Case Name: THE KING vs. WILLIAM ANDERSON AND JOHN RUSSELL
Court: Supreme Court of the State of Hawaii
Jurisdiction: Hawaii
Decision Date: 1851-01
Citations: 1 Haw. 41
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE KING vs. WILLIAM ANDERSON AND JOHN RUSSELL.
Judges: 
Reporter: Hawaii Reports
Volume: 1
Pages: 41–42

Head Matter:
THE KING vs. WILLIAM ANDERSON AND JOHN RUSSELL.
Every fraudulent combination, mutual undemanding, or concerting together of two or more, to do what is obviously and directly wrongfully injurious to another, is a conspiracy. It is not necessary to prove a direct concert, the jury may infer it from the facts.
The prisoners were indicted for a conspiracy to defraud William Watson, William Burrill and others, by means of a small padlock of a peculiar construction, upon the opening of which they induced Watson and others to bet.
This case was a very interesting one, as showing the cunning and artifice to which men resort to dupe and defraud their fellow men. It appeared that Anderson is a shopkeeper or small retail merchant in Honolulu, and that Russell was a kind of stool pigeon, that enticed sailors and others having money, into Anderson’s shop. That after talking of various matters, either Anderson or Russell managed to produce, as if by accident, a certain padlock, offering at the same time to bet any sum that no man in the Sandwich Islands could open the same. Then the one who produced the lock would make some excuse for leaving the room, when the other would take up the lock, open it, and show the stranger how easily the thing was done, remarking that the man must be a fool to say he would bet that no man could open it. He would then offer to put his money with that of the stranger and bet with the absent conspirator on his return. Accordingly, Watson and others were induced to bet, thinking it a perfectly easy matter to open a lock which they had just opened and shut so frequently, but they always found that when they bet, the lock remained shut, as if by magic. Thus onewas fleeced out of sixty-four dollars, another of one hundred and forty dollars, another of his watch, and so on.
Mr. Bates, for the Crown.
Mr. Burbank, for the prisoners.

Opinion:
Chief Justice Lee
charged the jury, that every fraudulent combination, mutual understanding, or concerting together of two or m ire, to do what is obviously and directly wrongfully injurious to another, is a conspiracy; and that if they believed that Anderson and Russell understood each other and concerted together to defraud Watson and others, they were guilty. That it was not necessary to prove a direct concert between Anderson and Russell, but that such concert was a fair Subject of inference for the jury, from all the facts submitted in evidence. That a mutual concert in cases like this, could seldom if ever be proved, otherwise than by circumstances, as conspirators do not call in witnesses to their undertakings.
The jury rendered a verdict of guilty, and the court sentenced each of the prisoners to imprisonment at hard labor for the term of eighteen months.