United States v. National Dairy Products Corp.

313 F. Supp. 534, 1970 Trade Cas. (CCH) 73,194, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11753
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 12, 1970
DocketNo. 20542
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 313 F. Supp. 534 (United States v. National Dairy Products Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. National Dairy Products Corp., 313 F. Supp. 534, 1970 Trade Cas. (CCH) 73,194, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11753 (W.D. Mo. 1970).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN W. OLIVER, District Judge.

I

Defendant Raymond J. Wise has filed a petition for writ of error coram nobis to vacate the judgment of conviction entered against him in this cause on June 29, 1964. Mr. Wise was named and convicted as a co-defendant of National Dairy in Counts XI, XII, and XIII of the indictment. Both defendants’ post-trial motions were denied for reasons stated in 231 F.Supp. 663. Both defendants appealed. On November 30, 1964, for appropriate personal reasons related to the health of his wife, defendant Wise dismissed his appeal. Appropriate orders were thereafter entered in this Court to maintain judicial control of Mr. Wise’s case until after the final determination of National Dairy’s appeal.

National Dairy’s appeal followed the course reflected in 350 F.2d 321 (8th Cir., 1965); 384 U.S. 883, 86 S.Ct. 1913, 16 L.Ed.2d 995 (1966); 262 F.Supp. 447 (W.D.Mo.,1967); 384 F.2d 457 (8th Cir., 1967); and 390 U.S. 957, 88 S.Ct. 1032, 19 L.Ed.2d 1151 (1968), with the ultimate result that National Dairy’s convictions in regard to ten of the counts of the indictment were affirmed, in none of which was Mr. Wise named as a co-defendant, but National Dairy’s convictions in regard to Counts XI, XII and XIII, in which Mr. Wise was named as a co-defendant, were reversed and remanded for a new trial. The Government, for appropriate reasons stated of record, and without objection, dismissed Counts XI, XII, and XIII on May 9, 1968, as to National Dairy.

On the same day we entered an order, approved by both sides, which vacated and set aside the $52,500 fine imposed against Mr. Wise and which terminated the probation granted him under a modified order. The question of whether Mr. Wise’s conviction should be vacated and set aside had been the subject of discussion between the parties but this Court [536]*536was neither requested, nor was it required by law, to make a definitive ruling on that question in light of the parties’ agreement on an approved order which afforded Mr. Wise full practical relief under the circumstances which then existed.

It is therefore apparent that full relief from all the then existing consequences of Mr. Wise’s judgment of conviction was granted Mr. Wise by our order of May 9, 1968, without any objection being registered on the part of the Government. It is also obvious that a grant of additional relief in regard to other consequences of Mr. Wise’s conviction which came into being since our order of May 9, 1968, was entered would not have any practical effect so far as the criminal ease is concerned; our earlier grant of relief, made pursuant to the order approved by counsel for all parties, effectively relieved Mr. Wise of all obligation to pay any fine and terminated his sentence of probation.

The significant circumstance which came into being after our order of May 9, 1968 was the action taken in June, 1968 by the plaintiffs in the numerous pending civil treble damage antitrust actions which, for the first time, named Mr. Wise as a party defendant.

It is, of course, apparent that the only reason why Mr. Wise presently seeks to have his judgments of conviction fully set aside and vacated is to prevent their introduction in evidence against him in the pending civil treble damage antitrust actions. There can be little doubt that Mr. Wise would not have filed his pending coram nobis petition except for the fact that the plaintiffs in the civil treble damage cases have definitively indicated in pretrial proceedings in those eases that they intend to attempt to seek the benefit of the collateral consequence which a criminal conviction has under Section 5 of the Clayton Act in the trial of the civil treble damage actions.

When the question of whether adequate and full relief should have been granted on May 9, 1968 in regard to all the then existing consequences of Mr. Wise’s conviction, the Government properly determined that justice required that it not oppose the granting of such relief. We are not suggesting, of course, that the Government should not have raised the question with defense counsel in regard to whether Mr. Wise’s conviction should have been set aside back in May of 1968. Nor are we suggesting that the Government should not have reiterated its position in connection with the pending petition for coram nobis. The question presented, although it is one unlikely to be presented under similar circumstances in very many cases, is one which should be judicially determined, particularly when the Government’s general duties in regard to the enforcement of the antitrust laws of the United States are considered.

We are suggesting, however, that we do not agree with the concluding statement in the amicus brief filed on behalf of the civil treble damage plaintiffs that the “granting a writ of error coram nobis vacating the judgment and conviction of defendant Wise would violate a public policy with respect to enforcement of the anti-trust laws.”1 We believe the plaintiffs in the civil cases are on much sounder ground when they suggest that “It would be improper for the Court to consider the effect the granting of a writ * * * might have in simplifying the civil actions presently pending before the Court” and when they suggest that “The principal criteria which should guide the Court in the determination of the merits of defendant Wise’s petition is the effect of the conviction on defendant Wise, either directly or collaterally.”

[537]*537II

The Government’s basic contention that “the judgment of guilt as to Mr. Wise is irrevocable and cannot be changed” rest primarily upon language from the majority opinion of Sunal v. Large, 332 U.S. 174, 67 S.Ct. 1588, 91 L.Ed. 1982 (1947), and upon lower federal court cases which rely upon that language. Sunal and the vast majority of the other cases upon which the Government relies were decided many years before the Supreme Court’s 1963 landmark posteonviction trilogy of Townsend v. Sain, 372 U.S. 293, 83 S.Ct. 745, 9 L.Ed.2d 770 (1963); Fay v. Noia, 372 U.S. 391, 83 S.Ct. 822, 9 L.Ed.2d 837 (1962); and Sanders v. United States, 373 U.S. 1, 83 S.Ct. 1068, 10 L.Ed.2d 148 (1963). Sanders v. United States, a Section 2255 case, stated that “the principles developed” in Fay v. Noia and Townsend v. Sain (which were state prisoner habeas corpus cases) in regard to “the circumstances under which a prisoner may be foreclosed from federal collateral relief * * * govern equally” in a Section 2255 proceeding. The Government concedes that principles applicable to a Section 2255 motion are also applicable to a comm nobis proceeding.

In Stubenrouch v. Sheriff of St. Louis County, Clayton, Missouri, (W.D.Mo., 1966) 260 F.Supp. 910, 911, this Court recognized the small area of coram nobis jurisdiction which a federal prisoner may still invoke. We there stated;

United States v. Morgan, 346 U.S. 502, 74 S.Ct. 247, 98 L.Ed. 248 * * * (1954), teaches that in regard to federal prisoners, jurisdiction in the nature of coram nobis is conferred upon a federal committing court by the All Writs Section of the Judicial Code (28 U.S.C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Gross
446 F. Supp. 948 (D. New Jersey, 1978)
Yde v. State
376 A.2d 465 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1977)
United States v. Russo
358 F. Supp. 436 (D. New Jersey, 1973)
Peterson v. State of Missouri
355 F. Supp. 1371 (W.D. Missouri, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
313 F. Supp. 534, 1970 Trade Cas. (CCH) 73,194, 1970 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 11753, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-national-dairy-products-corp-mowd-1970.