Shaw v. United States

131 F.2d 476, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4614
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 26, 1942
Docket9916
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 131 F.2d 476 (Shaw v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shaw v. United States, 131 F.2d 476, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4614 (9th Cir. 1942).

Opinions

DENMAN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction based upon three counts of an indictment, Nos. 14, 15 and 16, each charging that the appellant and another person, not appealing, caused to be carried through the mails unregistered corporate securities in violation of the Federal Securities Act of 1933 as amended, 15 U.S.C.A. § 77a et seq. A typical count is as follows: “ * * * did cause to be delivered by the United States mails a certain security, to-wit, a certificate, No. 732, for 250 shares of the capital stock of Consolidated Mines of California, a corporation, for the purpose of sale and for delivery after sale of said security to Dr. Homer J. Arnold and Florence R. Arnold, no registration statement being in effect as to such security and no exemption from registration being available, and said delivery by the United States mails was in the manner following, to-wit:

“Said defendants on or about December 21, 1936, caused to be delivered by the Post Office establishment of the United States according to the directions thereon, a postpaid envelope addressed to Dr. Homer J. and Florence R. Arnold, 345 South. Norton, Los Angeles, California, enclosing said security, * * *.”

Appellant either was acquitted or had sustained his demurrer to the other counts of the indictment. The appeal involves no question of fraud or unjust enrichment.

On the 16th count, a transaction involving mailing a certificate for 18 shares, received by J. C. and E. M. Goodrich, ap-pellee admits no sufficient proof of mailing, and the judgment is reversed as to that count.

Section 5(a) (2), Title I, of the Act provides

“Sec. 5 [§ 77e]. (a) Unless a registration statement is in effect as to a security, it shall be unlawful for any person, directly or indirectly—

* * * * *

“(2) to carry or cause to be carried1 through the mails or in interstate commerce, by any means or instruments of transportation, any such security for the purpose of sale or for delivery after sale.”

A. Each of the two surviving counts describes with sufficient certainty to the indicted defendant the crime he was accused of committing. United States v. Behrman, 258 U.S. 280, 288, 42 S.Ct. 303, 66 L.Ed. 619; Price v. United States, 165 U.S. 311, 17 S.Ct. 366, 41 L.Ed. 727; Grimm v. United States, 156 U.S. 604, 15 S.Ct. 470, 39 L.Ed. 550. The words “Post Office establishment of the United States” are inclusive of the persons making up that establishment who must have received the postpaid envelope enclosing the security to have delivered it to the stock purchasers. [478]*478If the accused, for purposes of his defense, desired a more detailed description of what persons were engaged in the process of carrying through the mails, he should have moved for a bill of particulars.

The prosecution offered evidence from which the jury could infer that no registration statement was in effect as to the securities caused to be carried through the mails. The jury also could infer that no registration statement was in effect as to the securities caused to be carried through the mails. The jury also could infer that appellant had caused one Tyler to cause to be carried through the mails a certificate for 250 shares of stock sold by Tyler to Dr. Arnold and a certificate for 30 shares to Regina Woodruff. The testimony showed that the securities sent through the mails were a part of 10,000 shares originally issued by the corporation to one McKiver and of which 5,000 shares were by him transferred to Tyler, who, in turn, sold from them the 250 shares and 30 'shares to Arnold and Woodruff, of which the certificates were sent them through the mails.

B. There is evidence from which the jury could have inferred that McKiver acquired the shares by virtue of an exchange for them of his interest in a mining property, pursuant to a permit of the California Corporation Commissioner under the law of California which requires that the permit shall issue “after a hearing upon the fairness of such terms and conditions, at which all persons to whom it is proposed to issue securities in such exchange shall have the right to appear. * * * ” 1

The jury was entitled to infer from the existence of the permit that the Commissioner had performed his official duty and that there was such a hearing. If the jury so inferred, then the provisions of the Act requiring registration and penalizing issuing and dealing in unregistered shares, “shall not apply” to the shares issued to McKiver.2

The provisions of the Act would reapply only if McKiver transferred them back to the corporation for reissue. The question then arises whether the transfer from McKiver to Tyler was for Tyler’s personal ownership or merely as agent for the corporation. In the circumstances of this case, if Tyler acquired such California permit shares for his personal ownership and for no one else, he could sell and mail them to Arnold and Woodruff without violating the Act. If he was a mere holding agent for the corporation and not personally owning them, the corporation issued them when it purportedly transferred the shares from Tyler to Arnold and Wood-ruff, and it sent the shares through the mails to consummate the sale of them. In the latter case, appellant, who dominated the corporation, was properly found guilty-

Appellant claims, and we agree with him, that the district court committed error in preventing the jury from considering his defense that Tyler acquired the California permit stock for his personal ownership, by the following instruction limiting the area of appellant’s admitted burden of proof,

“The burden of showing an exemption from registration, if exemption is claimed, rests on the defendant. The fact that the stock sold was or was not personally owned stock is immaterial so far as the Federal Securities Act is concerned.” 3 (Emphasis supplied.)

Personal ownership is clearly in issue with reference to the evidence presenting the situations above described. It is also relevant to other defenses of appellant..

Appellant relied on proof that, assuming the shares issued to McKiver were required to be registered, the transactions [479]*479of selling the shares through the mails was not by an issuer, underwriter or dealer, and were exempt from the provisions of the Act by virtue of section 4 which, so far as pertinent, provides that “The provisions of Section 5 [77e] shall not apply to any of the following transactions: (1) Transactions by any person other than an issuer, underwriter, or dealer; * *

C. To prove that Tyler was other than an underwriter,- — that is, not a “person who has purchased from an issuer with a view to, * * * the distribution of any security,” 4 — evidence was offered to show that the 10,000 shares were issued to Mc-Kiver by the corporation for a valuable consideration, i.

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Shaw v. United States
131 F.2d 476 (Ninth Circuit, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
131 F.2d 476, 1942 U.S. App. LEXIS 4614, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shaw-v-united-states-ca9-1942.