Stubbs v. United States

104 F. 988, 44 C.C.A. 292, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4000
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 14, 1900
DocketNo. 1,328
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 104 F. 988 (Stubbs 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
Stubbs v. United States, 104 F. 988, 44 C.C.A. 292, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4000 (8th Cir. 1900).

Opinions

CALDWELL, 'Circuit Judge.

Tbe United States district attorney, by leave of tke court, filed a criminal information against Frank W. Stubbs, the plaintiff in error, and others, for cutting timber on nonmineral public lands. The defendant Stubbs was convicted, and brought the case into this court by writ of error. In its charge the court said to the jury:

“I Tailed to instruct you that under the evidence in this case it is not important whether this land be mineral or nonmineral. If the defendant is guilty in one case, he is guilty in the other. If innocent in the one, he is innocent in the other. So you need not consider the mineral character of this land, as affecting the question.”

Due exception was taken to this charge, and this is the only assigifment of error we need consider.

This prosecution was in the state of Colorado, and the law relating to cutting timber on the public lands is exceptional in that and some other mining states. By the act of June 3, 1878, entitled “An act authorizing the citizens of Colorado, Nevada and the territories to fell and remove timber on the public domain for mining and domestic purposes” (20 Stat. 88, c. 150, § 1), it is provided:

• “That all citizens of the United States and other persons, bona fide residents of the state of Colorado, or Nevada, or either of the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and all other mineral districts of the United States, shall be, and are hereby, authorized and permit-led to fell and remove, for building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the public lands, said, lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either of said states, territories, or districts of which such citizens or persons may be at the time bona fide residents. subject to such rules and regulations as the secretary of the interior may prescribe for the protection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such lands, and for other purposes.”

The act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1093, c. 559), provides that:

“In the states of Colorado, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and South Dakota, Wyoming and the district of Alaska, and the gold and silver regions of Nevada, and the territory of Utah in any criminal prosecution or civil action b,v the United States for a trespass on such public timber lands or to recover timber or lumber cut thereon it shall be a defense if the defendant shall show that the said timber was so cut or removed from the timber lands for use in such state or territory by a resident thereof for agricultural, mining, manufacturing, or domestic purposes under rules and regulations made and prescribed by the secretary of the interior and has not been transported out of the same. =.= * ⅞” And n ⅛ expressly provided that “this act shall not operate to repeal the act of June 3, 1878, providing for the cutting of timber on mineral lands.”

It is a curious circumstance that this act was, in substance, re-enacted the same day in another act, entitled “An act to repeal timber culture laws and for other purposes” (26 Stat. 1095, c. 561, § 8).

There was evidence introduced tending to show that the timber the defendant was charged with cutting was cut on mineral lands. The prosecuting officer of the government, who filed the information, [990]*990evidently supposed the act allowing timber to be cut on the public mineral lands was in force and applicable to this case, or he would not have alleged in his information, as he did, that the lands from which the timber was cut were nonmineral. Such an allegation would be surplusage in an information under section 2401 of the Revised Statutes.

The charge of the court makes no reference to the act of June 3, 1878, or to the regulations of the secretary of the interior thereunder; nor does it make any reference to the act of March 3, 1891, and the regulations of the secretary of the interior thereunder. It is not suggested here, and was not in the lower court, that the timber was cut in violation of the rules and regulations prescribed by the secretary of the interior under the acts mentioned, or either of them. The case seems to have been tried upon the assumption that section 4 of the act of June 3, 1878 (20 Stat. 90, c. 151), was, in the language of counsel for the government, “made applicable to the state of Colorado by section 8 of the act of March 3, 1891” (26 Stat. 1097, c. 561). But this is an error. The operation of section 4 of the act of June 3, 1878, entitled “An act for the sale of timber lands in the states of California, Oregon, Nevada, and in Washington Territory” (20 Stat. 90, c. 151), is limited to the states and territories named in its title. The act reads as follows:

“That after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful to cut, or cause or procure to he cut, or wantonly destroy, any timber growing on any lands of the United States, in said states and territory or remove, or cause to he removed, any timber from said public lands, with intent to export or dispose of the same; and no owner, master, or consignee of any vessel, or owner, director, or agent of any railroad, shall knowingly transport the same, or any lumber manufactured therefrom; and any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be fined for every such offense a sum not less than one hundred nor more than one thousand dollars.”

It will be perceived that this section is by its terms limited to “said states and territories,” — meaning to the states and territories mentioned in the title and the body of the act, namely, California, Oregon, and Nevada, and Washington Territory.

There is no section or provision of the act of March 3, 1891, which makes section 4 of the act of June 3, 1878, which we have quoted, applicable to the state of Colorado. The act of March 3, 1877, entitled “An act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain states and territories” (19 Stat. 377, c. 107), contains three sections. By the second section of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1095, c. 561), it was provided:

“That an act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain states-and territories, approved March 3, eighteen hundred and seventy-seven, is hereby amended by adding thereto the following sections.”

And, following this section 2, five sections were added accordingly, numbered from 4 to 8, all placed between inverted commas, as though copied from the original act. The added section numbered 8 provides:

“ ‘That the provisions of the act to which this is an amendment, and the amendments thereto, shall apply to and be in force in the state of Colorado, [991]*991as well as the states named in the original art; and no person shall he entitled to make entry of desert land except he he a resident citizen of the state or territory In which the land sought to be entered is located.’ ”

The states and territories named in the act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain states and territories, approved March 3, 1877, were California, Oregon, Nevada, and the territories of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and Dakota. The only effect of this section 8 was to add Colorado to the list of states to which that act applied.

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Related

Stubbs v. United States
111 F. 366 (Eighth Circuit, 1901)
United States v. Price Trading Co.
109 F. 239 (Eighth Circuit, 1901)

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Bluebook (online)
104 F. 988, 44 C.C.A. 292, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 4000, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/stubbs-v-united-states-ca8-1900.