In re Lindauer

15 F. Cas. 550, 7 Blatchf. 249, 1870 U.S. App. LEXIS 1627

This text of 15 F. Cas. 550 (In re Lindauer) 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 Lindauer, 15 F. Cas. 550, 7 Blatchf. 249, 1870 U.S. App. LEXIS 1627 (circtsdny 1870).

Opinion

BLATCHFOKD, District Judge.

This is an application for a writ of habeas corpus. ■The petitioner was convicted in this court, by pleading guilty to an indictment found against him therein, and was sentenced on such conviction, the court which imposed the sentence having been held by Judge Woodruff. I have conferred with him on the questions raised in the case, and we concur in the conclusion that the application must be denied.

.The indictment was found on the 24th of November, 1869. The petitioner, on his conviction, was sentenced, on the 19th of March, 1870, to be imprisoned for six months. Under that sentence he is now confined in the custody of the marshal, in the jail of the city and county of New York. The application for the writ is made on the ground that the sentence was erroneous, for the reason that the statute under which the conviction* was had does not authorize imprisonment, but authorizes only a fine.

The indictment consists of two counts. The first count charges, that, on the 1st of August, 1869, the defendant, knowingly and unlawfully, did engage, and was concerned, in the business of a lottery ticket dealer, within the meaning of the statute of the United States, without having paid the special tax of one hundred dollars, as in that behalf is required to be paid by the statute of the United States in such case made and provided. The second count charges, that the defendant, on the 1st of August, 1869, did exercise and carry on the business of a lottery ticket dealer, upon which said business a special tax is imposed by law, without having paid the special tax, as in that behalf required by the statute of the United States. The two counts are, in substance, the same, except that the first charges him with having engaged, and been concerned, in the business of a lottery ticket dealer, while the second charges him with having exercised and carried on the business of a lottery ticket dealer — in each case without having paid the special tax required by law. The first count mentions the amount of the tax — one hundred dollars. The second count does not mention any amount, but merely says that a special tax was imposed on the business, and that he exercised and carried on the business without having paid such tax. Why this distinction in the language was made — one count using the words “engage, and was concerned, in,” and the other using the words “exercise and carry on,” will appear from the statutes on the subject.

The first time that the imposition of a penalty upon any person for carrying on any business without complying with the law on the subject, appears in the statute book, is in the 73d section of the act of June 30, 1864 (13 Stat. 249). Under that act, a license was required to be taken for the carrying on of various trades, businesses and professions, and, among others, that of lottery ticket dealer. Subdivisions 6 of the 79th section of that act required lottery ticket dealers to pay one hundred dollars for each license, and provided, that every person who should make, sell, or offer to sell, lottery tickets, or any device representing or intended to represent a lottery ticket, or any policy of numbers in any lottery, or should manage any lottery, or prepare schemes of lotteries, or superintend the drawing of any lottery, should be deemed a lottery ticket dealer, under the act. The 73d section of the same act provided, that, if any person should exercise or carry on any trade, business or profession, for the exercising or carrying on of which a license was required by the act, without taking out such license, he should, for every such offence, besides being liable to pay the tax, be subject to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or both.

On the 3d of March, 1865, an act was passed (13 Stat. 469), amending various sections of the act of June 30. 1864, but not amending the 73d section of that act. The 13th section of this act of March 3, 1865, was a new enactment on the subject of lotteries, and provided as follows: “All persons, and every person, who shall engage or be concerned in the business of a lottery dealer, without first having obtained a license so to do, under such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the secretary of the treasury, shall forfeit and pay a penalty of one thousand dollars, and shall, on conviction by any court of competent jurisdiction, suffer imprisonment for a period not exceeding a year, at the discretion of the court.” This 13th section unequivocally implies the understanding of congress, that there was then required by law a license for engaging or being concerned in the business of a lottery dealer; otherwise, it would have been absurd for congress to say, that a person who should engage or be concerned in such business, without having first obtained a license so to do, should, on conviction, suffer imprisonment. The only provision of law which then existed in re[552]*552spect to the obtaining of licenses by lottery dealers, was the provision of the act of 18G4, for the payment of one hundred dollars for each license by lottery ticket dealers. It follows, that, when congress spoke of a “lottery dealer,” in the act of 1SC5, they meant such a “lottery ticket dealer” as was defined in the act of 1804; otherwise, the provision of the 13th section of the act of 1805 would have been utterly meaningless. Therefore, it is apparent that congress intended, by the 13th section of the act of 1SG5, to take lottery ticket dealers out of the general provisions of the seventy-third section of the act of 1804, which imposed on all persons who should exercise any business requiring a license, without taking out such license, a certain punishment, and to place them under the special provisions of the 13th section of the act of 1865. The act of 18G4 provided, as a punishment, imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or both. The act of 1865 imposed imprisonment for a period not exceeding a year, nothing being said about a fine.

The act of July 13, 1866 (14 Stat. 113), amended the 73d section of the act of 1864, by imposing the punishment of imprisonment or fine, or both, imposed by the 73d section of the act of 1864, upon any one who should exercise or carry on any trade, business or profession, for the exercising or carrying on of which a special tax was imposed by law, without paying such special tax. The reason for this amendment -was, that, by the act of 1800, congress abolished the system of granting licenses, and merely required special taxes to be paid for the exercising or carrying on of the trades, businesses or professions. The special tax for lottery ticket dealers was fixed by the act of 1866 at one hundred dollars, and that act gave the same definition to the term “lottery ticket dealers,” as was given to it in the act of 1864. The amendment made by the act of 1860 to the 73d section of the act of 1864 was, to re-enact the latter section, only imposing the imprisonment or fine, or both, as a punishment on a conviction for carrying on the business without paying the special tax, instead of imposing it as a punishment on a conviction for carrying on the business without obtaining the license. There is nothing in this legislation that makes the 13th section of the act of 1805 inconsistent with the 73d section of the act of 1804, as amended by the act of 1866. The two can stand together, quite as well as the 73d section of the act of 1864 could, before the amendment of 1866, stand with the 13th section of the act of 1865.

We come, next, to the act of July 27, 1866, (14 Stat. 301).

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Bluebook (online)
15 F. Cas. 550, 7 Blatchf. 249, 1870 U.S. App. LEXIS 1627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-lindauer-circtsdny-1870.