Maresca v. United States

277 F. 727, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2519
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedSeptember 27, 1921
DocketNo. 190
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 277 F. 727 (Maresca v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maresca v. United States, 277 F. 727, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2519 (2d Cir. 1921).

Opinions

ROGERS, Circuit Judge

(after staling the facts as above). [1] This case is one of considerable, importance not only to the defendants, because of the severe sentences imposed, but to the government, because of the questions raised as to the construction to be. given to certain acts of Congress for the violation of which the defendants have been' convicted. The District Judge who imposed the sentences was, of course, invested with sole discretion, without the limits fixed by the statutes, of determining the extent of the punishments to be inflicted, and in the discharge of that duty he was well aware that sentences [732]*732should be imposed which are sufficiently severe to cause the laws of the United States to be obeyed. ' The question which this court is to determine is as to the validity of the indictment and of the sentences imposed.

We are presented with a document marked “Bill of Exceptions.” It appears to have been signed and filed on December 20, 1920. As the judgments of the court were entered on July 2, 1920, the term of the District Court expired with September 30, 1920, under rule 5, automatically extending the term 90 days after the entry of final judgment. Defendants rely on an oral statement, which is before us only because incorporated in the so-called bill of exceptions, which was made by the District Judge from the bench on July 2, 1920, and which was as follows:

“I will extend it [the term] until November 1st; and I am quite sure ii it becomes necessary, I will have the power to grant an additional extension.”

[2] No minute or docket entry was made of the remark, and no order was signed by the judge until November 3, 1920, when, over the government’s objection, an order was signed purporting to extend the term to December 8th. This order was filed on November 4th, and on November ,29th a further order again extending the term was signed extending the term to January 5, 1921. There is authority for holding that an oral statement extending the time for filing a bill of exceptions is not of any binding force unless entered in the docket. Barstow v. Marsh, 4 Gray (Mass.) 165; Doherty v. Lincoln, 114 Mass. 362; Klein v. State, 157 Ind. 146, 60 N. E. 1036. But for the purpose of the argument we will assume, without deciding, that the oral order extending the term to November 1st was valid. In that case the second order of November 3d, extending the term to December 8th would be invalid, as was the order of November 29th, as the term had expired when the extension on November 3d was granted. It is said, however, that the District Judge in his original and oral extension of the term said: “I will extend it until November 1st; that is four months.” Where time is defined by a particular date as well as by the number of days, .and the two are inconsistent, it is very doubtful at the best whether the number of days named can overcome the particular date specified. But if they be given controlling effect, and we do not decide that they are entitled to it, the term would be extended to and including November 2, 1920. Then, as November 2d, being election day, was a legal holiday, it is urged that this would give an additional day, and therefore made the order signed on Monday, November 3d, valid; counsel insisting that it is well settled that, if the last day for settling and filing a bill of exceptions falls on a Sunday or on a holiday, the bill may be settled on the following day. And our attention is called to the following cases: Bacon v. State, 22 Fla. 46; Harris v. Atlanta, 62 Ga. 290; Evans & Hollinger v. Chicago, etc., R. R. Co., 76 Mo. App. 468; Cash v. Penix, 11 Mo. App. 597; Enck v. Gerding, 63 Ohio St. 175, 57 N. E. 1083—in which it has been so decided.

[733]*733In Siegelschiffer v. Penn Mutual Life Ins. Co., 248 Fed. 226, 160 C. C. A. 304, this court held, in computing the time within which an appeal or writ of error can be taken or sued out after entry of judgment, that if the last day of the six months'" period falls on Sunday, the act cannot he lawfully done on Monday. In so holding we followed a like decision of the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit (Johnson v. Meyers, 54 Fed. 417, 4 C. C. A. 399), and one by the Circuit Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit (Meyer v. Hot Springs Imp. Co., 169 Fed. 628, 95 C. C. A. 156).

[8] A, hill of exceptions was unknown to the early common law. 4 Chitty, Gen. Pr. 2. It was introduced by the Statute of Westminster II (13 Edw. I) Stat. 1, c. 31, A. D. 1285. It is plainly common law in the United States, but in both countries has been held not to extend to criminal causes. Reg. v. Alleyne, 4 Ell. & B. 186; Vane’s Case, 6 How. St. Tr. 119, 130, 131; Reg. v. Jelly, 10 Cox, Crim. Cas. 553; People v. Holbrook, 13 Johns. (N. Y.) 90; Ex Parte Barker, 7 Cow. (N. Y.) 143; Ned v. State, 7 Port. (Ala.) 187. And see Bishop’s New Cr. Proced. (2d Ed.) § 1265. The right to such a bill in a criminal case in the federal courts is statutory. And, as we pointed out in Buessel v. United States, 258 Fed. 811, 816, 170 C. C. A. 105, when. Congress authorized the proceedings in a criminal case to be reviewed upon a writ of error, it thereby sanctioned the use of a bill of exceptions in that connection, for a bill of exceptions is the method by which the proceedings at the trial which otherwise would not be in the record are made a part of it and so reviewed. And we also point ed out in the Buessel Case that bills of exceptions in the federal courts are not governed by the conformity statute, directing that the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in a District Court shall conform to those in the courts of the state in which the District Court; sits.

[4] We see no reason why the rule this court applied in determining the time within which an appeal or a writ of error can be sued out should not be also applied in determining the time within which che bill of exceptions can be signed and filed. The right to the bill of exceptions, in "a criminal case in the federal courts, like the right to the writ of error, comes from the statute, and not from any rule of the court, and we know of no reason why it is not governed by the same principles in ascertaining the time within which it is to be signed. If, when the last day falls on Sunday or on a legal holiday, the appeal or writ of error cannot be filed on the next day under the like circumstances, the bill of exceptions cannot be signed or filed on the next day. It must follow that, whether the court below extended the term, as the government contends, to November 1st, or whether it extended it four months and to November 2d, which fell on a legal holiday, in either event the subsequent extension of the term not. made until the following day came too late, and the bill of exceptions thereafter signed must be disregarded. Blisse v. United States (C. C. A.) 263 Fed. 961; Anderson v. United States (C. C. A.) 269 Fed. 65.

[5] We may add, however, to what has already been said, that in 38 Cyc. 332, 333, it is correctly laid down as the general rule that, [734]*734“Where an act is required to be done in any certain number of days after or before a fixed time, Sunday is to be included in computing the number of days, when it exceeds seven; if it is less than seven, Sunday must be excluded,” and that the same rule applies where holidays intervene. So in Rewis’ Sutherland on Statutory Construction (2d Ed.) vol. 1, § 188, p. 335, it is said that—

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Bluebook (online)
277 F. 727, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 2519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maresca-v-united-states-ca2-1921.