Huffman v. United States

259 F. 35, 170 C.C.A. 35, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 1591
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 28, 1919
DocketNo. 5165
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 259 F. 35 (Huffman 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
Huffman v. United States, 259 F. 35, 170 C.C.A. 35, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 1591 (8th Cir. 1919).

Opinions

ELLIOTT, District Judge.

The plaintiff in error was charged with a violation of the act of Congress of June 25, 1910, known as the Mann Act (36 Stat. 825, c. 395 [Comp. St. §■§ 8812-8819]), in an indictment containing four counts. Upon a plea of “not guilty” and a trial, a verdict of “guilty” was returned upon the first count of the indictment, and “not guilty” upon the remaining three counts. Motions for a new trial and in arrest of judgment were denied, and the defendant duly sentenced.

[1] Notwithstanding no demurrer was filed, and no objection in any manner made to the form of the indictment, the first objection that is now urged by plaintiff in error is the insufficiency of the indictment, in that—

“The indictment does 'not allege that Gladys Overlander was transported in interstate commerce.”

He predicates this contention in his brief upon the statement that— “Count first of the indictment, in the case at bar, is based upon the second clause of the second section of the Mann Act.”

This is clearly an erroneous assumption. Count 1 of the indictment is based on the first clause of section 2 of the act of June 25, 1910. This first clause of said section of said act, in so far as it is material to said first count, is as follows:

“Any person who shall knowingly * * * cause to he transported * * . * in interstate * *" * commerce * * * any woman or girl * * * with the intent and purpose to induce, entice, or compel such woman * * » to engage in any other immoral practice, * * * ” shall be deemed guilty, etc.

This count in the indictment follows the language of the statute, fixes the date of the offense as April 11, 1917, the place as the city of East Palestine, in the county of Columbiana, in the state of Ohio, and in the language of the statute alleges that he—

“did * * * cause a certain girl, namely, Gladys M. Overlander, to be transported in interstate commerce from said city of East Palestine, in the state of Ohio, to the city and county of Denver, in the state and district of Colorado.”

The second clause of said section 2 of said act specifically refers to procuring or obtaining tickets to be used by any woman or girl in interstate commerce, etc., and to that clause is added the words, [37]*37“whereby any such woman or girl shall be transported in interstate or foreign commerce,” etc. Clearly it is not the intent and purpose to justify a conviction of an offense under the second clause of the second section of the act by simply showing the procuring of the tickets or other transportation, or the furnishing of the money to buy the same, to be used by any woman or girl in interstate commerce; but it must, further appear, under that clause, that the woman, for whom such tickets or transportation was furnished, was actually transported in interstate or foreign commerce, under such ticket, and for the purposes named in the act. We think the phrase, “whereby any such woman or girl shall be transported in interstate commerce,” as used in the second clause of said section 2 of the act, in no wise modifies or is intended to be a part of the description of the offenses named in the first clause of said section 2.

This offense is statutory, and we must look to the language of the statute for the ingredients of the offense. The said first count of the indictment in the case at bar charges the offense in the language of the statute, and is therefore sufficient. U. S. v. Gooding, 12 Wheat. 460, 6 L. Ed. 693; Potter v. U. S., 155 U. S. 438, 15 Sup. Ct. 144, 39 L. Ed. 214; Burton v. U. S., 202 U. S. 344, 26 Sup. Ct. 688, 50 L. Ed. 1057, 6 Ann. Cas. 392.

We think the count in question contained every element of the offense intended to be charged; that it was sufficient to notify the defendant of what he was charged with, and therefore what he must be prepared to meet; and upon its face accurately revealed to what extent an acquittal or conviction upon that count of the indictment might be pleaded, in the event of other proceedings for the same or a similar offense. Cochran v. U. S., 157 U. S. 286, 15 Sup. Ct. 628, 39 L. Ed. 704.

[2] The second contention of the plaintiff in error is that the evidence was not sufficient to justify the verdict. The record discloses that at the close of the government’s case the defendant moved for a directed verdict of “not guilty,” on the ground that the evidence failed to support the allegations of said first count, but this motion was overruled.

This motion was not renewed at the close of the defendant’s case, and there was therefore no ruling of the trial court upon which such an assignment could be based. Defendant’s failure to renew his motion at the close of all of the evidence waived this question, and there was no exception to the charge of the court. There is therefore really nothing to be considered, except the last contention of the plaintiff in error.

[3] However, as both parties argued the question, it is within the sound discretion of this court to notice the claim of counsel for plaintiff in error that there was no evidence to sustain the verdict of “guilty,” although the question was not raised in the trial court. Doe v. U. S., 253 Fed. 903, - C. C. A. -, and cases there cited.

Plaintiff in error seems to place some emphasis upon the language of the indictment, that the defendant “did * * * cause a cer[38]*38tain girl, namely, Gladys M. Overlander, to be transported,” etc., and to attribute to the word “cause” a meaning out of the ordinary.

Eor the purpose of a construction of this statute, it would seem that Webster’s definition, “to cause a thing is to effect it as an agent; to bring it about” — is sufficient, and therefore, in the determination of the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the verdict, the question becomes one of whether or not under all the testimony, with the reasonable inferences that the jury might logically and reasonably draw therefrom, there was sufficient to sustain this allegation of the indictment that the defendant “caused” the transportation of this girl in interstate commerce from the point named to Denver, Colo., for' the purpose therein set forth.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
259 F. 35, 170 C.C.A. 35, 1919 U.S. App. LEXIS 1591, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huffman-v-united-states-ca8-1919.