In re Carter

97 F. 496, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3317
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedOctober 20, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 97 F. 496 (In re Carter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Carter, 97 F. 496, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3317 (circtsdny 1899).

Opinion

LACOMBE, Circuit Judge.

The sentence of the court-martial, duly approved and confirmed, reads: “To be dismissed from the service of the United States; to suffer a fine of five thousand dollars; to be confined at hard labor, at such place as the proper authority may direct, for five years; and the crime, punishment, name, and place of abode of the accused to be published in and about the station and in the state from which the accused came or where he usually resides.” The contention of the relator is that, conceding that the court-martial had jurisdiction of the per[497]*497son of the accused and of the offenses charged, and conceding, further, the regularity of its proceedings and the propriety of its findings, it was without power to impose the four separate punishments of dismissal, line, imprisonment, and degradation (special publication of sentence), although it might have imposed either one of them. When application was made for the writ, it appeared that the first punishment (dismissal from the service of the United States) and the fourth (publication of sentence) had been carried out; and the relator contended that, having thus paid a penalty which the court had power to inflict, he could not be held to submit to another penalty, which the court had no power to add to the one already by it selected. Since the return was made the relator has also paid the fine, and, although that fact does not appear upon the face of the original papers, it has been discussed in the briefs of both sides, and is now embodied in a stipulation, thus completing the case.

If the relator’s premises be sound, viz. that punishments have been imposed in the aggregate, when the statute authorized their imposition only in the alternative, his conclusion is supported by high authority. Ex parte Lange, 18 Wall. 163. In that case it was held that when a court has imposed fine and imprisonment, where the statute only conferred power to punish by fine or imprisonment, and the fine has been paid, and the judgment of the court thus executed so as to be a full satisfaction of one of the alternative penalties of the law, the power of the court as to that offense is at an end. The important question in the case, therefore, is whether, under the statutes of the United States, the court-martial had the power, under its findings, to impose a sentence inflicting these four penalties.

The relator was tried upon four separate charges, namely: (1) Conspiring to defraud the United States, in violation of the sixtieth article of war. (2) Causing false and fraudulent claims to be made against the United States, in violation of the sixtieth article of war. (3) Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman, in violation of the sixty-first article of war. (4) Embezzlement, as defined in section 5488, Rev. St. U. S., in violation of the sixty-second article of war. He was found guilty of each of the four charges.

The sixty-first article of war provides that “any officer who shall be convicted of conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman shall be dismissed from the service.” This is a provision wholly independent of the other definitions of offenses in the statute. The same course of conduct may constitute an offense elsewhere provided for, and also may warrant a finding of guilty under the sixty-first. The one hundreth article of war provides that, “when an officer is dismissed from the service for cowardice or fraud, the sentence shall further direct that the crime, punishment, name and place of abode of the delinquent shall be published in the newspapers,” etc. This is a specific statutory penalty, which must inevitably follow the conviction, the court-martial being given no option-as to its infliction. It is plainly additional to the punish[498]*498ment imposed for the “cowardice or fraud” per se. It is understood that the relator does not now contend that his dismissal, and the publication of it, is sufficient ground for his discharge. What the relator does contend is that, having paid the fine, he is entitled to invoke the principle established in the Lange Case, on the theory that the court-martial had authority, under the sixtieth article, to impose only a fine or imprisonment, not to impose both. It is manifest that he is in no position to press this argument, unless he can dispose of the conviction and sentence under the fourth charge. That charge is “embezzlement, as defined by section 5488, Rev. St. U. S., in violation of the sixty-second article of war.”

The sixty-second article of war reads as follows:

“Art. 62. All crimes not capital, and all disorders and neglects, which officers and soldiers may be guilty of, to prejudice of good prder and military discipline, though not mentioned in the foregoing articles of war, are to be taken cognizance of by a general, or a regimental, garrison, or field-officers court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offense, and punished at the discretion of such court.”

The language, the general structure, and the specific provisions of this article indicate that it is a catch-all clause, intended to cover offenses not already specifically provided for. The framers of the article wisely foresaw that there might be many crimes, disorders, and neglects which could not be classified under any enumeration already contained in the articles, and which, if a court-martial were left without power to deal with them, might operate to the prejudice of good order and military discipline. Therefore, having “mentioned” various offenses which might be cognizable by a court-martial and punished as prescribed, the framers of the articles further, provided that “all” offenses of certain specified characters, “though not mentioned,” might also be taken cognizance of by a court-martial, and punished, at its discretion. It would seem to follow that, where an offense is found to be specifically provided for in any of the articles prior to the sixty-second, the grant -of jurisdiction to try and punish such offense is conferred by the particular article which mentions it, and not by the general language of the sixty-second article. This proposition has commended itself to text writers (Davis, Mil. Law, pp. 70n-71; Winthr. Mil. Law [2d Ed.] pp. 1126, 1127), and is in accord with general principles of statutory construction (U. S. v. Tynen, 11 Wall. 88; U. S. v. Auffmordt, 122 U. S. 197, 7 Sup. Ct. 1182).

Section 5488 of the Revised Statutes reads as follows:

“See. 5488. Every disbursing officer of tbe United States wbo deposits any public- money intrusted to him in any place or in any manner, except as authorized by law, or converts to his own use in any way whatever, or loans with or without interest, or for any purpose not prescribed by law withdraws from the treasurer or any assistant treasurer, or any authorized depository, or for any purpose not prescribed by law transfers or applies any portion of the public money intrusted to him, is, in every such act, deemed guilty of an embezzlement of the money so deposited, converted, loaned, withdrawn, transferred, or applied; and shall be punished by imprisonment with hard labor for a term not less than one year nor more than ten years, or by a [499]*499fine of not more than (he amount embezzled or less than one thousand dollars, or by both such fine and imprisonment (See sees. 3620, 5497.)”

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Related

Rosborough v. Rossell
56 F. Supp. 347 (D. Maine, 1944)
Carter v. Woodring
92 F.2d 544 (D.C. Circuit, 1937)
Ex parte Henkes
267 F. 276 (D. Kansas, 1919)
Carter v. McClaughry
105 F. 614 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Kansas, 1900)

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Bluebook (online)
97 F. 496, 1899 U.S. App. LEXIS 3317, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-carter-circtsdny-1899.