156 F. 415 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Missouri | 1907
(specially assigned). The allegations of the bill of complaint are that complainant has a manufacturing plant and warehouse in St. Louis, from which it sells and distributes in several of the states groceries, medicines, and other merchandise through agents. August 13, 1907, the acting Assistant Attorney General for the Post Office Department directed the St. Louis Postmaster to hand to complainant charges inclosed, which charges were to the effect that complainant was engaged in a scheme to defraud, using the mails in furthering said scheme, and notifying complainant that at Washington City, September 27th, said charges would be heard, at which time complainant could appear at said hearing. And on the same day (August 13, 1907) the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Post Office Department directed the St. Louis Postmaster to withhold from delivery all mail addressed to complainant pending such hearing. August 22, 1907, the Acting Postmaster General by telegram ratified the action of the Acting Assistant Attorney General for that department. Erotn August 13, 1907, until the present time, complainant’s mail has been held in the St. Louis Post Office and delivery thereof refused. So that the question is: Can the Post Office Department, pending an investigation, which may or may not result in a “fraud order,” withhold mail for six weeks of time?
The statutes provide that “the Postmaster General may on evidence satisfactory to him issue a fraud order.” A fraud order is one directing the post office of the addressee to return all mail of such addressee to the senders, sending the same back to the senders directly if the name of such sender is on the envelope, and, when such name is not on the envelope, to send the same to the dead letter office so that that branch of the department can return the letters to the senders; both classes of mail first being stamped “Fraudulent.” The statute authorizing these “fraud orders” needs no defense from the many assaults so often made. There should be, and must be, some method of preventing the use of tlie mails in furthering fraudulent schemes, and to say that the use of the mails must go on until judicial proceed
But as to whether it is a scheme to swindle, or an honest enterprise, can only be reached by investigation, and this is what the Post Office Department has set on foot. To determine this the Postmaster General will receive evidence for the complainant, as well as against it. And on all questions of fact the findings of the Postmaster General within the scope of the statute will be conclusive and binding upon the courts, as has heretofore been held by this court as well as by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals for this Circuit in the Kansas City Post Office case quite recently. Harris v. Rosenberger, 145 Fed. 449, 76 C. C. A. 225. But such findings, to be binding upon the court, must be after investigation and a hearing. It is very doubtful if such findings are conclusive in the absence of a hearing, because, to conclude the fact, either all the facts must have been submitted to the Postmaster General, or an opportunity to present the same.
The authority of the Postmaster General, as well as of any other department, is fixed by statute, or, as is sometimes the case, fixed, by the Constitution. But in this case a “fraud order” has not been issued, and it cannot be known that one will be issued pending the hearing. A dismissal of the proceedings, or .a “fraud order,” will be the result of the hearing September 27th, or at such other time as the case may be taken up and concluded. It is enough to know that as yet a
It is therefore the opinion of the court that this order of the Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Post Office Department, even though ratified by an Acting Postmaster General later on, was unauthorized, because there is no statute susceptible of a construction giving such authority; and a proper order will be made directing the defendant herein to act as if no such order had been given.