United States v. Giarratano

474 F. Supp. 809, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10826
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Louisiana
DecidedJuly 24, 1979
DocketCrim. No. 79-150
StatusPublished

This text of 474 F. Supp. 809 (United States v. Giarratano) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Giarratano, 474 F. Supp. 809, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10826 (E.D. La. 1979).

Opinion

CASSIBRY, District Judge:

This cause came on for hearing on July 11, 1979, on the motion by defendant for judgment of acquittal and/or in arrest of judgment. It was argued by all counsel and submitted.

Whereupon, after due consideration thereof:

IT IS ORDERED that the motion for judgment of acquittal be GRANTED.

REASONS

Defendant urges several grounds in support of his motion. I have considered them all, and find merit in only one: the claim that the evidence concerning the mailing related to Count 1 was not sufficient to support a jury finding of guilt under the mail fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1341.1

[810]*810Taking the view most favorable to the government, I conclude that the jury could have found the following facts with respect to Count 1. James Dixon was attempting to obtain a construction loan for the property located at 1036-38 Esplanade Ave. Dixon met with the defendant and discussed the appraisal valuation needed to obtain this loan. Dixon gave the defendant an unauthorized payment of $100. The defendant subsequently appraised the property for an amount sufficient to enable Dixon to obtain the loan. The defendant’s appraisal was submitted through channels to the French Market Homestead, which approved the loan. The homestead would not have approved the loan had it known the appraiser had received that $100 payment. Following the approval of the loan, an Act of Sale was passed before the homestead’s notary. The notary then filed the Act of Sale into the public records. A copy of the filed Act was provided the homestead. In the regular course of business at the homestead, a file clerk sent a courtesy copy of the Act of Sale to the borrower for his personal records. Dixon received this document through the mails. At the time he received the copy of the Act of Sale, the proceeds of the construction had not been completely disbursed; some disbursements were received by Dixon subsequent to the date he received that letter.

The jury could have found that the defendant “caused” the mailing of this copy of Dixon’s Act of Sale. Using the standard recently articulated in United States v. Maze, 414 U.S. 395, 94 S.Ct. 645, 648, 38 L.Ed.2d 603 (1974), I find that there was evidence to support a finding that the defendant acted with knowledge that this use of the mails would follow from his conduct, or at least that this use of the mails could reasonably have been foreseen by him. Accord Pereira v. United States, 347 U.S. 1, 74 S.Ct. 358, 363, 98 L.Ed. 435 (1954).

Much more difficult, however, is the question whether the mailing was “for the purpose of executing” the scheme to defraud, as the statute requires. Maze, supra. This presents a twofold problem. The mailing must occur prior to the fruition of the scheme and must bear a sufficiently close connection to that scheme. Maze, supra; United States v. Pollack, 175 U.S.App.D.C. 227, 234, 534 F.2d 964, 971 (1976).

The government contends that since the proceeds of the construction loan had not been completely disbursed at the time of the mailing, the mailing did occur prior to the fruition of the scheme to defraud. It is crucial to keep in mind, however, that we are concerned here with fraud on the part of Giarratano, the appraiser, not Dixon, the borrower. Giarratano’s fraud consisted of accepting money from Dixon and then making an appraisal that satisfied Dixon. By doing so, he defrauded the Central Appraisal Bureau and the homestead of his services as an unbiased, loyal appraiser. This fraud was completed, well before the copy of the Act of Sale was mailed, when the “tarnished” appraisal was submitted by the defendant. That is what Dixon paid him to do. Everything involved in the performance of his fraud was complete at that point. The actual disbursement of the construction funds was of no concern to the defendant. If, for some reason, the homestead had been unable to disburse to Dixon any of the construction funds, the defendant would have already performed the acts for which he received an unauthorized payment and thereby defrauded his employer and the homestead. Everything constituting biased and disloyal service by the defendant had already been carried out.

The Maze case, supra, is comparable. There, the defendant used someone else’s credit card to obtain motel rooms. The motel operators mailed sales slips concerning these transactions to the bank that issued the credit card, and the bank in turn mailed them to the person to whom the card was issued. The court held that the defendant’s scheme to defraud reached fruition when he checked out of the motels. Everything constituting fraudulent conduct on his part had been performed. Every[811]*811thing necessary to his obtaining what he sought by his fraud had been done. It was immaterial to him, or to any consummation of his scheme, how his fraudulent charges were subsequently handled. See also Kann v. United States, 323 U.S. 88, 65 S.Ct. 148, 151, 89 L.Ed. 88 (1944).

Even if it could be said that the defendant’s scheme had not reached fruition, there is an insufficient connection between this scheme and the mailing of a copy of Dixon’s Act of Sale. As stated by the Fifth Circuit in United States v. Crockett, 534 F.2d 589, 593 (5th Cir. 1976):

While the mailing must, as the statute requires, be “for the purpose of executing the scheme,” Kann v. United States, 323 U.S. 88, 94, 65 S.Ct. 148, 151, 89 L.Ed. 88 (1944), “[i]t is not necessary that the scheme contemplate the use of the mails as an essential element. United States v. Young, 232 U.S. 155, 34 S.Ct. 303, 58 L.Ed. 548,” Pereira v. United States, supra, 347 U.S. at 8, 74 S.Ct. at 362; see United States v. Maze, 414 U.S. 395, 400, 94 S.Ct. 645, 648, 38 L.Ed.2d 603 (1974). Indeed, it is sufficient if the mailing that is caused is “a part of the execution of the fraud,” Kann v. United States, supra, 323 U.S. at 95, 65 S.Ct. at 151, or is “incident to an essential part of the scheme,” Pereira v. United States, supra, 347 U.S. at 8, 74 S.Ct. at 363; see Parr v. United States, supra, 363 U.S. 370 at 390, 80 S.Ct. 1171 at 1183, 4 L.Ed.2d 1277.

The mailing in the instant case does not meet these standards. The essential parts of Giarratano’s scheme were the acceptance by him of an unauthorized payment from Dixon and the making by him of an appraisal on Dixon’s property. The mailing to Dixon of a courtesy copy of the document passing title to the property was neither incident to these essential parts of the scheme nor part of the execution of the fraud.

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Related

United States v. Young
232 U.S. 155 (Supreme Court, 1914)
Kann v. United States
323 U.S. 88 (Supreme Court, 1944)
Pereira v. United States
347 U.S. 1 (Supreme Court, 1954)
Parr v. United States
363 U.S. 370 (Supreme Court, 1960)
United States v. Maze
414 U.S. 395 (Supreme Court, 1974)
United States v. Hershey Moss
591 F.2d 428 (Eighth Circuit, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
474 F. Supp. 809, 1979 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-giarratano-laed-1979.