220 F. 63 | 3rd Cir. | 1915
(after stating the facts as above). The defendants were indicted for conspiracy under section 37 of the United •States Criminal Code (section 5440, Revised Statutes), to violate section 29b of the Bankruptcy Act of July 1, 1898, and upon trial were convicted. Section 5440, R. S., under which the charge of conspiracy was made, provides that “if two or more persons conspire * * * to commit any offense against the United States, *. * * and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the corispir
The assignments of error are numerous, and extend to the sufficiency of the indictment, the relevancy of the testimony, and the charge of the court. The error most insistently urged to have been committed by the court below was its' refusal to g;rant a motion to quash the indictment.
The indictment charged that Louis and David Steigman unlawfully conspired and fraudulently agreed together that Louis Steigman should commit an act of bankruptcy, and thereafter be adjudged bankrupt, and that, while a bankrupt, he (Louis Steigman) should knowingly and fraudulently conceal from the trustee of his estate in bankruptcy certain described property thereto belonging, and alleged acts in furtherance of the design, substantially as recited in the statement of the case.
The first and principal matter urged as a defect in the indictment is that “the indictment failed to show that a trustee in bankruptcy for the said Louis Steigman was ever appointed.” In support of this contention, the -defendants cited no case directly in point, but relied upon deductions from cases decisive of altogether different matters. Alkon v. United States, 163 Fed. 810, 90 C. C. A. 116; Kerrch v. United States, 171 Fed. 366, 96 C. C. A. 258; Gilbertson v. United States. 168 Fed. 672, 94 C. C. A. 158; Pettibone v. United States, 148 U. S. 197, 13 Sup. Ct. 542, 37 L. Ed. 419.
“The crime of ‘conspiracy’ is sufficiently charged if it be stated that two or more persons, naming them, conspired (that, is, agreed together) to commit some offense against the United States (that is, commit some act declared to be a crime by some statute of the United States); and it is also charged that one or more of such parties did an act to effect (that is, carry out) the object of such conspiracy. * * * In charging a conspiracy to*66 commit a crime against the United States and overt acts doné to effect the ob,iect of such conspiracy, it is not necessary to allege that the crime which the parties conspired to commit was actually committed, or that any act in and of itself evil was done in aid of effecting the object of such conspiracy.” United States v. Wupperman (D. C.) 216 Fed. 135; Ryan v. United States, 216 Fed. 13, 31, 132 C. C. A. 257.
The crime of conspiracy as contemplated by section 5440, R. S., has its origin in an agreement between two or more persons to do an act prohibited by law, and it is completed when an overt act is done toward that end, without regard to a violation of the law by the consummation of the act prohibited. In United States v. Cohn et al. (C. C.) 142 Fed. 983, a charge of conspiracy against the defendants was made under the same statute and alleged substantially the same acts as in the case under consideration. It was demurred to upon the ground that the acts of concealment were committed before the proceedings in bankruptcy were begun, and the contention was made that a conspiracy to commit such acts before bankruptcy is not a crime. In overruling the demurrer, the court said :
“A conspiracy to commit a crime always, in the nature of the case, precedes the commission of the crime; and in my opinion it does not follow, because at the time that a conspiracy is entered into to conceal property from a trustee no trustee has been appointed and no proceedings in bankruptcy begun, that therefore the crime of conspiracy under section 5440 cannot have occurred. The indictment alleges, as a part of the conspiracy, a plan to bring about the filing of petitions in involuntary bankruptcy and adjudications thereon, and that, pursuant to the conspiracy, property was removed and concealed before the proceedings were taken, was intentionally omitted from the schedules, and was kept concealed from the trustee after his appointment and qualification. In my opinion, such a conspiracy constitutes a criminal offense. The true test is: Could a conviction be had if no bankruptcy proceedings were ever taken? I think it could, if, in addition to the organization of the conspiracy, any of the parties to it did any act to effect the object of the conspiracy. Undoubtedly a criminal prosecution in such a case would be harsh and unusual; but, in my opinion, a crime would have been committed in such' a case, even if no proceedings in bankruptcy were in fact ever taken. A conspiracy to murder, joined with a single act done by the conspirators to effect the object of the conspiracy, would be á crime under section 5440, and would not cease to be a crime because no murder was committed.”
In Williamson v. United States, 207 U. S. 425, 28 Sup. Ct. 163, 52 L. Ed. 278, the Supreme Court held that under section 5440, R. S., the conspiracy to commit a crime against the United States is itself the offense, without reference to whether the crime which the conspirators have conspired to commit is consummated.
In view of the fact that in this case the defendants were charged by indictment with the crime of conspiring to violate a statute of the United States, and were not charged by the indictment with the actual violation of that statute, we are of opinion that the appointment of a trustee was not essential to complete the offense of conspiracy, and therefore the allegation of the appointment of a trustee was not essential in charging that offense. In determining what is essential in charging a crime, the test is not whether the charge might possibly have been made with greater particularity and certainty, but whether it contains every element of the offense intended to be charged, sufficient
There is no duplicity in an indictment which alleges that Eouis Steigman unlawfully concealed property from his trustee in bankruptcy, and charges a conspiracy between Eouis Steigman and, David Steigman to procure the doing of that very thing. Heike v. United States, 227 U. S. 131, 33 Sup. Ct. 226, 57 L. Ed. 450, Ann. Cas. 1914C, 128.
In Berkowitz v. United States, supra, this court held that conspiracy under section 5440, R. S., whether to commit a misdemeanor or a felony, is, as it was at common law, not a felony, but merely a misdemeanor. It is recognized that offenses against section 29 of the Bankruptcy Act are not felonies, but are merely misdemeanors. 2 Loveland on Bankruptcy, 1226. The conspiracy charged in this case
The remaining specifications to the sufficiency of the indictment, which go to the certainty and particularity of the property concealed, are entirely without merit.
The offense oí conspiracy to commit the offense of concealing goods from a trustee in bankruptcy is, from the very nature of the acts done or contemplated, difficult to prove. Conspiracies are not hatched or engaged in openly, and the concealment of goods, as indicated by the word itself, is done with secrecy. When these or either of these offenses are susceptible of proof by direct testimony, it is more accidental than usual, and, as a result, evidence in proof of either must be largely, and usually is wholly, circumstantial. Such was the character of the testimony admitted in this case, which we find quite sufficient to sustain the verdict rendered. In admitting this testimony, and submitting it to the jury with its instructions .upon the law, we find no error committed by the trial court.
The judgment below is affirmed.