the [421]*421true income tax liability of Amador A. Seijas.’ ” 261 F. 2d, at 182. It held that “the conspiracy continued past the filing of the returns” and “that certain of the overt acts listed in the indictment and charged to have occurred in . 1948,1951 and 1952, involving false statements, could well have been in furtherance of and during a conspiracy having for its objective not the concealment of the conspirators’ conspiracy but tax evasion.” Id., at 183. It, therefore, ' modified its opinion “so as to provide that the judgment is reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial!” Ibid. The petitioner then raised his plea of former jeopardy, which is the basis of his petition here. He says that the trial court correctly found that the conspiracy ended with the fifing of the last false income tax return in 1946.. Since there was no direct evidence of the existence of a subsidiary conspiracy to conceal the crime of attempting to evade, the trial court, he concludes, should have sustained his motion to acquit, on that ground.

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Bluebook (online)
361 U.S. 416, 80 S. Ct. 481, 4 L. Ed. 2d 412, 1960 U.S. LEXIS 2018, 5 A.F.T.R.2d (RIA) 808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forman-v-united-states-scotus-1960.