United States v. Sacein Rouhana Farhat

269 F. 33, 1920 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 806
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedOctober 26, 1920
DocketNo. 1348
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 269 F. 33 (United States v. Sacein Rouhana Farhat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sacein Rouhana Farhat, 269 F. 33, 1920 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 806 (S.D. Ohio 1920).

Opinion

SATER, District Judge.

Two indictments, Nos. 1349 and 1348, were returned at the same time against the defendant. Indictment No. 1349, consisting of a single count, was laid under the Act of October 28, 1919, known as the National Prohibition or Volstead Act (41 Stat. 305), and charges that he unlawfully and willfully manufactured at his residence for beverage purposes whisky containing more than one-half of 1 per cent, of alcohol by volume, without having obtained a permit or authorization so to do. He entered a plea of guilty and was fined.

Indictment No. 1348 charges, in the first count, that at the same time and place, in violation of section 3258, Rev. St. U. S. (Comp. St. § 5994), he had in his possession, custody, and control, a set-up still [34]*34and distilling apparatus for the production of spirituous liquors, without having the same registered as required by law; in the second count, that under section 3260 (section 5997) he carried on the business of a distiller of spirituous liquors without having given the lawfully required bond; in the third count, that in disregard of section 3257 (section 5993) he engaged in the business of a distiller of spirituous liquors with intent to defraud the United States of the tax on the spirits distilled by him; and in the fourth count, that contrary to the provisions of section 3279 (section 6019) he worked in a distillery for the production of spirituous liquors upon which no sign bearing the words “Registered Distillery” was placed and kept. When his plea of guilty was entered in case No. 1349, his counsel gave notice that he would assail the second indictment on the ground that the National Prohibition Act had repealed the internal revenue statutes, and that the defendant, if tried under indictment No. 1348, would be twice placed in jeopardy for the same offense. ' The question was not, however, raised until the case was called for trial to a jury. On account of the unexplained delay in presenting the tendered questions and the court’s doubts of their meritoriousness, the plea in abatement was overruled and the trial progressed. The defendant was acquitted on the third count, but found guilty on the first, second, and fourth. A motion for a new trial and also in arrest of judgment followed. The case is now for decision on the motions. '

[1] The primary object of the Prohibition Act is the prevention of the use of intoxicating liquors as a beverage, although it retains features of a revenue law. To effectuate that purpose the statute requires that all of its provisions shall be liberally construed. Section 3, title 2. That the manufacture of intoxicating liquors is still permissible, note the enacting clause of the statute and sections 3, 10, 11, 12, 25, and 28 of title 2. The right thus to manufacture is necessarily implied by sections 6, 18, 21, and 29 of the same title. Section 35 provides that—

“All provisions- of law that are inconsistent with this act are repealed only to the extent of such inconsistency and the regulations herein provided for the manufacture or traffic in intoxicating liquor shall be construed as in addition to existing laws. This act shall not relieve any one from paying any taxes or other charges imposed upon the manufacture or traffic in such liquor.”

Then follows the further provision that, if there be an illdgal manufacture or sale, the tax assessed against the offender shall be double the amount provided by the then existing law, with a further penalty added as to retail dealers and manufacturers, and that payment of the tax or penalty shall give no right to engage in the manufacture or sale of liquor or relieve from a criminal or civil liability incurred under existing laws. Section 28 also contemplates the continuance of the revenue laws in so far at least as they pertain to both the manufacture and the sale of intoxicating liquors in that it provides that—

“The Commissioner [of Internal Revenue], his assistants, agents, and inspectors, and all other officers of the United States, whose duty it is to enforce criminal laws, shall have all the power and protection in the enforcement of this act or any provisions thereof which is conferred by law for the [35]*35enforcement of existing laws relating to the manufacture or sale of intoxicating liquors under the law of the United States.”

Section 9, title 3, pertaining to industrial alcohol, exempts industrial alcohol plants and bonded warehouses established under that title from the provisions of a large number of sections of the revenue law, of which sections 3258, 3260, and 3279 are a part.

The act, not specifying any statute or part of a statute to be repealed, contains no express repeal. 26 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law, 718. Whatever repeal of prior statutes is effected arises by implication. By the very language of section 35, the repeal extends only to those acts or parts of acts on the same subject, which are inconsistent and irreconcilable with the provisions o.f the repealing act, and only to the extent of such conflicting provisions, and such must be the effect given to its repealing provisions. 26 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law, 719, 725; Beals v. Hale, 4 How. 37, 11 L. Ed. 865, note; Wood v. U. S., 16 Pet. 342, 366, 10 L. Ed. 987; Street Ry. Co. v. Pace, 68 Ohio St. 200, 67 N. E. 490. In State v. Roosa, 11 Ohio St. 16, 27, it is ruled that a strong repugnancy or irreconcilable inconsistency must exist, else the later statute does not by implication repeal the prior one. The provision for repeal of inconsistent acts strongly implies that there may be acts on the same subject that are not repealed. Hess v. Reynolds, 113 U. S. 73, 79, 5 Sup. Ct. 377, 28 L. Ed. 927. If the Prohibition Act and the sections of the internal revenue law here in question may both stand, such sections are not repealed. State v. Roosa, supra; Ludlow’s Heirs v. Johnston, 3 Ohio, 553, 564, 565, 17 Am. Dec. 609; Edgington v. U. S., 164 U. S. 361, 363, 17 Sup. Ct. 72, 41 L. Ed. 467. Implied repeals of the revenue law are not favored. In U. S. v. 67 Packages of Drygoods, 17 How. 85, 93 (15 L. Ed. 54), Mr. Justice Nelson, in speaking for the Supreme Court, said:

“In the interpretation of our system of revenue laws, which is very complicated, and contains numerous provisions to guard against frauds by the importers, this court has not been disposed to apply with strictness the rtie which repeals a prior statute by implication, where a subsequent one has made provision upon the same subject, and differing in some respect from the former, but have been inclined to uphold both, unless the repugnancy is clear and positive, so as to leave no doubt as to the intent of Congress, especially in cases where the new law may have been auxiliary to and in aid of the old, for the purpose of more effectually guarding against the fraud.”

The fact that the portion of the revenue law under consideration in that case related to duties on imported goods does not render the rule inapplicable. See, also, Wood v. U. S., 16 Pet. 342, 363, 10 L. Ed. 987; Saxonville Mills v. Russell, 116 U. S. 13, 21, 6 Sup. Ct. 237, 29 L. Ed. 554; Zickler v. Union Bank & Trust Co., 104 Tenn. 277, 57 S. W. 341.

The Volstead Act was designedly made drastic in its provisions.

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Bluebook (online)
269 F. 33, 1920 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 806, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sacein-rouhana-farhat-ohsd-1920.