Foster v. United States

178 F. 165, 16 Ohio F. Dec. 444, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4487
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 5, 1910
DocketNo. 1,997
StatusPublished
Cited by48 cases

This text of 178 F. 165 (Foster v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster v. United States, 178 F. 165, 16 Ohio F. Dec. 444, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4487 (6th Cir. 1910).

Opinion

KNAPPEN, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The proposition which first claims attention is that the second and third counts should have been squashed as fatally defective. The specific criticism is that the language, “in and for executing the scheme and artifice to defraud set out in the first count [of the indictment], which statement is hereby made a part of this second count of this indictment,” is insufficient to incorporate into the subsequent counts the allegation that the defendants actually devised the scheme to defraud set out in the first count; the argument being that the wbrd “statement” relates only to the description of the scheme with the first count alleges was devised by. the defendants, and does not embrace the allegation contained in the first count, that defendants actually devised that scheme. In our opinion, the criticism is without substantial merit. It is true that the elements of the offense which must be charged in an indictment under the section in question and established in the proof are (1) that the defendants devised a scheme or artifice to defraud; (2) that they intended to effect this scheme through the use of the post office establishment of the United States; and (3) that in carrying [171]*171out such scheme the defendants either deposited a letter or packet in the post office, or took or received one therefrom. Stokes v. United States, 157 U. S. 187, 15 Sup. Ct. 617, 39 L. Ed. 667; Horman v. United States, 116 Fed. 350, 53 C. C. A. 570. And the rule is fundamental that no essential element of the crime, intended to he charged can be omitted without destroying the whole pleading. United States v. Hess, 124 U. S. 483, 8 Sup. Ct. 57 1, 31 L. Ed. 516.

It is not, however, urged, and could not be successfully contended, that it is necessary to set out in full in each count of the indictment matter contained in a previous count. One count in an indictment may properly refer to matter in a previous count, so as to' avoid unnecessary repetition; and if a previous count be defective, or is rejected, that circumstance will not vitiate the remaining counts, if the reference be sufficiently full to incorporate the matter going before with that in the count in which the reference is made. Crain v. United States, 162 U. S. 625, 16 Sup. Ct. 952, 40 L. Ed. 1097; Blitz v. United States, 153 U. S. 308, 14 Sup. Ct. 921, 38 L. Ed. 725. We think the definition of the word “statement” contended for by defendants is too narrow'. The only scheme to defraud set out in the first count of the indictment is a scheme entered into by fie defendants; and that portion of the first count which defendants counsel seem to regard as the “statement” expressly alleges in its opening paragraph, and repeatedly thereafter, that the defendants intended to do the alleged fraudulent acts constituting the scheme in question. Moreover, one cannot he indicted under the statute in question for using the mails in furtherance of a scheme to defraud not devised or participated in by him. In view of these considerations, the defendants could not have failed to understand, from the reference contained in the second and third counts, that they were charged with having devised the scheme set out in the first count, and so could not have been misled. In our opinion the trial judge rightly overruled the motions to quash.

It is urged that the second and third counts of the indictment should have been quashed because, even when taking into consideration the first count, which is incorporated by reference into the second and third counts, the indictment is lacking in sufficient particularity, and so uncertain in averment, and so involved in immaterial and redundant allegations, as to fail to reasonabty advise the defendants of the charges they are called upon to meet. It is the unquestioned rule that au indictment must describe the alleged scheme to defraud with such certainty as to clearly inform the defendants of the charge made against them, and thus of the nature of the evidence to be produced in proof of the execution of the scheme. Stewart v. United States, 119 Fed. 89, 94, 55 C. C. A. 641. But an indictment which states the essential elements of the offense with such reasonable particularity as will advise the defendants with reasonable certainty of the nature of the accusation, and tints enable them to prepare their defense, is sufficient. Brown v. United States, 143 Fed. 60, 74 C. C. A. 214. The object of criminal proceedings is to convict the guilty, as well as to shield the innocent, and no impracticable standards of particularity should he set up whereby the government may be entrapped into mak[172]*172•ing allegations which it would be impossible to prove. Evans v. United States, 153 U. S. 584, 590, 14 Sup. Ct. 934, 38 L. Ed. 830; O’Hara v. United States, 129 Fed. 551, 554, 64 C. C. A. 81.

Tested by these rules the indictment is not, in our opinion, subject to the criticisms we are considering. The argument that the allegations of fraud are shown to be based on inferences drawn from the trade letterheads of Foster & Co., appearing upon the “Review and Forecast,” and upon the “Daily Statement,” lacks sufficient foundation. While the publications referred to are made the basis of certain allegations and inferences, the indictment contains otherwise sufficiently direct allegations to apprise the defendants of the nature of the scheme, and that the defendants were charged in the indictment to have intended to falsely represent and induce the belief that the defendants were engaged in a legitimate brokerage business, actually buying and selling on exchange, and to procure money upon such representations and belief, and to appropriate the moneys so obtained not only bjr their employment in bucket shop transactions, as distinguished from a legitimate business of buying and selling, but also through actual fraud in the conducting of the bucket shop operations.

Presumably in support of the proposition that a verdict of acquittal should have been directed, it is urged that there was no proof that defendánts had devised a fraudulent scheme, or that any one was in fact defrauded; that no one testified that he was solicited or induced by defendants’ advertisements to do business with defendants; that the conducting of a bucket shop, while forbidden by the Ohio statutes, is not of itself a fraudulent scheme within the federal statute; and that the letters deposited in the mail did not contain fraudulent representations. It is accordingly urged that defendants were convicted merely because they were engaged in a business condemned by the statutes of Ohio, and not because of proofs sufficient to convict them of the crime charged.

It is true that the conducting of a bucket shop is not necessarily a fraudulent scheme within the federal statute in question; but the act under which the defendants are indicted is aimed at every scheme (to be effected by the use of the post office establishment) which is in fact designed to defraud, by representations as to the past or present, or suggestions and promises as to the future. It was enacted to protect the public against all intentional efforts to despoil through the medium of the post office establishment. Durland v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
178 F. 165, 16 Ohio F. Dec. 444, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-united-states-ca6-1910.