Joplin Mercantile Co. v. United States

213 F. 926, 131 C.C.A. 160, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1962
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 3, 1914
DocketNo. 3942
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 213 F. 926 (Joplin Mercantile Co. 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
Joplin Mercantile Co. v. United States, 213 F. 926, 131 C.C.A. 160, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1962 (8th Cir. 1914).

Opinion

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

An indictment was returned for conspiracy under section 37 of the Penal Code (Act March 4, 1909, c. 321, 35 Stat. 1096 [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1600]) charging that the Joplin Mercantile Company, a corporation existing under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Missouri, and one Joseph Filler, and one Ben Due, and one Martin F. Witte, and other persons to the grand jury unknown, hereinafter called the defendants, then and there being, did then and there unlawfully, willfully, knowingly, and feloniously conspire together to commit an offense against the United States of America, to wit, to unlawfully, knowingly, and feloniously introduce and attempt to introduce malt, spirituous, vinous, and other intoxicating liquors into the Indian country which was formerly the Indian Territory and now is included in a portion of the state of Oklahoma, and into the city of Tulsa, Tulsa county, Okl., which was formerly within and is now a part of what is known as the Indian country and into other parts and portions of that part of Oklahoma which lies within the Indian country. Certain overt acts were then alleged all of which charged that the defendants shipped liquors from Joplin, Mo., to Tulsa, Okl.

Ben Due pleaded guilty. The case against the Joplin Mercantile Company, Joseph Filler, and Martin F. Witte was tried to a jury who found the Mercantile Company and Filler guilty and acquitted Martin [928]*928F. Witte, and the Joplin Mercantile Company was fined, and Filler sentenced to the Leavenworth penitentiary, and they sued out a writ of error.

The only errors assigned which can be considered by us are:

(1) The court erred in overruling the demurrer of the defendants and each of them to the said indictment herein.

(2) The court erred in overruling the motion to quash said indictment herein made by the defendants and each of them.

(3) The court erred in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment herein made by the defendants and each of them.

Neither the evidence nor the charge of the court are before us.

The other questions covered by the assignments are with reference to the motion for a new trial which cannot be considered here and the admission of certain evidence which does not appear *in the transcript.

The questions, therefore, before this court can be resolved into one: Did the indictment charge an offense?

There are two separate systems of laws on the subject of liquors imported into the territory here in question. The Fifty-Second Congress, on July 23, 1892 (chapter 234, 27 Stat. 260), enacted the following as a substitute for section 2139 of the Revised Statutes:

“Sec. 2139. No ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquor or liquors of whatever kind shall be introduced, under any pretense, into the Indian country. Every person who sells, exchanges, gives, barters, or disposes of any ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquors of any kind to any Indian under charge of any Indian superintendent or agent or introduces or attempts to introduce any ardent spirits, ale, wine, beer, or intoxicating liquor of any kind into the Indian country shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than two years, and by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars for each offense. But it shall be a sufficient defense to any charge of introducing or attempting to introduce ardent spirits, ale, beer, wine, or intoxicating liquors into the Indian country that the acts charged were done under authority in writing from the War Department, or any officer duly authorized thereunto by the War Department. All complaints for the arrest of any person or persons made for violation of any of the provisions of this act shall be made in the county where the offense shall have been committed, or if committed upon or within any reservation not included in any county, then in any county adjoining such reservation, and, if in the Indian Territory, before the United States court commissioner, or commissioner of the circuit court of the United States residing nearest the place where the offense was committed, who is not for any reason disqualified ; blit in all cases such arrests shall be made before any United States court commissioner residing in such adjoining county, or before any magistrate or judicial officer authorized by the laws of the state in which such reservation is located to issue warrants for the arrest and examination of offenders by section ten hundred and fourteen of the Revised Statutes of the United States. And all persons so arrested shall, unless discharged upon examination, be held to answer and stand trial before the court of the United States having jurisdiction of the offense.”

January 30, 1897, it being doubtful whether land allotted to Indians remained Indian country under the existing laws, the Fifty-Fourth Congress enacted Act Jan. 30, 1897, c. 109, 29 Stats. 506, in part as follows:

“Any person who shall introduce or attempt to introduce any malt, spirituous, or vinous liquor, including beer) ale, and wine, or any ardent or intoxicating liquor of any kind whatsoever into the Indian country, which [929]*929term shall include any Indian allotment wliile the title to the same shall be held in trust by the government or while the same shall remain inalienable by the allottee without the consent of the United States, shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than sixty days, and by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars for the first offense and- not less than two hundred dollars for each offense thereafter.”

But almost midway between the enactment of these two statutes the Fifty-Third Congress on March 1, 1895, enacted, chapter 145, 28 Stats. 693, 697:

“Sec. 8. That any person, whether an Indian or otherwise, who shall, in said [Indian] territory, manufacture, sell, give away, or in any manner, or by any means furnish to anyone, either for himself or another any vinous, malt, or fermented liquors, or any other intoxicating drinks of any kind whatsoever, whether medicated or not, or who shall carry, or in any manner have carried, into said territory any such liquors or drinks, or who shall be interested in such manufacture, sale, giving away, furnishing to anyone, or carrying into said territory any of such liquors or drinks shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for not less than one month nor more than five years.”

It will be observed that the first two statutes prohibited introducing liquor into the Indian country, but the last prohibited their introduction, not into the Indian country, but into the Indian Territory which had boundaries fixed by law.

The term “Indian country” has a constantly changing application, but the Indian Territory referred to is a well-defined and perpetually existing region.

In United States Express Co. v. Friedman, 191 Fed. 673, 112 C. C. A. 219, this court held that the two first statutes above quoted were still applicable to a considerable portion of the old Indian Territory.

In Ex parte Webb, 225 U. S. 663, 32 Sup. Ct. 769, 56 L. Ed. 1248, the Supreme Court held that the last-mentioned act, that of 1895, was still in force as applied to shipments from without Oklahoma.

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Bluebook (online)
213 F. 926, 131 C.C.A. 160, 1914 U.S. App. LEXIS 1962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/joplin-mercantile-co-v-united-states-ca8-1914.