United States v. Rintelen

233 F. 793, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1608
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 29, 1916
DocketNo. 8-295
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 233 F. 793 (United States v. Rintelen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. 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. Rintelen, 233 F. 793, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1608 (S.D.N.Y. 1916).

Opinion

WOLVERTON, District Judge.

The defendants are indicted for a conspiracy in violation of the first section of what is commonly known as the Sherman Act. It is declared by that section that every conspiracy in- restraint of trade or commerce among the several states or with foreign nations is illegal. The sufficiency of the indictment is brought to test by a motion to quash on the part of the defendant Frank S. Monnett, in which Jacob C. Taylor joins. At the argument I was inclined to the opinion that the motion to quash was well taken, in view of the Cruikshank Case and others holding to the same doctrine. Upon a careful examination of the authorities, however, I have arrived at the conclusion that the indictment is sufficient. I will proceed to state my reasons therefor.

[1,2] This is not an indictment under section 37 of the Criminal Code (Act March 4, 1909, c. 321, 35 Stat. 1096 [Comp. St. 1913, § 10201]), and it is not necessary that it set out that one or more of the parties have done any act to effect the object of the conspiracy. Nash v. United States, 229 U. S. 373, 378, 33 Sup. Ct. 780, 57 L. Ed. 1232. The sufficiency of the indictment is to be measured more nearly by the sufficiency of an indictment for the common law offense of conspiracy. Under the common law the conspiring together is the offense, and on proof thereof a conviction is warranted. 8 Cyc. 624.

“An indictment may be sustained, wherever there is a conspiracy for an unlawful purpose, or to effect a lawful purpose, by unlawful means.” State v. Rowley, 12 Conn. 101, 112.

As said in Commonwealth v. Waterman, 122 Mass. 43, 57:

“It is the combination of two or more to do something unlawful, either as a means or as an ultimate end, which constitutes the crime; and many acts not punishable by indictment have been held to come within this definition. It is said to be sufficient if the end proposed, or the means to be employed, are by reason of the power of the combination, particularly dangerous to the public interests, or particularly injurious to some individual, although not criminal.”

I call attention to the fact that the statute is especially calculated to protect the public interests, while it may be true that it does protect private interests as well.

[795]*795[3, 4] The indictment in the present case is drawn with reference to the ultimate end to be effected by the conspiracy, namely, the reconstraint of trade or commerce between this and foreign nations, while it attempts at least to set out the means by which the object was to be attained. By way of inducement, so styled, it is alleged:

That a large number of individuals, copartnerships, and corporations called “manufacturers” were engaged in various states of the United States in the manufacture of munitions of war, military and naval stores, including rifles, cannon, and other weapons of war, also locomotives, cars, automobiles, aeroplanes, and tlie like, and railroad materials and other articles of many kinds, all of which were of a character adapted for use in war on land or at sea; that said articles were manufactured for the sole purpose of sale and shipment in trade and commerce with 'Great Britain, France, Russia, and Italy, and other foreign nations; that the manufacturers were engaged in the business of delivering and shipping said.articles to persons, corporations, and organized bodies of men, from the state in which they were so manufactured, to and through the port of New York, and other ports of the United States, to foreign countries; that divers persons, corporations, and organized bodies of men other than said manufacturers were also engaged in so delivering, shipping, and transporting such articles from states of the United States to said foreign countries; that said manufacturers, etc., so engaged in foreign trade and commerce, employed large numbers of men, both in the producing and in the manufacturing of said articles, and in selling, shipping, and transporting them, in foreign trade and commerce, and said articles were continuously moved therein; that said articles, when it was necessary, were continuously moved from one state of the United States to other states; “that all of the names and localities of said manufacturers and said other parties so engaged in foreign trade and commerce as aforesaid, and the times, amounts, and routes of such shipments and transportations, are not known to the grand jurors aforesaid, and are so numerous as to preclude their enumeration in this indictment.”

It is then further alleged;

“That Franz Rintelen, alias Fred Hansen, alias Miller, alias Muller, alias Edward Y. Gasche, alias Edward V. Gates, David Lamar, alias Lanauer, alias David II. Lewis, Frank Buchanan, Jacob O. Taylor, IT. Robert Fowler, Frank S. Monnett, Herman Sehulteis, and Henry B. Martin, hereinafter called the ‘defendants,’ and divers other persons whose names are to the grand jurors unknown, each of whom well knew the facts as to said foreign commerce hereinbefore stated and alleged, at and within the said Southern district of New York and within the jurisdiction of this court, unlawfully did knowingly and willfully engage in a conspiracy to restrain the aforesaid foreign trade and commerce, and to restrain, hinder, and prevent the transportation of said articles in.said foreign trade and commerce, so far as, and at such times, places, and as to such of said articles, and in such ways as they might thereafter be able so to do, and to restrain, prevent, and hinder the producing or manufacture of said articles for the sole purpose of restraining, preventing, and hindering the shipment and transporting in foreign trade and commerce of such of said articles and in such ways and at such times and places as Ihoy might be able so to do; that the purpose and object of said conspiracy was not confined to any particular articles, times, places, ways, and means, but the said defendants conspired and intended, at any time or place, and by any ways or means (some of which were not definitely determined upon by said defendants), to restrain, prevent, and hinder such shipments in foreign trade and commerce; and the particular articles, times, places, ways, and means determined upon by said defendants are not known to the grand jurors aforesaid.”

The indictment then sets out the alleged means to be employed ta effect the objects of the conspiracy. Now, here are set out the conditions existing with especial fullness, all leading up to the engaging [796]*796in foreign trade and commerce, a matter affecting the public in general, and then it is alleged that the purpose of the conspiracy was to restrain, prevent, and hinder such shipments in foreign trade and commerce.

It is laid down in United States v. Cruikshank et al., 92 U. S. 542, 558, 23 L. Ed. 588, that:

“The object of the indictment is, first, to furnish the accused with such a description of the charge against him as will enable him to make his defense, and avail himself of his conviction or acquittal for protection against a further prosecution for the same cause; and, second, to inform the court of the facts alleged, so that it may decide whether they are sufficient in law to support a conviction, if one should be had. For this facts are to be stated, not conclusions of law alone.

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Bluebook (online)
233 F. 793, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rintelen-nysd-1916.