State v. Soeder

249 N.W. 412, 216 Iowa 815
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 20, 1933
DocketNo. 41473.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 249 N.W. 412 (State v. Soeder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Soeder, 249 N.W. 412, 216 Iowa 815 (iowa 1933).

Opinion

Anderson, J.

No abstract has been filed on this appeal. The case is submitted to us upon the clerk’s transcript, and upon printed briefs and arguments of appellant and appellee.

The clerk’s transcript shows that indictment was returned by the grand jury of Fayette county, Iowa, on the 29th day of April, *816 1931, charging the defendant, A. J. Soeder, with the crime of selling securities in Iowa, without being registered as a dealer or salesman in the office of secretary of state of Iowa, and charges that the said defendant, “on or about the month of February, 1931, in the County and-State aforesaid, engaged in business as a dealer or salesman-of securities, and sold 98 Units of Standard Shares Holding Company to John Kershaw, without he the said A. J. Soeder being registered as a dealer or salesman of securities in the office of the Secretary of State of the State of Iowa, as provided by chapter 10 of the Laws of the Forty-third General Assembly of the State of Iowa, contrary to and in violation of law.”

Chapter 10 of the Forty-third General Assembly is a part of the 1931 Code, designated therein as chapter 393-C1, and is known as the Iowa Securities Act; commonly called.the “Blue Sky Law”;

The defendant entered a plea of not guilty to the crime as charged in the indictment, and there was a trial to a jury resulting in a verdict of guilty.

The appellant’s brief and argument contains quite an extensive statement of fact, which cannot be considered by this court, for the reason that there is no transcript or abstract of the testimon)>' certified and submitted to us.

The bill of particulars, or minutes of the testimony which is a part of the indictment, however, shows that the defendant was operating as a dealer or salesman, engaged in a series of transactions involving the negotiation and sale of securities within this state, without complying with the provisions of chapter 393-C1 of the 1.931 Code. The nature of the defense is not disclosed, other than is shown by the demurrer to the indictment, motions for directed verdict, and new trial. The certified record shows that the defendant offered no evidence upon the trial; that he filed a demurrer to the indictment, a motion for a directed verdict of acquittal, and a motion for a new trial; all based upon the contention that chapter 393-C1 of the Code is in contravention of section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, in that said chapter deprived citizens of the United States of liberty and property without due process of law, and denies to persons within the state of Iowa equality under the law; that the said chapter also was in violation of section 1 of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of Iowa, in that it assumes to take the property of the citizens of the state without just compensation; that it is also in *817 violation of section 6 of the Bill of Rights, ,in that it assumes to grant special privileges and immunities; and also in violation of section 10 of the Bill of Rights, in that it denies the right of a person accused of crime to be advised of the nature and cause of the accusation against him.

Appellant’s argument and contention as against the statutory enactment in question, is directed against the chapter as a whole, by reason of the fact that subsection c of section 8581-c5 is a part of the enactment and is unconstitutional and void, under the constitutional provisions mentioned, by reason of its indefiniteness; the appellant claiming that the subsection referred to is so worded that a person of ordinary intelligence cannot determine therefrom what he may do and what he may not do thereunder.

The subsection attacked is among the exempted transactions as included in section 8581-c5, and is as follows:

“An isolated transaction in which any security is sold, offered for sale, subscription or delivery by the owner thereof, or by his representative for the owner’s account, such sale or offer for sale, subscription or delivery not being made in the course of repeated and successive transactions of a like character by such owner, or on his account by such representative, and such owner or representative not being the underwriter of such security.”

Appellant contends that the subsection above quoted is unconstitutional, and that it is so connected and interdependent in subject-matter with the general enactment that it renders the whole enactment unconstitutional and invalid.

The last section of the chapter, section 8581-c27, is as follows:

“Should the court declare any section or clause of this chapter unconstitutional then such decision shall affect only the section or clause so declared to be unconstitutional and shall not affect any other section or clause of this chapter.”

The appellant cites and rests his contention upon the case of People v. Pace, 73 Cal. App. 548, 238 P. 1089, 1096, and claims that the cited case is the only authority bearing directly upon the questions here raised by appellant, and that the case has support in the courts of Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, and the United States Supreme Court, in the cases of Hall v. Geiger-Jones Co., 242 U. S. 539, 37 S. Ct. 217, 61 L. Ed. 480, L. R. A. 1917F, 514, Ann. Cas. 1917C, *818 643, and Merrick v. Halsey & Co., 242 U. S. 568, 37 S. Ct. 227, 61 L. Ed. 498. We have carefully read and studied the California case as well as the other cases cited by the appellant claimed to support that holding. We are unable to find any support'for the holding in the case of People v. Pace, supra. The decision is by an inferior court, and has been repeatedly disapproved. The statute there held unconstitutional was not parallel to the statute here under consideration. However, the basis of that opinion holding the section unconstitutional was not on the ground of indefiniteness, but on the ground that it attempted to require a person to secure a broker’s permit before he could lawfully sell securities owned by himself; and we quote from the last paragraph of the opinion as follows:

“We are of the opinion that the section of the Corporate Securities Act under consideration, so far as it attempts to require a natural person to secure a broker’s permit as provided in said act before he may lawfully sell his own securities, where he is not the issuer or underwriter of the same, is unconstitutional and invalid for the reasons herein set forth.”

In that case it was not contended at the trial that the defendant was not the bona fide owner of the stock sold. In fact, the record shows that he was the owner, and was not engaged in the business of a broker or salesman of securities. In the case at bar, the indictment charges that the defendant was engaged in the business as a “dealer” or “salesman” of securities, and there can he no question injected in the defense that he was selling and negotiating his own stock or property. He was not indicted under subsection c of section 8581-c5, and claims no exemption or immunity thereunder. Moreover, the Pace case has been discredited by the courts of Oregon and Minnesota. The Oregon court in the case of State v. Gerritson, 124 Or. 525, 265 P.

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Bluebook (online)
249 N.W. 412, 216 Iowa 815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-soeder-iowa-1933.