Sims v. Rives

84 F.2d 871, 66 App. D.C. 24, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4633
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMay 11, 1936
Docket6574
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 84 F.2d 871 (Sims v. Rives) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sims v. Rives, 84 F.2d 871, 66 App. D.C. 24, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4633 (D.C. Cir. 1936).

Opinion

STEPHENS, Associate Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia discharging a writ of habeas corpus and dismissing the petition upon which the writ had been issued.

The facts are as follows: On December 19, 1934, the appellant was convicted in the United States Police Court of the District of Columbia, on an information charging violation of the District of Columbia. Alcohol Beverage Control Act, approved and- effective January 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 319, as amended by the Act approved April 30, 1934, 48 Stat. 654. The petition for the writ asserted that the information charged “transportation of two cases of untaxed whisky.” It Was agreed by counsel at the bar and stipulated for the record that the actual offense involved was violation of subparagraph (c) of Section 17 of the Liquor Regulations prescribed under the Act referred to. The subparagraph provided:

“(c) Whenever alcohol, spirits, or wines shall be transported in quantities in excess of 12 quarts, or beer in excess of 48 quarts, the person in charge of such transportation shall have in his possession a bill *873 or memorandum from the seller to the purchaser, showing the names and addresses of the seller and of the purchaser, and the quantity and character o.f the beverage sold and transported, or a permit from the Board. Upon the demand of any police officer or duly authorized inspector of the Board, the person in charge of such transportation shall exhibit the bill, memorandum, or permit.”

A sentence of four months’ imprisonment was imposed upon the appellant for violation of this regulation. This sentence has been executed, and the appellant raises no question herein concerning this conviction or the sentence thereunder. The general purpose of the District of Columbia Alcohol Beverage Control Act (hereinafter referred to as the Beverage Control Act) was, as indicated by the title, “To control the manufacture, transportation, possession, and sale of alcoholic beverages in the District of Columbia.” Under Section 4, the Alcohol Beverage Control Board was created, with members to be appointed by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia. By Section 7, the Commissioners were authorized to prescribe such rules and regulations not inconsistent with the Act as they might deem necessary to carry out the purposes thereof and to make rules and regulations for the issuance, transfer, and revocation of licenses, and to facilitate and insure the collection of taxes. By Section 23 it was provided that “There shall be levied and collected by the District of Columbia on all beverages, except beer, manufactured by a holder of a manufacturer’s license and on all beverages, except beer, purchased by the holder of a wholesaler’s or retailer’s license, except such beverages as may have been purchased from a licensee under this Act” certain taxes.

At the outset the act provided:

“That the National Prohibition Act, as amended and supplemented, insofar as it affects the manufacture, sale, and possession in the District of Columbia, and the transportation in, into, and from the District of Columbia, of alcoholic beverages, is hereby repealed, with the exception of title III, and section 4 of title II insofar as it affects denatured alcohol.”

On January 11, 1934, there had been passed, and on the same date approved, effective, however, as to Title 1 on the day following and as to Title 2 thirty days thereafter, 1 the “Liquor Taxing Act of 1934,” 48 Stat. 313. The main purpose of this Act, as indicated by its title, was “To raise revenue by taxing certain intoxicating liquors * * It was a general revenue statute stipulating the amount of tax on various types of intoxicating liquors and containing assessment and collection provisions. Section 201 of Title 2 (26 U.S.C.A. § 1152a) provided in part:

“No person shall * * * transport, possess, buy, sell, or transfer any distilled spirits, unless the immediate container thereof has affixed thereto a stamp denoting the quantity of distilled spirits contained therein and evidencing payment of all internal-revenue taxes imposed on such spirits.”

By section 207 of Title 2 (26 U.S.C.A. § 1152g) violators:

“shall on conviction be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000, or by imprisonment at hard labor not exceeding five years, or by both.”

On August 15, 1934, appellant was indicted, under two indictments in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia charging violation of the Liquor Taxing Act of 1934. The specific nature of the charge does not appear from the record, but it was again agreed by counsel at the bar and stipulated for the record that the offense was the transportation of liquor without having affixed to the container thereof the stamp required by Section 201, and that the transportation and the liquor in question were identical with those concerned in the conviction under the Beverage Control Act as above set forth. Under these two indictments, the appellant was convicted. Under one, he was on January 10, 1935, sentenced to a penitentiary for a period of not less than one nor more than three years, and under the other, on March 14, 1935, for a period of not less than one year nor more than fifteen months, the second sentence to run concurrently with the first. These sentences were imposed, however, not according to the terms of the Liquor Taxing Act of 1934, *874 but under the Act of July IS, 1932, “To establish a Board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole for the District of Columbia and to determine its functions, and for other purposes,” 47 Stat. 696, as amended by the Act of June S, 1934, 48 Stat. 880. This Act established in the District of Columbia “a board of Indeterminate Sentence and Parole for the penal institutions for said District,” whose duty it shall be: "“to examine into the physical, mental, and moral records of the prisoners committed to the penal institutions of the District; receive reports of wardens and other officials, including the psychiatrist; recommend the treatment which, in their opinion, is most conducive to the prisoners’ reformation; and provide for a system of determining the proper time of release and the rehabilitation of the ex-prisoner in the community.” Section 1. Subject to the approval of the Commissioners of the District -of Columbia, the Board was by the Act authorized to adopt rules and regulations for its procedure and to appoint parole officers. Section 3 provided, so far as here pertinent:

. “That hereafter, in imposing sentence on a person convicted in the District of Columbia of a felony, the justice or judge of the court' imposing such sentence shall sentence the person for a maximum period, not exceeding the maximum fixed by law, and for a minimum period not exceeding one-fifth of the maximum period fixed by law, and any person so convicted and sentenced may be released on parole as herein provided at any time after having served the minimum sentence * * 2

The Act further provided:

“Sec. 4.

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Bluebook (online)
84 F.2d 871, 66 App. D.C. 24, 1936 U.S. App. LEXIS 4633, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sims-v-rives-cadc-1936.