9 F. 693 | U.S. Cir. Ct. | 1881
(orally.) Under the provisions of the internal revenue laws of the United States, one Phineas Ayer, in December, 1878, procured a bond with sureties in the sum of $30,000, being an ordinary match-stamp bond, in the form then required by the commissioner of internal revenue, to secure the payment due to the United States for certain internal revenue stamps, to he delivered to Ayer on credit as a manufacturer of matches. As a necessary condition to the acceptance of this bond and of the sureties, the regulations of the treasury department required that an affidavit of the surety should lie made before some officer qualified to administer an oath, signed by the surety, and setting forth his pecuniary responsibility. Such an affidavit was signed by the plaintiff in error and by his wife, Matilda S. Ralph in this case, before a proper officer. The indictment charges that the plaintiff in error procured bis wife to sign the affidavit, and that she committed perjury in signing it. Before the
After the recording of the verdict, a motion was made by the plaintiff in error for a new trial, and several affidavits were filed in support thereof, the principal object of which was, apparently, to show that the declaration of the counsel that a verdict of guilty might be rendered was unauthorized, and that there were several witnesses present whose testimony the plaintiff in error desired to introduce to show that the statements contained in the affidavit were true, and that his counsel was unwilling and declined to call the witnesses and introduce their testimony, relying upon the proposition that the affidavit was not an instrument authorized by law, and therefore perjury could not be assigned upon it. It will be seen, therefore, that after the introduction of certain evidence, further evidence was waived, and an admission made by the counsel, in the presence and hearing of the