200 F. 593 | W.D.N.Y. | 1912
The defendants, the Sterling Salt Company, a domestic corporation, James W. Brice, and William S. Doolittle, stand indicted with having jointly violated section 10 of the Interstate Commerce Act (Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 382 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3160j) as amended (Act June 18, 1910, c. 309, § 10, 36 Stat. 549 [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1911, p. 1293]), in that through misrepresentation they fraudulently obtained from the Pennsylvania Railroad Company transportation from Cuylerville, N. Y., to Chicago, 111., of coarse salt contained in sacks at the rate of 10 cents per 100 pounds, the rate for transporting such commodity published and filed at Washington being 14 cents per 100 pounds. The defendants have demurred to the indictment on various grounds: First, that as it fails to aver the legal rate for the transportation of coarse salt in bulk, all averments relating to coarse salt in bulk must be disregarded; second, that the indictment does not allege that the defendants made false representation of the contents of the sacks; third, that no averment is made of any affirmative misrepresentation of the property transported or of a misrepresentation of a tariff rate; fourth, that the tariff relating to salt should have been set out in the indictment verbatim; and, generally, that misrepresentation of a rate by a shipper is not such a false statement as to conform to the requirements of the statute.
Section 10, par. 3, of the act of February 4, 1887, as amended June 18, 1910, reads as follows:
“Any person, corporation, or company, or any agent or officer thereof, who shall deliver property for transportation to any common carrier subject to the provisions of this act, or for whom, as consignor or consignee, any such carrier shall transport property, who shall knowingly and willfully, directly or indirectly, himself or by employe, agent, officer, or otherwise, by false billing, false classification, false weighing, false representation of the contents of the package or the substance of the property, false report of weight, false statement, or by any other device or means, whether with or without the consent or connivance of the carrier, its agent, or officer, obtain or attempt to obtain transportation for such property at less than the regular rates then established and in force on the line of transportation, * * * shall be deemed guilty of fraud, which is hereby declared to be a misdemeanor, and shall, upon conviction thereof in any court of the United States of competent jurisdiction within the district in which such offense was wholly or in part committed, be subject for each offense to a fine of not exceeding five thousand dollars or imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court: Provided, that the penalty of imprisonment shall not apply to artificial persons.”
The indictment is not defective for any of the causes assigned, and the objections thereto are therefore overruled.
U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 720.