Zito v. United States

64 F.2d 772, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4219
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 21, 1933
Docket4894, 4895
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 64 F.2d 772 (Zito v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Zito v. United States, 64 F.2d 772, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4219 (7th Cir. 1933).

Opinion

BALTZELL, District Judge.

The appellant Prank Zito and a large number of other individuals, together with appellant, the Hubinger Company, a corporation, were charged in an indictment with entering into an' unlawful conspiracy for the purpose of violating the National Prohibition Act (27 USCA). Some of the individual defendants in the indictment were granted separate trials, and a directed verdict of not guilty was ordered for other defendants. The following named persons, however, were convicted and are prosecuting this appeal, namely, Prank Zito, Jasper Blanda, Vincent Salvo, Carl Giganti, Joe Pumilia, Ernest Dinore, and Biaggio Callebruseo, together with the corporation, the Hubinger Company, hereinafter referred to as the company.

Appellant company is a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the state of Iowa, with a plant located at Keokuk in that state, from which plant several car *773 loads of com sugar wore shipped to some of the individual appellants. On the day of the commencement of the trial of this cause, it filed its motion for a bill of particulars, in which motion the only information sought was first, the name or names of the person or persons by or through whom it is claimed to have conspired and agreed to commit the offenses described in the indictment, and, second, when and where such person or persons, if any, did conspire and agree. Error is assigned in the overruling of such motion by the triad court. A motion for a bill of particulars is addressed to the sound discretion of the court and no error can be predicated thereon unless there is an abuse of such discretion. Wong Tai v. U. S., 273 U. S. 77, 47 S. Ct. 300, 71 L. Ed. 545.

A corporation can act only through its officers and agents, and appellant company at all times knew the names of its officers, agents, and employees. It also knew the scope of the authority of each of such persons. The names and various acts of such persons were peculiarly within the knowledge of appellant company. The trial court did not abuse its discretion, and the motion for a bill of particulars was properly overruled.

A jury for the trial of this eause was “tendered and accepted,” and was composed of nine men and three women. One of the assignments of error is that the jury was not legally constituted and was not a valid jury. The jury was accepted by both the government and the defendants, without a challenge for cause. No question as to the competency of women to serve upon the jury was raised, either before it was accepted or at any other time during the progress of the trial. It was not even presented in the mo-lion for a new trial, but was, for the first time, presented in the motion in arrest of judgment. Tt is the law that “jurors to serve in the courts of the United States, in each State respectively, shall have iho same qualifications * * '* and he entitled to the same exemptions, as jurors of the highest court of law in such State may have, and be entitled to at the time when such jurors for service in the courts of the United States are summoned.” 28 USCA § 411. The Legislature of the state of Illinois enacted a law in 1929 wherein women were recognized as qualified to serve as jurors. That law was, however, declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the state of Illinois on the 30th day of April, 1931, less than thirty days subsequent to the sentence of appellants in this case. People ex rel. v. Barnett, 344 Ill. 62, 376 N. E. 108, 76 A. L. R. 1044.

The question, therefore, presented to the court is whether appellants waived their right to object to the qualifications of the jurors and to the jury as constituted, where no challenge was made and no objection raised until after the return of the verdict. They were extended the opportunity to examine each juror called for service. It was apparent that some of the jurors were women. Had they desired to challenge them upon that ground, they had an opportunity to do so. Knowing the facts they cannot sit idly by, make no objection, and then after a verdict of guilty is returned, challenge it upon the ground that the jury was not legally constituted and was not a valid jury. Individuals called for jury service may be disqualified because of age, residence, citizenship, sex, property, etc., and might be subject to challenge for any one of these reasons, but if no objection is made and such person is permitted to remain upon the jury, the litigants being advised thereof, and the case is tried and a verdict returned, it is then too late to urge an objection for such reason. This is true even where the failure to challenge the juror may be based on excusable want of knowledge or of neglect. The excuse of want of knowledge, however, cannot be offered in this case. It is now well settled that the failure to challenge a juror for cause is waived and objection cannot be first urged after verdict. Kohl v. Lehlback, 360 U. S. 293, 16 S. Ct. 304, 40 L. Ed. 432; Alexander v. U. S., 138 U. S. 353, 11 S. Ct. 350, 34 L. Ed. 954; U. S. v. Rosenstein et al. (C. C. A.) 34 F.(2d) 630, certiorari denied 280 U. S. 581, 50 S. Ct. 33, 74 L. Ed. 631; Chase v. People, 40 Ill. 352; Wassum v. Feeney, 121 Mass. 93, 23 Am. Rep. 258.

The Supreme Court of the state of Illinois has recently sustained convictions in eases where the jury was composed partly of women and where defendants failed to challenge the array, but raised the question for the first time after verdict and on motion for a new trial. The failure to make the objection at the proper time amounted to a waiver. People v. Hotchkiss, 347 Ill. 217, 179 N. E. 524; People v. Gibbs, 349 Ill. 83, 181 N. E. 628.

Appellants, having failed to challenge the women jurors at the proper time, and having failed to present the question of the validity of the jury until after verdict, are deemed to have waived that question and cannot now be heard to complain.

The next question to be determined is whether or not there is substantial evidence *774 from which the jury could find the appellants guilty of the charge contained in the indictment.

It is the contention of appellants that if any offenses were committed, they were separate, substantive offenses, and not a conspiracy, as charged. The trial extended over a number of days and the evidence is therefore quite voluminous. It is, however, not necessary to review it in its entirety to establish the fact that a conspiracy did exist, as charged in the indictment. Appellant Frank Zito and one Sam Zito who was convicted in this ease, but given a suspended sentence, were operating places where liquor was illegally possessed and sold in the city of Springfield early in the year 1928. After-wards, appellant Zito purchased from appellant company large quantities of corn sugar, lie also' purchased large quantities of yeast and a large number of tin cans. Late in the fall of 1928, appellant Salvo joined him, and there were shipped to them at No. 930 East Carpenter street, Springfield, Illinois, eight carloads of O.K. and Tiger Brand com sugar by appellant company. They also purchased at Tenth and Carpenter streets an average of 6,000 pounds of yeast per month from Fleisehmann Company for a number of months, and a large number of tin cans, similar to those used in the transportation of alcohol.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
64 F.2d 772, 1933 U.S. App. LEXIS 4219, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zito-v-united-states-ca7-1933.