United States v. Louis

149 F. 277, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5015
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York
DecidedDecember 27, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 149 F. 277 (United States v. Louis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Louis, 149 F. 277, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5015 (circtsdny 1906).

Opinion

RAY, District Judge.

The facts stated and conceded upon the trial and those appearing in the stenographer’s notes are as follows:

(1) The principal in the bond sued upon, Charles C. Browne, having, on trial in the Circuit Court of the Southern District of New York, been convicted of the crime of conspiracy to defraud the United States, and duly sentenced, took a writ of error to the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit to review the judgment of conviction. On granting the writ, and pending such appeal and hearing, and on application of said defendant, Judge Edward B. Thomas, [278]*278duly designated and holding such Circuit Court, criminal term, made an order that said Browne be admitted to bail, and fixed such bail in the sum of $12,500. John A. Shields then was the clerk of 'said Circuit Court, and" also a duly appointed United States commissioner of the Southern District of New York.

(2) Thereupon, pursuant to such order of the court and judge holding the term, the said defendant Browne, with the defendants here, Charles H. Louis and Isaac Schlesinger, as his proposed sureties, appeared before said Shields for the purpose of executing and entering into the bond or recognizance required and fixed by said order. The said Shields thereupon examined said proposed sureties as to their sufficiency, and, they being sufficient, the bond in suit was duly executed, signed, and acknowledged, whereby said Browne, as principal, and said Louis and Schlesinger, as sureties, bound and obligated themselves in the usual manner and by the usual terms pf such instruments to pay said $12,500 in case of default in the condition of such bond. Said bond or recognizance, contained the following :

“Whereas, the said Circuit Court did thereupon order the said Charles C. Browne to find sufficient hail in the sum of $12,500 for his appearance at the opening of the United States.Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, on the third Tuesday of October, 1904, at the opening of count at 10:30 a. m., and to continue in force until the remitittur or mandate has been ordered and handed down, and that in default of finding such bail the said Charles C. Browne should stand committed: Now, therefore, the condition of this recognizance is such that, if the said Charles C. Browne shall personally appear as above stated and required and abide the order of the court, then this recognizance to be void; otherwise, to remain in full force and virtue.”

The obligation was to appear as stated and also to “abide the order of the court”; that is, the order of the court having power and jurisdiction to pronounce and enforce judgment. This was the Circuit Court, criminal term, of the Southern District of New York. Said Shields, as United States commissioner, took the acknowledgments, etc., to this bond or recognizance, and accepted same, and filed it with the records of such Circuit Court, of which he was the clerk.

(3) It was stated and conceded on the trial, and should appear in the record of the trial, that the appeal was heard and the conviction affirmed. This court so noted in its minutes. Whether or not a remitittur was handed down did not appear from any evidence given or record put in evidence on this trial, except in the minute book of the Circuit Court, pages of which were in evidence, but not read, the handing down of the remitittur was recited, and such order fully entered. This court understood it was in evidence, and so understands now.

(4) Thereafter, and on the 19th day of January, 1906, at the regular criminal term of the Circuit Court of the Southern District of New York, Judge Thomas again presiding, the said defendant Charles C. Browne was by the court duly called and ordered to the bar of the court and. to deliver himself to the custody of the United States marshal to execute his sentence. He was duly called and failed to respond, whereupon the court ordered that the said sureties on his [279]*279bond be called upon to produce him. This order was complied with in open court, and said sureties failed to respond or produce their principal. Thereupon the said bond was ordered forfeited, and a bench warrant was ordered to be issued. The said defendant Browne not having surrendered himself and not having been produced, this action upon the bond was commenced.

The court and judge having jurisdiction of the matter and of the defendant Browne having allowed and fixed bail at the request and on the application of the defendant, it is clear that such bail could be taken by any officer having authority to take bail in such a case. I find no statute restricting the power to take bail in such a case to the court or to a judge of the court. By section 637 of the Revised Statutes of the United States [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 499] the appointment of commissioners of the court was authorized, and they were to have and “exercise the powers which are or may be expressly conferred by law upon commissioners of Circuit Courts.” Subsequently the office of commissioners of the Circuit Court was abolished, and United States commissioners were substituted, with all the powers of commissioners of the Circuit Court. U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 499; Act May 38, 1896, c. 252, 29 Stat. 184.

By section 1015, of the Revised Statutes of the United States [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 718], it is provided:

“Bail shall be admitted upon all arrests In criminal cases where the offense is not punishable by death ; and in such cases it may be taken by any of the persons authorized by the preceding section [section 1014, Rev. St. (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 716)] to arrest and imprison offenders.”

This provision, in different language, however, and section 1014, in different language, constituted section 33 of the act of September 34, 1789, “An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States” (1 Stat. 73-91, c. 30) . But section 1015 extends the power to take bail to persons not included in the act of 1789. It is clear that section 1015 authorizes the admission to bail at any stage of the proceeding— before a hearing, or after; before indictment, or after; before conviction, or after; and, of course, pending an appeal. This is apparent when we read section 33 of the act of 1789. We are not to give the language of this section a narrow construction, and confine the power to admit to bail to the time of the arrest and bringing the offender before the court, judge, or commissioner, and thus defeat its beneficent purpose. Hoeffner v. United States, 87 Fed. 185, 30 C. C. A. 610, sustains this proposition. And again section 1014 expressly provides for hail on arrest or at the inception of the criminal proceeding, and section 1015 was not intended as a repetition. By section 1014 it is provided:

“For any crime or offense against the United States, the offender may, by any justice or judge of the United States, or by any commissioner of a Circuit Court to take bail, or by any chancellor, judge of a supreme or superior court, chief or first judge of common pleas, mayor of a city, justice of the peace, or other magistrate, of any state where he may be found, and agreeably to the usual mode of process against offenders in such state, and at the expense of the United States, he arrested and imprisoned, or bailed, as the case may be, for trial before such court of the United States as by 'law has cognizance of the offense. Copies of the process shall be returned as speedily as may be [280]

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Bluebook (online)
149 F. 277, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 5015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-louis-circtsdny-1906.