Source: https://m.openjurist.org/346/us/209
Timestamp: 2020-04-06 22:39:52
Document Index: 603018793

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 21', '§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 37', '§ 88', '§ 371', '§ 371', '§ 346', '§ 746', '§ 346', '§ 746', '§ 1110', '§ 287', '§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 346', '§ 21', '§ 346', '§ 3282', '§ 3282', '§ 3282', '§ 21', '§ 346', '§ 21', '§ 5598', '§ 5599', '§ 343', '§ 5598', '§ 5599', '§ 371', '§ 371', '§ 3282', '§ 3282', '§ 3287', '§ 3287', '§ 371', '§ 3287', '§ 3287', '§ 371', '§ 3287', '§ 371', '§ 705', '§ 1424', '§ 1424', '§ 37', '§ 88', '§ 371', '§ 371', '§ 746', '§ 1015', '§ 1015', '§ 746', '§ 1425', '§ 1425', '§ 746', '§ 3282', '§ 21', '§ 346', '§ 1015', '§ 1015', '§ 21', '§ 346', '§ 1044', '§ 1043', '§ 3281', '§ 3281', '§ 585', '§ 3748', '§ 3287', '§ 3287', '§ 37', '§ 88', '§ 371', '§ 371', '§ 746', '§ 346', '§ 371', '§ 371', '§ 321', '§ 321', '§ 2061', '§ 2101', '§ 2061', '§ 80', '§ 287', '§ 287']

346 US 209 Bridges v. United States | OpenJurist
346 U.S. 209 - Bridges v. United States
73 S.Ct. 1055
97 L.Ed. 1557
[Syllabus from pages 209-210 intentionally omitted]
1. Whether the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act1 has suspended the running of the general three-year statute of limitations2 in relation to the offenses charged in—
Count I, under the general conspiracy statute;3
Count II, under § 346(a)(1) of the Nationality Act of 1940;4 or
Count III, under § 346(a)(5) of the Nationality Act of 1940;5 and
2. Whether the saving clause in § 21 of the Act of June 25, 1948, which enacted the present Criminal Code into law,6 continued in effect the special five-year statute of limitations of § 346(g) of the Nationality Act of 19407 in relation to violations of § 346(a) of that Act.
'If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars, or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.' § 37 of the old Criminal Code, 35 Stat. 1096, 18 U.S.C. § 88, now 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 371, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371.
Count II charges Bridges with wilfully and knowingly making a false statement under oath in the naturalization proceeding when he testified that he was not and had not been a member of the Communist Party. Count II is laid under § 346(a)(1) of the Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1163, 8 U.S.C. § 746(a)(1), which makes it a felony for any person—
'Knowingly to make a false statement under oath, either orally or in writing, in any case, proceeding, or matter relating to, or under, or by virtue of any law of the United States relating to naturalization or citizenship.'8
Count III charges Schmidt and Robertson with wilfully and knowingly aiding Bridges, who was not entitled thereto, to obtain a Certificate of Naturalization which was to be procured by false and fraudulent statements. It avers that they knew that Bridges was a member of the Communist Party and that he had made false and fraudulent representations in the naturalization proceeding. Count III is laid under § 346(a)(5) of the Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1164, 8 U.S.C. § 746(a)(5), which makes it a felony—
'To encourage, aid, advise, or assist any person not entitled thereto to obtain, accept, or receive any certificate of arrival, declaration of intention, certificate of naturalization, or certificate of citizenship, or other documentary evidence of naturalization or of citizenship—
'a. Knowing the same to have been procured by fraud; * * *.'9
Petitioners each moved to dismiss the indictment on the ground, inter alia, that each count was barred by the statute of limitations. The motions were denied. D.C., 86 F.Supp. 922. The trial resulted in a jury verdict of guilty on each count. Bridges received concurrent sentences of imprisonment for two years on Count I and five years on Count II. The other petitioners each received concurrent sentences of imprisonment for two years on each of Counts I and III. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 9 Cir., 199 F.2d 811. Rehearing en banc was denied. 9 Cir., 201 F.2d 254. Because of an indicated conflict between that decision and part of the decision in Marzani v. United States, 83 U.S.App.D.C. 78, 168 F.2d 133, affirmed by an equally divided Court, 335 U.S. 895, 69 S.Ct. 299, 93 L.Ed. 431, 336 U.S. 922, 69 S.Ct. 513, 93 L.Ed. 1075, as well as its conflict in part with United States v. Obermeier, 2 Cir., 186 F.2d 243, and because of the importance of the issues, we granted certiorari, 345 U.S. 904, 73 S.Ct. 648.10
The acts charged occurred in 1945. Accordingly, unless the general three-year statute of limitations is suspended or superseded, the indictment, found in 1949, was out of time and must be dismissed.11
The Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act creates an exception to a longstanding congressional 'policy of repose' that is fundamental to our society and our criminal law. From 1790 to 1876, the general limitation applicable to noncapital offenses was two years and since then it has been three years.12 In relation to a comparable exception stated in § 1110(a) as the limitation applicable under the Revenue Act of 1926,13 Mr. Justice Roberts, speaking for the Court, said:
'Moreover, the concluding clause of the section, though denominated a proviso, is an excepting clause, and therefore to be narrowly construed. United States v. McElvain, 272 U.S. 633, 639, 47 S.Ct. 219, 71 L.Ed. 451.14 And, as the section has to do with statutory crimes, it is to be liberally interpreted in favor of repose, and ought not to be extended by construction to embrace so-called frauds not so denominated by the statutes creating offenses.' United States v. Scharton, 285 U.S. 518, 521—522, 52 S.Ct. 416, 417, 76 L.Ed. 917.
The present Suspension Act had its origin in the Act of August 24, 1942.15 See United States v. Smith, 342 U.S. 225, 226 227, 72 S.Ct. 260, 261, 96 L.Ed. 252. That Act was a wartime measure reviving for World War II substantially the same exception to the general statute of limitations which, from 1921 to 1927, had been directed at the war frauds of World War I.16 The Committee Reports show that in 1921 Congress aimed the proviso at the pecuniary frauds growing out of war contracts.17 Congress was concerned with the exceptional opportunities to defraud the United States that were inherent in its gigantic and hastily organized procurement program. It sought to help safeguard the treasury from such frauds by increasing the time allowed for their discovery and prosecution. In 1942, the reports and proceedings demonstrate a like purpose, coupled with a design to readopt the World War I policy.18
This interpretation of the scope of the 1942 provision was expressly approved in Marzani v. United States, 83 U.S.App.D.C. 78 82, 168 F.2d 133—137. As to nine counts based upon the amended False Claims Act, 18 U.S.C.A. § 287, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held that the 1942 Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act did not suspend the three-year statute of limitations. Those counts charged that false statements had been made to government agencies in relation to Communist Party membership, in connection with an application for a position in the government service. Referring to United States v. Gilliland, 312 U.S. 86, 61 S.Ct. 518, 85 L.Ed. 598, the Court of Appeals said:
Brought here on several issues, including dismissal of the nine counts, that case was twice affirmed, without opinion, by an evenly divided Court. 335 U.S. 895, 69 S.Ct. 299, 93 L.Ed. 431, 336 U.S. 922, 69 S.Ct. 513, 93 L.Ed. 1075. See also, United States v. Cohn, 270 U.S. 339, 46 S.Ct. 251, 70 L.Ed. 616.19
B. A further ground for our conclusion is that this Court already has interpreted the language before us, or similar language in comparable Acts, to mean that the wartime suspension of limitations authorized by Congress is limited strictly to offenses in which defrauding or attempting to defraud the United States is an essential ingredient of the offense charged. Decisions of this Court, made prior to 1942, had so interpreted the earlier legislation that its substantial reenactment, in 1942, carried with it the interpretation above stated. United States v. Scharton, 285 U.S. 518, 52 S.Ct. 416, 76 L.Ed. 917; United States v. McElvain, 272 U.S. 633, 47 S.Ct. 219, 71 L.Ed. 451; United States v. Noveck, 271 U.S. 201, 46 S.Ct. 476, 70 L.Ed. 904. See also, Braverman v. United States, 317 U.S. 49, 54—55, 63 S.Ct. 99, 102, 87 L.Ed. 23, and United States v. Cohn, 270 U.S. 339, 46 S.Ct. 251, 70 L.Ed. 616.
The Government contends that the General Conspiracy Act20 under which Count I is laid comprises two classes of conspiracies: (1) 'to commit any offense against the United States' and (2) 'to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose'. It urges that the indictment here charges a conspiracy to defraud the United States under the second clause. It suggests that, under that clause, proof of a specific intent to defraud is an essential ingredient of the offense and thus brings Count I within the Suspension Act. The fallacy in that argument is that, while the indictment may be framed in the language of the second clause, both it and the proof to support it rely solely on the fact of a conspiracy to commit the substantive offenses violating § 346(a)(1) or s 346(a)(5) as charged in Counts II and III. Count I actually charges that petitioner conspired to 'defraud the United States' only by causing the commission of the identical offenses charged in Counts II and III. The use in Count I of language copied from the second clause of the conspiracy statute merely cloaks a factual charge of conspiring to cause, or knowingly to aid, Bridges to make a false statement under oath in his naturalization proceeding, or to obtain by false statements a Certificate of Naturalization to which he was not entitled.
The Court of Appeals in Marzani v. United States, supra, was convinced that the Suspension Act did not apply to such offenses, as those here involved, under the False Claims Act, no matter what words descriptive of fraud were added to the indictment, so long as fraud was not an essential ingredient of the offense defined in the statute. Another Court of Appeals arrived at a like conclusion in United States v. Obermeier, 2 Cir., 186 F.2d 243, 256—257, with respect to offenses under the statute involved in Count II of the instant indictment.
The Government contends, alternatively, that the indictment, which was found May 25, 1949, was timely as to Counts II and III, even if the Suspension Act is not applicable to this indictment. Its alternative contention is that those counts respectively charge violations of § 346(a)(1) and (5) of the Nationality Act of 1940 which occurred in 1945 and that the indictment for them was found within the special five-year limitation of § 346(g) of that Act.21 It appears, however, that § 346(a—h) was expressly repealed, as of September 1, 1948, by § 21 of the Act of June 25, 1948, which enacted the new Criminal Code into law. Including its controversial saving clause, that repealing section reads as follows:
'Sec. 21. The sections or parts thereof of the Revised Statutes or Statutes at Large enumerated in the following schedule are hereby repealed.22 Any rights or liabilities now existing under such sections or parts thereof shall not be affected by this repeal.' 62 Stat. 862.
By such repeal of § 346(g), the general three-year statute of limitations became applicable. 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 3282, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3282.23 Three years having expired before the indictment was found, § 3282 bars the instant indictment. The Government, however, contends that the abovequoted saving clause in § 21 refers not only to substantive liabilities but also to the period during which a crime may be prosecuted and thus includes the special five-year limitation contained in § 346(g). This issue was presented to the Court of Appeals in the instant case and was decided against the Government. 9 Cir., 199 F.2d 811, 819—820. In doing so, the court relied in part upon a like conclusion of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in United States v. Obermeier, supra. That case related to an indictment in two counts for knowingly making, in 1945, in a naturalization proceeding, as here, false statements under oath in relation to membership in the Communist Party. The review of legislative materials and court decisions made there need not be repeated here in reaching the same result—that the saving clause in § 21 did not keep the special five-year limitation alive after September 1, 1948.24
Finally, to interpret the words 'rights or liabilities' in the saving clause as including such procedural incidents as the period within which indictments may be found would overlook the practice of Congress to specify the saving of such limitations expressly when and if Congress wished them to be 'saved.' In the Revised Statutes of 1874, § 5598 preserved 'All offenses committed, and all penalties and forfeitures' but, nevertheless, § 5599 was inserted to add 'All acts of limitation, whether applicable to civil causes and proceedings, or to the prosecution of offenses, or for the recovery of penalties or forfeitures * * *.'25 The 1909 Criminal Code contained similar provisions in §§ 343 and 344. 35 Stat. 1159. In 1933, when the Revised Statutes were reexamined and obsolete sections, including § 5598, were repealed, § 5599 was retained. 47 Stat. 1431. The reason then given for its retention was that the survival clause in the general repealing statute, 47 Stat. 1431, referred 'only to 'rights' and 'liabilities' and not to remedies, recourse to which may be barred by limitation.' S.Rep. No. 1205, 72d Cong., 2d Sess. 3. See Campbell v. Holt, 115 U.S. 620, 6 S.Ct. 209, 29 L.Ed. 483.
The limitation for prosecutions under the second clause of 18 U.S.C. § 371, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371, conspiracy to defraud the United States, formerly fixed at three years by 18 U.S.C. § 3282, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3282, limitation for offenses not capital, is suspended for us by the Wartime Suspension of Limitations Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3287, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3287. The Code sections so far as applicable appear below.1 As stated in the Court's opinion the indictment under § 371 was brought more than three years after the alleged offense but within time if the wartime suspension applies. The applicability of that section, § 3287, depends upon whether the conspiracy charged in the indictment was an offense 'involving fraud * * * against the United States * * * in any manner, whether by conspiracy or not,' within the meaning of said § 3287.
An indictment under § 371 may be found for conspiracy to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States. These are alternative, disjunctive provisions. One addresses itself to the conspiracy to commit substantive offenses specified under other statutes; the other to a conspiracy to defraud the United States. Such a conspiracy is itself the substantive offense charged in the indictment. This construction has been accepted by the courts without variation.2
We see nothing in the legislative history of § 3287 to raise a question as to its applicability to this indictment. The opinion of the Court quotes excerpts from reports concerning the need of suspension of limitation following the First World War. A statute was then passed, which we accept as having been enacted for the same purpose and with the same coverage as the present legislation. See n. 15 of the Court's opinion. Those reports do show that war frauds of a pecuniary nature were uppermost in the minds of Congress. Court's opinion, n. 17. This was only natural in view of the haste and waste of war but it does not follow logically that frauds against the proper exercise of governmental functions are excluded. The cited excerpts do not specifically exclude them. Certainly frauds impairing, obstructing or defeating selective service,3 alien property,4 administration of prices and wages5 and the allotment of scarce material,6 as well as the Immigration and Nationality Act, would hardly be omitted knowingly by Congress from a suspension of limitation for frauds against the Government. Yet, many of these would fall under the Court's interpretation that wartime suspension applies only to war frauds of a pecuniary nature or of a nature concerning property. It was as hard, perhaps harder, to find and punish frauds against administration as those of a pecuniary or property nature. A general amnesty bill against war frauds would be fairer than to hold only those guilty of financial frauds. Both the purpose and the language of the Suspension Act lead to the conclusion that frauds against administration are within its scope.
The Court asserts that the Wartime Suspension Act should be limited to those frauds of a pecuniary or property nature because the Act is an exception to a 'long standing congressional 'policy of repose." Of course, statutes of limitation are statutes of repose. But our public policy is fixed by Congress, not the courts.7 The public policy on repose for wartime frauds is fixed by the Suspension Act and it is the words of that Act that determine our policy, not some general feeling that litigation over frauds should end.
Nor can we accept the Court's reliance on Marzani v. United States, 83 U.S.App.D.C. 78, 168 F.2d 133, 137, as a sound precedent for construing the WartimeSuspension of Limitations Act to apply only to frauds of a pecuniary or property nature. On review this Court was evenly divided. The Court of Appeals held that the Wartime Suspension Act did not apply because '(t)he Supreme Court has clearly said (1) that a statute identical in pertinent part with the Suspension Act does not apply to offenses of which defrauding the United States in a pecuniary way is not an essential ingredient; and (2) that such defrauding of the United States is not an essential ingredient of offenses under the False Claims statute.' 168 F.2d at page 136. Marzani was indicted under the False Claims Act.8
As we showed in the second paragraph of this opinion, the substantive crime here charged is the conspiracy to defraud the United States, punishable as a conspiracy. The fraud is an essential element. There can be no doubt that this crime, denounced by § 371, covers nonpecuniary or nonproperty frauds. This has been true since Haas v. Henkel, 216 U.S. 462, 479, 30 S.Ct. 249, 253, 54 L.Ed. 569.9 We do not agree with the Court's analysis of the indictment that the offenses charged in Count I are 'knowingly making a false statement' in a naturalization proceeding or aiding to obtain a certificate of naturalization by fraud. These are the overt acts of the Count I conspiracy, not the substantive offense of defrauding the Government in its administrative processes charged in Count I.
We therefore would affirm the judgment below as to Count I. Petitioners have also contended here that the conviction is barred because the principles of res judicata or collateral estoppel require us to hold that Bridges' nonmembership during the crucial period has been judicially determined. They point to the Landis proceedings of 1938, referred to in Bridges v. Wixon, 326 U.S. 135, 138, 65 S.Ct. 1443, 1445, 89 L.Ed. 2103, this Court's decision in that case, and the naturalization proceedings themselves of 1945. None of these, though are res judicata, since this is a criminal cause. Nor can collateral estoppel be invoked. There has been no court holding that Bridges has not been a Communist. The Landis determination of then nonmembership was not a judicial one. Pearson v. Williams, 202 U.S. 281, 26 S.Ct. 608, 50 L.Ed. 1029. In Bridges v. Wixon, supra, no holding on the factual question of membership was reached. And the naturalization proceedings did not determine nonmembership because Bridges could legally have been granted citizenship even had he been found by the Court to have been a member of the Communist Party. See 8 U.S.C. (1946 ed.) §§ 705, 707, which merely prohibited grant of naturalization to members of organizations advocating the overthrow of the government, or to those not attached to the Constitution. This has been changed. 8 U.S.C. § 1424(a)(2), 8 U.S.C.A. § 1424(a)(2). There is no necessary identity in law between Communist Party members and such persons. See Schneiderman v. United States, 320 U.S. 118, 63 S.Ct. 1333, 87 L.Ed. 1796. Cf. Carlson v. Landon, 342 U.S. 524, 536, n. 22, 72 S.Ct. 525, 532, 96 L.Ed. 547.
§ 37 of the Criminal Code, 35 Stat. 1096, 18 U.S.C. § 88, now 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 371, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371.
54 Stat. 1163, 8 U.S.C. § 746(a)(1), now 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 1015(a), 18 U.S.C.A. § 1015(a).
54 Stat. 1164, 8 U.S.C. § 746(a)(5), now 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 1425, 18 U.S.C.A. § 1425.
54 Stat. 1167, 8 U.S.C. § 746(g), now 18 U.S.C.A. § 3282.
Section 346(a) was repealed by § 21 of the Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 862, 868. Simultaneously, § 346(a)(1) was substantially reenacted in 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 1015(a), 18 U.S.C.A. § 1015(a). For the effect, if any, of the saving clause in § 21 upon the statute of limitations relating to § 346(a), see 73 S.Ct. at pages 1063—1065, infra.
1 Stat. 119; R.S. § 1044; 19 Stat. 32—33. The limitation as to treason or other capital offenses was three years from 1790 until it was removed in 1939. 1 Stat. 119; R.S. § 1043; 53 Stat. 1198; 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 3281, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3281.
44 Stat. 114—115, 18 U.S.C. (1925 ed., Supp. V) § 585, now 26 U.S.C.A. § 3748(a).
'* * * the running of any existing statute of limitations applicable to offenses involving the defrauding or attempts to defraud the United States or any agency thereof, whether by conspiracy or not, and in any manner, and now indictable under any existing statutes, shall be suspended until June 30, 1945, or until such earlier time as the Congress by concurrent resolution, or the President, may designate. * * *' 56 Stat. 747—748.
This was amended in 1944 by the insertion of more specific references to war contracts and to the handling of property under the Surplus Property Act of 1944. 58 Stat. 667 and 781. Since September 1, 1948, 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 3287, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3287, has provided that—
The President proclaimed the termination of hostilities of World War II, December 31, 1946. 3 CFR, 1946 Supp. 77—78.
'The Department of Justice has been engaged in the investigation and is now engaged in the investigation of various alleged offenses, consisting largely of frauds against the Government which are claimed to have occurred during the war with Germany and since its conclusion. Many of these alleged offenses grew out of the (contractual) relation of the Government with various persons and corporations engaged in the furnishing of military and naval supplies of various kinds. Many of these transactions require the most minute investigation in order to ascertain the exact facts, and in every case a considerable period must elapse before such facts may be gathered from the files and other sources that the department may know whether prosecutions are justified or not. In many cases months, and perhaps considerable longer periods, will be required for such investigations.' See also, 61 Cong.Rec. 7060—7061, 7640.
A similar statement was made in H.R.Rep.No. 2051, 77th Cong., 2d Sess. 1—2, supporting the same bill H.R. 6484. See also, 88 Cong.Rec. 6160. This bill, readopting the 1921 policy, was introduced at the suggestion of the Attorney General in lieu of a proposal then pending to suspend the running of the statute of limitations for every offense punishable under the laws of the United States. Hearings before Subcommittee No. 4 of the House Committee on the Judiciary on H.R. 4916, 77th Cong., 1st Sess. 6, 8, and see 88 Cong.Rec. 4759—4760.
§ 37 of the old Criminal Code, 35 Stat. 1096, 18 U.S.C. § 88, now 18 U.S.C. (Supp. V) § 371, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371, see 73 S.Ct. at page 1058, supra.
'(g) No person shall be prosecuted, tried, or punished for any crime arising under the provisions of this Act unless the indictment is found or the information is filed within five years next after the commission of such crime.' 54 Stat. 1167, 8 U.S.C. § 746(g).
In that schedule of repealed actions, at 62 Stat. 868, are §§ 346(a—h), (l), and 347 of the Nationality Act of 1940, also identified as from Chapter 876, 54 Stat. 1163—1168, approved October 14, 1940.
In United States v. Smith, 342 U.S. 225, 226—227, n. 1, 72 S.Ct. 260, 261, 96 L.Ed. 252, we assumed, without deciding, that this reservation had no effect on the running of a statute of limitations.
18 U.S.C. § 371, 18 U.S.C.A. § 371:
Falter v. United States, 2 Cir., 23 F.2d 420, 423—424; Miller v. United States, 2 Cir., 24 F.2d 353, 360; United States v. Holt, 7 Cir., 108 F.2d 365, 368. Cf. United States v. Manton, 2 Cir., 107 F.2d 834, 838—839, a case in which two Justices of this Court sat as Circuit Justices.
Selective Service Act of 1948, 62 Stat. 604, 50 U.S.C.App. §§ 321, 451—470, 1001—1017, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, §§ 321, 451—470, 1001—1017.
Defense Production Act of 1950, 64 Stat. 798, as amended, 65 Stat. 131, 66 Stat. 296, 50 U.S.C.App. § 2061 et seq., §§ 2101 2110, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, §§ 2061 et seq., 2101—2110.
Hurd v. Hodge, 334 U.S. 24, 34—35, 68 S.Ct. 847, 852—853, 92 L.Ed. 1187.
18 U.S.C. (1946 ed.) § 80, substantially reenacted, 18 U.S.C. § 287, 18 U.S.C.A. § 287.