Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/157/160/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 20:02:21+00:00

Document:
The omission of the formal endorsement of an indictment as "a true bill," signed by the foreman of the grand jury, is not necessarily and under all circumstances fatal, although it is advisable that the indictment should be endorsed.
Such a defect is waived if the objection be not made in the first instance and before trial.
Pleading to an indictment admits its genuineness as a record.
The provision in the Act of June 27, 1890, c. 634, 26 Stat. 182, forbidding an agent, attorney, or other person engaged in preparing, presenting, or prosecuting a claim for a pension under that act from demanding or receiving a greater fee than ten dollars for his services is constitutional.
An indictment for violating that provision which describes the defendant as a "lawyer" is sufficient.
The offense against that act is committed when a sum greater than ten dollars has been taken, without regard to the fact whether the pension money has or has not been received.
When the amount of the excess so taken is unknown to the grand jury, it is proper to allege that fact in the indictment.
It is unnecessary to aver a demand for the return of the money wrongfully taken.
The omission to charge that the offense was "contrary to the form of the statutes in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the United States" is immaterial.
"That no agent, attorney, or other person engaged in preparing, presenting, or prosecuting any claim under the provisions of this act shall directly or indirectly contract for, demand, receive, or retain for such services in preparing, presenting, or prosecuting such claim a sum greater than ten dollars, which sum shall be payable only upon the order of the Commissioner of Pensions, by the pension agent making payment of the pension allowed, and any person who shall violate any of the provisions of this section, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or claimant the whole or any part of a pension or claim allowed or due such pensioner or claimant under this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall, for each and every such offense, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or be imprisoned at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court."
children, and dependent parents,' approved June 27, 1890, to-wit, a claim made by and on behalf of one Julia Johnson, under the said act of Congress, as the widow of Lewis Johnson, deceased, late a soldier in the military service of the United States during the war of the Rebellion, to-wit, a private in Co. C, 87 Reg., Co. B, 84 U.S.C. Vol. Inf., feloniously and wrongfully did violate the provisions of the fourth section of the said act of Congress in that he did then and there feloniously and wrongfully demand, receive, and retain of and from the said claimant, Julia Johnson, for his said services in preparing, presenting, and prosecuting her said claim for pension aforesaid, a sum of money greater than ten dollars, the exact amount thereof being to the jurors aforesaid unknown."
"on the ground that the law under which said indictment was found is unconstitutional and void, for the reason that Congress has no power to regulate the price of labor, nor impair the obligation of contracts. 2. that only the pensioner can make complaint. No case can be maintained unless affidavit is made by pensioner. 3. Charge is not sustained by the claim set out."
The demurrer having been overruled, he entered a plea of not guilty. A trial was had which resulted in a verdict of guilty. A motion for a new trial having been overruled, the defendant was sentenced to imprisonment for three months. To reverse such judgment he sued out this writ of error.
"This omission in an indictment is simply the omission of a form, which, if oftentimes found convenient and useful, is in reality immaterial and unimportant."
"In the absence of a mandatory statute, it is the better view that both the words 'a true bill' and the signature of the foreman may be dispensed with if the fact of the jury's finding appears in any other form in the record."
See also State v. Creighton, 1 Nott & McC. 256; State v. Cox, 6 Ired. (Law) 440. In Gardner v. People, 3 Scammon 83, the court held that the signature of the foreman, though a statutory requirement, would be presumed if the indictment was recorded.
Nevertheless, as it is not an unvarying rule for the grand jury to return into court only the indictments which they have found, it is advisable at least that the indictment be endorsed according to the ancient practice, for such endorsement is a short, convenient, and certain method of informing the court of their action.
The defect, however, is waived if objection is not made in the first instance and before trial, for it does not go to the substance of the charge, but only to the form in which it is presented. There is a general unanimity of the authorities to this effect. In State v. Agnew, 52 Ark. 275, it was held that a statute requiring an endorsement of "a true bill," signed by the foreman, was directory, and the defect of a lack of such endorsement was waived unless made before pleading. In McGuffie v. State, 17 Ga. 497, while holding that the usual practice of endorsement was advisable, the court said that the objection on account thereof was "an exception which goes rather to the form than to the merits of the proceeding," and too late after trial. See also State v. Mertens, 14 Mo. 94; State v. Murphy, 47 Mo. 274; State v. Shippey, 10 Minn. 223; People v. Johnston, 48 Cal. 549, and Wau-kon-chaw-neek-law v. United States, Morris (Iowa) 332.
in matter of form only which shall not tend to the prejudice of the defendant."
The endorsement was no part of the charge against the defendant. If no indictment had in fact been found by the grand jury -- in other words, if there was no legal accusation against him -- the defendant should have objected on this ground when the court called upon him to plead to this, which it assumed to have been properly presented to it. "The very fact of pleading to it admits its genuineness as a record." State v. Clarkson, 3 Ala. 378, 383. Instead of denying the existence of any legal accusation, the defendant demurred to it on the ground of insufficiency, thus abandoning all question of form and challenging only the substance. When the demurrer was overruled, he entered a plea of not guilty, and, that being determined against him by the verdict of the jury, he interposed a motion for a new trial, and one in arrest of judgment, without ever suggesting to the court that there was before it no indictment returned by the grand jury of the district. The objection, now for the first time made, comes too late. Whatever action the circuit court might have been compelled to take if the matter had been called to its attention in the first instance, the defect is not one which goes to the substance of the accusation, and will not now avail.
contract in the course of that employment which is against public policy. The possession of this power by government in no manner conflicts with the proposition that, generally speaking, every citizen has a right freely to contract for the price of his labor, services, or property.
The pension granted by the government is a matter of bounty.
"No pensioner has a vested legal right to his pension. Pensions are the bounties of the government, which Congress has the right to give, withhold, distribute, or recall at its discretion. Walton v. Cotton, 19 How. 355."
United States v. Teller, 107 U. S. 64, 107 U. S. 68.
Congress, being at liberty to give or withhold pensions, may prescribe who shall receive, and determine all the circumstances and conditions under which any application therefor shall be prosecuted. No man has a legal right to a pension, and no man has a legal right to interfere in the matter of obtaining pensions for himself or others. The whole control of that matter is within the domain of congressional power. United States v. Hall, 98 U. S. 343. Having power to legislate on this whole matter, to prescribe the conditions under which parties may assist in procuring pensions, it has the equal power to enforce by penal provisions compliance with its requirements. There can be no reasonable question of the constitutionality of this statute.
"defendant, then and there being a person engaged in preparing, presenting, and prosecuting a claim for pension upon the said United States . . . by and on behalf of one Julia Johnson."
and that while so engaged he did demand, receive, and retain more than the sum which by the statute he was permitted to do.
It is further objected that there is no averment that Julia Johnson, named in the indictment, was a pensioner of the United States, or that any money of any kind or character was ever paid to defendant for her, or that any money was ever paid to any person for her. It is insisted that the purpose of the statute is to protect pension money only, and that until pension money is received, the agent or attorney is not within the reach of the statute. We do not so understand it. The guilt or innocence of the defendant does not turn on the question whether he is or is not successful in obtaining the pension which he is applying for, nor whether he takes the sum in excess of ten dollars out of the particular pension money received by the applicant. The scope of the statute and the evident purpose of Congress are to prevent an applicant for pension from being mulcted any sum above ten dollars by anyone assisting in the matter. Language expressing such intention cannot be clearer than that used.
To the objection that the amount of the excess over ten dollars demanded, received, and retained by the defendant is not stated, and that any sum, even one cent, would satisfy the averment, it is sufficient to reply that if the amount of the excess was unknown, it was proper to allege that fact in the indictment, and, in the absence of any testimony to the contrary, it will be presumed that the amount of the excess was in fact unknown to the grand jury. Coffin v. United States, 156 U. S. 432. The question of the guilt of the defendant does not depend on the amount of the excess. The rule de minimis non curat lex has no such application in criminal cases. The stealing of one cent is larceny as truly as the stealing of a thousand dollars. The amount may vary the degree, but it does not change the character of the crime.
It is further urged that the indictment nowhere alleges that any demand was made upon the defendant for the return of the money wrongfully received and retained by him. No such demand need be averred. The case of United States v.
"In short, there must be such unreasonable delay, some refusal to pay on demand, or some such intent to keep the money wrongfully from the pensioner as would constitute an unlawful withholding in the meaning of the law. "
So far as respects the objection that the count does not conclude that the offense charged was "contrary to the form of the statutes in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States," it is sufficient to say that such allegation, which is one of a mere conclusion of law, is not of the substance of the charge, and the omission is of a matter of form, which does not tend to the prejudice of the defendant, and is therefore within the rule of section 1025, Rev.Stat., to be disregarded.

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