United States v. Fleming

818 F. Supp. 845, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 147, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4865, 1993 WL 127734
District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania·Decided April 13, 1993·No. Crim. A. No. 92-608-6·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

ROBRENO, District Judge.

Defendant Ralph Fleming was convicted by a jury on three counts of mail fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341. The conviction arose from the defendant’s involvement in a scheme to submit fraudulent claims to an insurance company for damage to his motor vehicles. Defendant has filed motions for judgment of acquittal pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29(c) or for a new trial pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 33, seeking relief from his conviction. For the reasons set forth below, I will deny the motions.

I. BACKGROUND

Between 1988 and 1990, emissions containing debris and various chemicals were released into the air by the Marcus Hook oil refinery of the Sun Oil Company (“Sun Oil”), causing damage to the finish of automobiles in, near, and around the area of the refinery. Sun Oil was self-insured. To administer the approximately 1,500 claims for damage resulting from these emissions, Sun Oil contracted with the Travelers Insurance Company (“Travelers”). Certain Travelers appraisers who were assigned to adjust the claims, along with certain automobile body-shop owners, designed a scheme intended to mislead Travelers into paying for the costs of repairs to vehicles that were not damaged by the refinery emissions or for inflated costs of repairs to vehicles actually damaged. The money that Travelers paid on the fraudulent claims on behalf of Sun Oil was apportioned among the participants in each claim, typically: 1) one-third to the Travelers appraisers who wrote the claims; 2) one-third to the body-shop owners who allegedly repaired the vehicles claimed to have been damaged; and 3) one-third to the owners of the vehicles that were used as the basis of the fraudulent claims. Fleming participated in the submission of three fraudulent “appraisal” claims forms for damage to vehicles that he owned, and he received one-third of the amount that Travelers paid for each of the three claims.1

II. DISCUSSION

Defendant contends that the Government failed to prove a necessary element of its case, and that the Court erred by admitting into evidence copies instead of the originals of certain documents. The defendant also claims error in the jury charge concerning the weight to be accorded character evidence and the pre-indictment destruction of documents by Government witnesses.

In deciding a motion for judgment of acquittal, the Court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, draw all reasonable inferences in the Government’s favor, and uphold the verdict unless no rational juror could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Skulsky, 786 F.2d 558, 563 (3d Cir.1986). With respect to the motion for a new trial, the Court may grant a new trial only in exceptional circumstances involving a miscarriage of justice or where evidence predominates heavily against the verdict. United States v. Bevans, 728 F.Supp. 340, 343 (E.D.Pa.), aff'd, 914 F.2d 244 (3d Cir.1990); see also United States v. Rush, 749 F.2d 1369, 1371 (9th Cir.1984). I will address each of the defendant’s contentions seriatim.

A. Failure to Establish a Necessary Element of the Case.

Fleming first argues that the Government was required, but failed, to prove that the [847] appraisal claims forms contained the misrepresentation that emissions from the Marcus Hook refinery damaged his vehicles, as alleged in the indictment. Paragraph 12 of the indictment states, “Travelers appraisers would and did write fraudulent appraisals, which falsely represented that automobiles at Ken’s Auto Body had been damaged by the Marcus Hook Refinery, when these automobiles had no such damage.” Fleming contends that because the Government chose to rely on this allegation as the basis for his offenses, the Government must show that the three appraisal claims forms submitted to Travelers state literally that the defendant’s automobiles were “damaged by the Marcus Hook Refinery.” If the defendant is correct that the appraisal forms must contain these exact words in order to sustain the jury’s guilty verdict, then defendant’s motions would have merit, as the forms undisputedly do not contain such words. Fleming’s challenge fails for at least two reasons.

1. The Government has offered sufficient evidence to prove the allegations of paragraph 12 of the indictment.

Assuming arguendo that the Government needed to prove the allegations of paragraph 12 of the indictment in order to sustain the conviction, the Court concludes that the Government offered sufficient evidence at trial to prove these allegations. Paragraph 12 of the indictment alleges that the appraisals “falsely represented” the vehicles had been damaged by the Marcus Hook refinery, not that the forms themselves explicitly stated those words. Fleming relies upon the Third Circuit’s decision in United States v. Frankel, 721 F.2d 917 (3d Cir.1983), for the proposition that when the Government has chosen to rely upon a misrepresentation as one of the elements of an indictment under the mail fraud statute, the Government must show that the defendant “explicitly” made that misrepresentation. See Memorandum of Law in Support of Post Trial Motions at 7-8. United States v. Frankel involved the dismissal of an indictment which charged mail fraud in connection with a check kiting scheme. See 721 F.2d at 917. In Frankel, the Government had alleged that the presentation of checks to banking institutions constituted “implicit” misrepresentations of “the existence of adequate funds in the accounts to cover each check written.” Id. at 919.

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United States v. Fleming, 818 F. Supp. 845, 39 Fed. R. Serv. 147, 1993 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4865, 1993 WL 127734 (E.D. Pa. 1993).

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