Task: songer_method

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. Your task is to determine the nature of the proceeding in the court of appeals for the case, that is, the legal history of the case, indicating whether there had been prior appellate court proceeding on the same case prior to the decision currently coded. Assume that the case had been decided by the panel for the first time if there was no indication to the contrary in the opinion. The opinion usually, but not always, explicitly indicates when a decision was made "en banc" (though the spelling of "en banc" varies). However, if more than 3 judges were listed as participating in the decision, code the decision as enbanc even if there was no explicit description of the proceeding as en banc.

PER CURIAM:
Appealing from his conviction of the forgery of an endorsement upon a United States Treasury check, 18 U.S.C. § 495, James Carl Hayes attacks the judgment on the ground that it was not warranted by the evidence. The trial was before the Court without a jury. Proof of guilt consisted of evidence of Hayes’ accessibility to the check, the opinion of a handwriting expert that the endorsement was made by Hayes, and the examination by the District Judge himself of the check and authentic specimens of the accused’s writing. The defense evidence comprised only Hayes’ testimony denying the accusation.
The determination of guilt by the District Judge was made after he had appraised the trustworthiness of the witnesses, the qualifications of the expert and his own comparison of the spurious endorsement with samples of the defendant’s admittedly genuine handwriting. In somewhat like circumstances in United States v. Acosta, 4 Cir., 369 F.2d 41, decided November 2, 1966, we affirmed the finding of the trial judge, and we do so here.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the nature of the proceeding in the court of appeals for this case?
A. decided by panel for first time (no indication of re-hearing or remand)
B. decided by panel after re-hearing (second time this case has been heard by this same panel)
C. decided by panel after remand from Supreme Court
D. decided by court en banc, after single panel decision
E. decided by court en banc, after multiple panel decisions
F. decided by court en banc, no prior panel decisions
G. decided by panel after remand to lower court
H. other
I. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: A