Case Name: FRIEDENSTEIN v. UNITED STATES
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1888-03-19
Citations: 125 U.S. 224
Docket Number: No. 178
Parties: FRIEDENSTEIN v. UNITED STATES.
Judges: Mr. Justice Bradley was not present at the argument of this case, and took no part in its decision.
Reporter: United States Reports
Volume: 125
Pages: 224–240

Head Matter:
FRIEDENSTEIN v. UNITED STATES.
ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.
No. 178.
Argued February 10, 1888.
Decided March 19, 1888.
In a suit in rent against certain diamonds seized as forfeited for a violation of the customs revenue laws, it was competent for the United States to give in evidence the declarations of S., not the claimant, who was intrusted by the latter with the custody of the diamonds for sale, such declarations having been made to a customs officer who took the diamonds from a person with whom S. had deposited them, and in the course of an investigation by the officer to determine whether he should seize them, and having been part of the res gestee.
It was also competent for the officer to testify that he did not seize the diamonds till after the declarations were made.
The jury having found, in compliance with § 1C of the act of June 22, 1874, c. 391, 18 Stat. 189, tlxat the acts complained of in the information were done with intent to defraud the United States, and no motion to dismiss the cause for any defect in the information, and no motion in arrest of judgment, having been made, any such defect which could have been' availed of by demurrer, or exception, or motion to dismiss at the trial, made on the ground of such defect, or motion in arrest of judgment, must be regarded as having been waived or as having been cured by the verdict.
An information under the revenue laws for the forfeiture of goods, which seeks no judgment of fine or imprisonment against any person, is a civil action.
Yet it is so far in the nature of a criminal proceeding that a general verdict • on several counts in the information is upheld if one count is good.
Where, the sections of the. Revised Statutes on which the counts of the information are found,ed do not prescribe any intent to defraud as an element of the forfeitures they .denouncé, said § 16 does not make it necessary, in an information filed, since its ■ enactment, to aver that the alleged acts were done with an actual intention .to defraud the United States.
It is not necessary that the judgment should recite the finding by the jury ’ that the acts complained of in the information were done with intent to defraud the United States.
' In rem, for the forfeiture of. diamonds seized for a violation of customs .revenue laws. Decree of condemnation in the District Court, which was affirmed by the Circuit Court. Claimant sued out this writ of error.
Mr. Edwin B. Smith for plaintiff in error. -Mr. Leopold Wallach was with him on the brief.
Mr. Solicitor General for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Blatchford
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a suit brought by the United States, in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York, to condemn 43 diamonds, seized as forfeited under the customs revenue laws. The information contains five counts.
The first count is based on § 2872.and 2874 of the Revised Statutes, and alleges that the goods were brought in a' vessel, name unknown, from-, a foreign port or place, and were, on the--day of--, 1882, unladen and delivered from such vessel within the port and collection district of the city of New York, without a permit from the collector and naval officer for such unlading or delivery, contrary to those two sections, and that the value of the goods, according to the highest market price of the same at the said port and district, amounts to $400.
The second count is based on § 3066, and avers that the collector, having cause to suspect a concealment of goods in the building No. 66 Nassau Street, in the city of,New Tork, did, on the 27th of February, 1883, with due warrant therefor, enter the said building, in the daytime, and there search for such goods, and did then and them find the same concealed, and did seize and secure the same for trial, and that the duties had not been paid or secured to be paid thereon, contrary to said section.
The third count is based on § 2802, and avers that the said goods, being articles subject to duty, were, on the 27th of February, 1883, found in the baggage of a person arriving in the United States, and were not, at the time of making entry for such baggage, mentioned to the collector before whom such entry was made by the person making the same; contrary to said section.
The fourth count is based on § 2809, and avers that the said goods were, on the- day of - — =-, one thousand eight hundred and -, imported 'into the United States in the vessel, name unknown, belonging in -whole or in part to a citizen or citizens, inhabitant or inhabitants of the United States, from a foreign port or place, and were not included in the manifest, and belonged or were consigned to the master, mate, officers, and crew of such vessel, contrary to said section.
The fifth count is based on § 3082, and avers that on or about the-day of —:-, ' one thousand eight hundred and-, an-unknown person did fraudulently and knowingly import and bring into the United States, and assistdn so doing, the said goods, contrary to law, and did receive, conceal, buy, sell, and in some manner facilitate the transportation, concealment, and sale of such goods after their importation, knowing the same to have been imported contrary to law, contrary to said section.
One Augusta Friedenstein put in a claim to the goods as owner, and answered the information, denying the forfeiture. The case was tried by a jury in the District Court, which rendered "a verdict for the informants and against the claimant for the condemnation of the goods mentioned in the information, and that the acts complained of therein were done with intent to defraud the United States." A decree of condemnation was entered thereon, and the claimant took the case by writ of error to the Circuit Court, which affirmed the_ decree of the District Court and remanded the case thereto for execution of the decree. The claimant has brought the case to this court by a writ of error.
The bill of exceptions shows the following state of facts in regard to the seizure of the goods: On the 27th of February, 1883, one Brackett, a special agent of the Treasury Department, 'went with two subordinates to the store of Goldsmith & Kuhn, No. 66 Nassau Street, where they found a man and a woman and the package of diamonds. The woman was a Mrs. Sussman. When Brackett reached the store, the diamonds were in the possession of Goldsmith & Kuhn. They told Brackett that Mrs. Sussmán had handed the diamonds to them. Mr. Kuhn, who was behind the counter, had the package and handed it -to Brackett upon his demand for- it. Brackett took it, and requested Mrs. Sussman to accompany him to the custom-house, as he wished to make some inquiries about the diamonds. lie took them to the custom-house, Mrs. Sussman accompanying him. In answer to a question put to Brackett by the counsel for the claimant, on his examination as a witness, as to when he took the diamonds, he said: " I took them at the store and took her down to the customhouse with them. If her explanation was satisfactory I did not intend to seize them." The package was opened at the custom-house, and the diamonds were examined and appraised, and were then placed in the hands of the officer in.charge of the seizure room at the custom-house. Brackett was then asked by the district attorney: " When -and where did you make the seizure of these diamonds?" To this question the claimant objected, as calling for a conclusion of law; but the court overruled the objection, and the claimant, excepted. The witness i lied: " The seizure of the diamonds was made at the custom-house in this city after I was through with my investigation."
. It appeared that after Brackett' and Mrs. Sussman arrived at the custom-house, and before the package was there opened, a conversation took. place there between him and her. The bill of exceptions says:
"The witness Brackett was recalled, and asked this question by the district'attorney; 'Now state the conversation between Mrs. Sussman and yourself which occurred prior to the actual seizure of those diamonds in the custom-house, and on the same day when she went in company with you to the customhouse with the diamonds.'
" The claimant objected to this question, because Mrs. Suss-man's statement, under the circumstances and -at that time, could not affect the claimant; also, because'the question involved a conclusion of law as to the time when ' actual seizure ' took place. The court overruled the objection, admitting the question, and' the claimant excepted.
" The witness Brackett, in reply to this inquiry, testified as follows: 'Well, I asked Mrs. Sussman from whom she got the diamonds. She said they belonged to another party, but she could not give the' name of the party, neither would she give her own proper name. I told her, 'If you can give a satisfactory explanation, and if these goods have been brought into the port properly, and duties paid, the United States government don't want them; why do you object'?' 'Well,' she says, ' I can't mention the name of the lady to whom these stones belong.' Well, she finally said to me, after some twenty minutes, perhaps, of conversation — there were two other parties in the room, Mr. Cohen sitting' outside, and the door open — .she said, 'I would like to see'you in private.' 'Well,' said I 'these are' zny offices here; this is all private —• these offices.' ' No,' said she, ' I want to speak to you alone.' Well, I went into the adjoining room with her, and she then said to me, ' These diamonds belong to a lady, as I said before, whose name I won't give. The duty has not been paid on these diamonds. I am ready to go now before the collector and make arrangements to have the duties paid;' 'Well,' said I, 'I cannot do that, madam.' 'Well,' she says, 'I am ready; it can't be over $100.' I then went back to the room and told her that I could not make any such arrangement with her as that; the diamonds were-then [not?] under seizure; then I made up my mind to seize them after this conversation. She said the duty would not be over $100; she was ready to go before tbe collector and make arrangements to pay that duty.' The witness also testified that he sent for Gen. Palmer, and that Mrs. Sussman reiterated to Gen. Palmer what she had said to him, the witness.
" To further sustain the issues the government then called George ~W. Palmer, who, after testifying that he was the deputy collector in charge of the seventh division or law department of the custom-house, proceeded, under the objection of claimant's counsel, which objection was overruled and an exception to such ruling duly taken, to give in detpil a conversation which he had with Mrs.-Sussman at that time, of .a similar nature to that testified to by Captain Brackett. •
" It was also proved for the government, and acknowledged by Mrs. Sussman, when on the stand on behalf of the claimant, that she, Mrs. Sussman, had been to Europe and had returned from thence and landed at the port of New York in the latter part of August, 1882."
The ground urged against the admissibility of the conversation with Mrs. Sussman is that, she not being the owner of the diamonds, evidence as to her declarations was not admissible in derogation of the title to them, especially because such declarations were made after she had ceased to have the custody of them; and that it was.error to permit Brackett to swear that, although he took physical possession of the property at 66 Nassau Street, before the conversation with Mrs. 'Sussman, he did not make the actual seizure until he made it at the custom-house, after the conversation with Mrs. Sussman.
But we see no objection to the evidence. It is plain, on the testimony, that the goods were not seized for forfeiture until after the conversation, and that the seizure took place at the custom-house, after the investigation and examination there, and did not take place at 66 Nassau Street. See Four Packages v. United States, 97 U. S. 404, 411. The second count of the information does not. allege that the seizure took place at 66 Nassau Street. Its fair import is that the collector, with a warrant, entered those premisos and searched for the goods and there found them, and that he afterwards seized and secured them for trial.
Mrs. Sussman, as appears from other evidence in the bill of exceptions, had carried the diamonds to the store of Goldsmith & Kuhn for the purpose of selling them to that firm. If they really belonged to the claimant, they had been put by her into the custody of Mrs. Sussman, for the purpose of selling them, tinder these circumstances, Mrs. Sussman's declarations to Brackett, in regard to the goods, while he was making an official investigation and examination as to whether they should be seized for forfeiture, were part of the res gestae, and admissible in evidence as against the person claiming to be the owner of the goods, in a suit in rem for their forfeiture. It was competent for the claimant to contradict the facts stated to Brackett by Mrs. Sussman, in regard to the diamonds; but the minutes of the trial show that, although Mrs. Sussman was .examined as a witness for the claimant, the claimant herself did not testify as a witness.
We see no objection to the evidence shown by the bill of exceptions to have been admitted under the exceptions of the claimant.
The claimant raises a point as'to the sufficiency of the information. The record shows a full compliance with the statute in regard to the finding by the jury that the acts complained of in the information were done with intent to defraud the United States. It does not show that any motion in arrest of judgment was made; nor that any motion was made on the part of the claimant to dismiss the cause for any defect in the information. It is stated in tlm minutes of trial, which are contained, in a paper aside from the bill of exceptions and forming no part of it, that, after the evidence for the United States had been put in, the counsel for the claimant moved to dismiss the case, and the motion was denied; but it is not stated on what ground the motion was made. Under these circumstances, any defect iix the information which could have been availed of by demurrer, or by exception, or by a motion to dismiss at the trial, made on the ground of such defect, or by a motion in arrest of judgment, must be regarded as having been waived, or as having been cured by the verdict. Coffey v. United States, 116 U. S. 436.
Among the objections covered by the above observations are tiiose to the first count, that it does not name any vessel, that it does not name the foreign port or place or state that its name was unknown, that it does not state any day or month of the unlading, and that it does not state that there was then a naval officer at the port of unlading; that to the second count, that it does not allege that the goods were dutiable or' imported; those to the third count, that it does not name the person arriving in the.United States, nor allege .that his name was unknown, nor when he arrived, nor at what port lie. arrived, nor who was the collector, nor that these things were unknown, nor, affirmatively, that any entry was made of the baggage in which the goods were found; those to the fourth count, that it avers no day, month, or year, no port, domestic or foreign, no vessel, no owner, no consignee, and does not affirmatively state the existence of any manifest in which the goods should have been included; those to the fifth count, that it does not name time, place, person, or circumstance in regard to the importation, that it is bad for duplicity, because the importation is distinct from the subsequent dealing with the imported goods, and that it does no.t state what the illegality was in the importation.
This is a civil cause. In Snyder v. United States, 112 U. S. 216, it is said that informations under the revenue laws for the forfeiture of goods, seeking no judgment of line or imprisonment against any person, are civil actions, although so far in the nature of criminal proceedings that a general verdict on several counts in an information is upheld if one count is good. This latter rule was also applied in Locke v. United States, 7 Cranch, 339; in Clifton v. United States, 4 How. 242, 250; and in Coffey v. United States, 116 U. S. 427, 433, 434, 436, 442. In The Palmyra, 12 Wheat. 1, 12, it is said that informations of seizure for forfeitures " are deemed to be civil proceedings in rern; " and the existence of Rule 22 of the Rules of Practice adopted by this court for the courts of the United States, in admiralty and maritime jurisdiction, on the instance side of the court, prescribing the contents of informations on seizures for a breach of the laws of the United States, shows that such seizure cases are regarded as civil suits. The authority to make the Rule was conferred by § 6 of the act of August 23, 1842, c. 188, 5 Stat.. 518, which relates wholly to the making of rules in suits at common law and in admiralty and equity. The case of United States v. Three Parcels of Embroidery, 3 Ware, 75, relied on by the plaintiff in error, is distinguishable from the present case. There the statute required, in order to forfeit goods, that they should not have been invoiced according to their actual cost, and that that should have occurred with a design to evade the duties thereon; and it was held, on a motion in arrest of judgment, that an information was bad which only alleged the making of an entry with a design to evade the duties, and did 'not allege the making of a false invoice with such design.
Section 954 of the Revised Statutes, which was always in force as § 32 of the act of September 24, 1789, c. 20, 1 Stat. 91, provides, that ho judgment or other proceedings in civil causes, in any court of the United States, shall be arrested or reversed for any defect or want of form; but such court shall proceed and give judgment according as the right of the cause and matter in lav shall appear to it, without regarding any such defect or want of form, except those which, in cases of demurrer, the party demurring specially sets down, together with his demurrer, as the .cause thereof. This statutory pro vision applies to many of the objections urged to the information in the present case. These and- the other objections mentioned were' not taken in the. court below by demurrer or exception or motion in arrest of judgment, and-there has been a verdict of condemnation. As was said in Lincoln, v. Iron Co., 103 U. S. 412, 415, if the issue joined be such as necessarily required on the trial proof of the facts defectively stated or omitted, and without which it is not to be presumed that the judge would have directed the jury to give the verdict, such defect- or omission is cured. See, also, Stockton v. Bishop, 4 How. 155, 167.
There is, however, one objection made to the information which it is proper to notice, as the question is an important one, and arises now for the first time in this court. It is pro vided as follows by § 16 of the act of June 22, 1874, c. 391, (18 Stat. 189): " That in all actions, suits, and proceedings in any court of the United States, now pending, or hereafter commenced or prosecuted, to enforce or declare the forfeiture of any goods, wares,, or merchandise, or to recover the value thereof, or any other sum alleged to be forfeited by reason of any violation of the provisions of the customs revenue laws, or any of such provisions, in which action, suit, or proceeding, an issue or issues of fact shall have been joined, it shall be the duty of the court, on the trial thereof, to submit to the jury; as a distinct and separate proposition, whether the alleged acts were done with an actual intention to defraud the Unitéd States, and to require, upon such proposition, a special finding by such jury; or, if such issues be tried by the court without a jury, it shall be the duty of the court,to pass upon and decide such proposition as a distinct and separate finding of fact; and in such cases, unless intent to defraud shall be so found, no fine, penalty, or forfeiture shall be imposed."
It is contended by the claimant, that it is necessary to aver, in an information filed since that statute, that the alleged acts were done with an actual intention to defraud the. United States; and that, as no such averment is.found in the information in this case, the judgment cannot be supported. But we are of opinion that such averment is not necessary. The section relates only to the duty of the court, on a trial by a jury or a trial without a jury, to require or make a special and separate finding as to the actual intention to. defraud the United States. This is to be done in every suit of the character specified in the section, in which " an issue or issues of fact shall have been joined;" and the provision applies to suits then pending as well as to those thereafter to be commenced. The fair meaning of the section is that the issue or issues of fact shall have been framed, or shall be framed, in the usual manner theretofore in use. No one of the sections on which the counts, of this information are founded prescribes any intent to defraud as an element of the forfeiture denounced in it; and, if § 16 of the act of 1874 is complied with, as it was in this case, at the trial of the cause before the jury, that is all that is required. We do not concur in the view taken in United States v. Ninety Demijohns of Rum, 4 Woods, 637, so far as such view conflicts with our opinion herein.
Besides, with the knowledge on the part of the claimant and her counsel of the necessity that the United States should prove on the trial that the alleged acts were done with an actual ini tention to defraud the United States, and that the jury should so find, or no forfeiture could be imposed, it is impossible for the claimant to allege that she did not come to the trial with the understanding that such actual intention was matter to which proof, on the trial, was to be addressed, although there was no allegation to that effect in the information.
It is also objected, that the judgment of the District Court recites, as its basis, only the verdict of the jury, that it found for the United States, condemning the goods, and that it does not recite the finding by the jury that the acts complained of in the information were done with intent to defraud the United States. But we -.think that this was not necessary.. As it appears by the minutes of the trial, that the jury made the finding of the intent to defraud required by the 16th section of the act of 1874, as a necessary condition precedent to the imposition of the forfeiture, the judgment of forfeiture is justified.
The verdict was a general one, for the informants and against the claimant, for the condemnation of the goods mentioned in the information, and is supported, if .any count of the information is good, against the objections now made. Clifton v. United States, 4 How. 242, 250; Snyder v. United States, 112 U. S. 216; Coffey v. United States, 116 U. S. 427, 433, 436, 442. The bill of exceptions does not state that it sets forth-all the testimony given on the trial, and the names of witnesses on both sides are given in the minutes of the trial as having been sworn whose testimony does not appear in the bill of exceptions. There is nothing to show that any motion was made by the claimant that the government should elect oh which of the five counts it claimed a verdict. The third count alleges that the diamonds were articles subject to duty, and is a good count.
On the whole case, we see no error in the record, and
The decree of the Circuit Court is affirmed..