United States v. North Pac. Wharves & Trading Co.

4 Alaska 552
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedApril 29, 1912
DocketNo. 836B
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 4 Alaska 552 (United States v. North Pac. Wharves & Trading Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. North Pac. Wharves & Trading Co., 4 Alaska 552 (D. Alaska 1912).

Opinion

UYONS, District Judge.

It was agreed between counsel for the defendants and for the government in this case, as well as in cause No. 837B (United States of America v. Pacific & Arctic Railway & Navigation Co., a Corporation, et al., 4 Alaska, 530), that the questions tendered by the motion might be argued and considered by the court in the same manner as if raised by demurrer. The court will therefore consider the case as if a demurrer had been interposed, for, in the [559]*559opinion of the court, the questions presented should be raised by demurrer and not by motion to quash.

The first serious question raised is whether or not the indictment is vulnerable to the attack made upon it by the demurrer on account of charging more than one crime. The defendants demurred to the indictment in this and all of the other causes wherein more than one crime is set out in the indictment, and among the grounds assigned in said demurrer is that the indictment charges more than one crime. The defendants rely on section 43 of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the district of Alaska, which provides:

“That the indictment must charge but one crime, and in one form only, except that, where the crime may be committed by use of different means, the indictment may allege the means in the alternative.”

The government contends that the section of the Code last cited is not applicable to the prosecution of crimes of the character charged in the indictment, but that, the crimes being national in character, the procedure with reference to the number of offenses or crimes which may be charged in an indictment is found in section 1024 of the Revised Statutes of the United States (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 720), which provides as follows:

“When there are several charges against any person for the same act or transaction, or for two or more acts or transactions connected together, or for two or more acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses, which may be properly joined, instead of having several indictments, the whole may be joined in one indictment in separate counts; and, if two or more indictments are found in such cases, the court may order them to be consolidated.”

The question presented is interesting, and the determination of the same is not free from difficulty. To uphold this contention, the defendants rely on the peculiar wording of certain sections 'of the Code of Criminal Procedure for the district of Alaska, and also upon the following adjudicated cases: Hornbuckle v. Toombs, 85 U. S. (18 Wall.) 648, 21 L. Ed. 966; Clinton v. Englebrecht, 80 U. S. (13 Wall.) 434, 20 L. Ed. 659; Good v. Martin, 95 U. S. 90, 24 L. Ed. 341; Reynolds v. United States, 98 U. S. 149, 25 L. Ed. 244; Miles v. United States, [560]*560103 U. S. 304, 26 L. Ed. 481; Cochran v. United States, 147 Fed. 206, 77 C. C. A. 432; Jackson v. United States, 102 Fed. 473, 42 C. C. A. 452; Thiede v. Utah, 159 U. S. 510, 16 Sup. Ct. 62, 40 L. Ed. 237; United States v. Haskell (D. C.) 169 Fed. 449; Fitzpatrick v. United States, 178 U. S. 304, 20 Sup. Ct. 944, 44 L. Ed. 1078; Welty v. United States, 14 Okl. 7, 76 Pac. 122.

It will be observed, after a careful consideration of the case cited, that Clinton v. Englebrecht and Hornbuckle v. Toombs, supra, are the leading cases cited by the defendants announcing the doctrine that the various territories created by Congress under the Constitution, and to whom Congress has delegated the power to legislate for themselves, have been empowered under the organic acts creating them to legislate on all matters of local concern not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States and the organic acts creating such territories. It will also be observed that all the organic acts creating the territories and empowering them to elect local Legislatures to legislate for said territories contain substantially the same provision as that conferring legislative authority on the territory of Utah, which is quoted in Clinton v. Englebrecht, 80 U. S. (13 Wall.) on page 444, 20 L. Ed. 659, as follows :

“The legislative power of said territory shall extend to all rightful subjects of legislation, consistent with the Constitution of the United States and the provisions of this act.”

It is apparent from such legislation that Congress' intended that the Legislatures of the various territories should be vested with full power to legislate, not only concerning legal procedure, both criminal and civil, but algo to enact any substantive, legislation not inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States and the acts of Congress creating such territories. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the cases of Clinton v. Englebrecht and Hornbuckle' v. Toombs, supra, holds that the power granted to the Legislatures to legislate for the territories, and the approval of their legislation by Congress, indicates that it was the intention o*f Congress to lodge in the local Legislatures of the territories power to [561]*561legislate when not in conflict with the Constitution of the United States or the organic acts of such territories. It must therefore be conceded to be the settled law that, in a territory where a Legislature has been provided for by act of Congress, such Legislature has the power to provide for the procedure to govern the trial of all causes without reference to whether or not the same are being conducted under the local laws of the territory or under the general laws of the United States. The Alaska cases cited by counsel, which have been passed on by our Appellate Court, deal with question of procedure in the prosecution of violations of the local laws. It must be admitted that Alaska is an organized territory, within the meaning of section 1891 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which provides:

“The Constitution and all laws of the United States which are not locally inapplicable shall have the-same force and effect within all the organized territories, and in every territory hereafter organized, as elsewhere within the United States.” Nagle v. United States, 191 Fed. 141, 111 C. C. A. 621.

But does it follow because Congress has seen fit to grant to the Legislatures of the territories, where legislative assemblies are provided to enact a complete set of laws governing procedure in all cases, that it did not intend to extend to Alaska any of the general laws of the United States providing for the procedure in federal courts ? This question must be answered after a careful consideration of the various acts of Congress relating to the organization of the district court for the district of Alaska and laws of procedure for said district. On May 17, 1884, Congress passed an act entitled “An act providing a civil government for Alaska” (23 Stat. 24, c. 53). Section 3 of that act .provides, among other things:

“That there shall be, and hereby is, established a district court for said district, with the civil and criminal jurisdiction of District Courts of the United States, and the civil and criminal jurisdiction of District Courts of the United States exercising the jurisdiction of Circuit Courts, and such other jurisdiction, not inconsistent with this act, as may be established by law.”

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