Opinion ID: 702361
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Judicial Determination of Materiality:

Text: 19 The defendants were convicted of conspiring to make false statements and making false statements for the purpose of influencing a federally insured banking institution, in violation of 18 U.S.C. Secs. 371 and 1014. The trial court required the government to prove the materiality of the false statements charged under both counts I and II as an element of proving both Secs. 371 and 1014. The materiality issue was hotly disputed; however, the trial judge determined that the statements were material as a matter of law and instructed the jury that they were not to deliberate on the issue of materiality. The appellants argue that removing the question of materiality from the jury violated their constitutional right to have a jury decide each element of the charged crimes. 4 20 The Fifth Amendment right to due process of the law and the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, together, mandate that a jury must determine every element of the crime with which a defendant is charged. United States v. Gaudin, --- U.S. ----, 115 S.Ct. 2310, 132 L.Ed.2d 444 (1995). Where a criminal statute requires proof of the materiality of a false statement as an element of a crime, a defendant's right to a jury trial is violated when the court removes consideration of that element from the jury and determines materiality as a matter of law. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2320. 21 In Gaudin, the defendant had been convicted of violating the false statement portion of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001, which like Sec. 1014, does not explicitly list materiality as an element of the crime. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2313. At trial, the district court instructed the jury that the charged false statements were material as a matter of law. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the conviction based on Ninth Circuit precedents dictating that materiality be determined by a jury. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a split among the circuits on the question of whether the materiality of false statements is a matter for the judge to decide or an element of the crime to be submitted to a jury. 22 The Supreme Court held that, [t]he Constitution gives a criminal defendant the right to have a jury determine, beyond a reasonable doubt, his guilt of every element of the crime with which he is charged. Id. at ----, 115 S.Ct. at 2320. Because it was uncontested that a conviction under the false statement prong of Sec. 1001 required proof that the statements be material, the court affirmed the Ninth Circuit decision reversing the conviction on the basis of the trial court's improperly removing consideration of materiality from the jury. Id. 23 In the instant case, the appellants argue that materiality is an essential element of proving a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014 and that judicial determination of materiality at trial violated their constitutional right to trial by jury. The government counters that since 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014 does not explicitly include the term materiality in its definition of the crime, 5 materiality is not an element of the crime in the sense that judicial determination of materiality would violate a defendant's constitutional right to have a jury decide each element of a charged crime. Since all of the parties acknowledge that the court removed the question of materiality from the jury, we must resolve the issue of whether materiality is an element of proving a charge of making a false statement in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014. 24 With respect to similar fraud statutes, which like Sec. 1014 do not explicitly list materiality in the definition of the crime, this court has held that materiality is an element of proof. See United States v. Adler, 623 F.2d 1287 (8th Cir.1980). In Adler, the defendant had been convicted on fourteen counts of willfully and knowingly making false statements on claims submitted under the Medicaid and Medicare programs in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 and four counts of willfully and knowingly making false claims under the same programs in violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 287. Although neither statute lists materiality as an element of the crime, 6 this court held that materiality is an essential element of both statutes. Adler, 623 F.2d at 1291 n. 5. 25 With respect to the Sec. 1001 charge in Adler, this court stated, [a]lthough 28 [sic] U.S.C. Sec. 1001 on its face does not limit its coverage to those false statements which are material, it has been well established that materiality of the statement is an element of a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001. United States v. Voorhees, 593 F.2d 346 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 441 U.S. 936, 99 S.Ct. 2061, 60 L.Ed.2d 665 (1979). Id. at 1291. In regard to the Sec. 287 charge, the court found that [n]either appellant nor the government distinguishes between 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 and 18 U.S.C. Sec. 287 as far as the requirement of a showing that the false claim or false statement involved is material. Accordingly, we treat materiality as an essential element of both statutes. We see no reason to treat the statutes differently. Id. n. 5. 26 Like 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001, the statute at issue in Adler, the statute at issue in this case, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014, on its face does not limit its coverage to those false statements which are material. However, it has been well established that materiality of the statement is an element of a violation of 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1014. See United States v. Concemi, 957 F.2d 942, 951 (1st Cir.1992); United States v. Ryan, 828 F.2d 1010, 1014 n. 1 (3d Cir.1987); United States v. Bonnette, 663 F.2d 495, 496 (4th Cir.1981); United States v. Thompson, 811 F.2d 841, 843 (5th Cir.1987); United States v. Spears, 49 F.3d 1136 (6th Cir.1995); Theron v. United States Marshal, 832 F.2d 492, 496 (9th Cir.1987); United States v. Smith, 838 F.2d 436, 439 (10th Cir.1988); United States v. Rapp, 871 F.2d 957, 964 (11th Cir.1989). We see no reason to treat Sec. 1014 any differently from the similarly worded Secs. 287 and 1001. Therefore, we explicitly adopt the rule we have implicitly acknowledged before, that the materiality of a false statement is an element of proving a violation of Sec. 1014. See United States v. Ribaste, 905 F.2d 1140 (8th Cir.1990); see also United States v. Garfinkel, 29 F.3d 1253, 1256 (8th Cir.1994); United States v. McKnight, 771 F.2d 388 (8th Cir.1985); United States v. Habib, 594 F.2d 1215, 1216 (8th Cir.1979) (defendants charged with making statements that were materially false under Sec. 1014), and see also, United States v. Mallen, 843 F.2d 1096, 1102 (8th Cir.1987); United States v. Reeves 674 F.2d 739, 747 (8th Cir.1982); United States v. Segal, 649 F.2d 599 (8th Cir.1981) (indictments in Sec. 1014 prosecutions alleged material false statements). 27 While conceding that most courts require proof of materiality to support a conviction under Sec. 1014, the government argues that courts impose the requirement of proving materiality to exclude trifles from its coverage not as a statutorily required element of the crime. See United States v. Corsino, 812 F.2d 26, 30 (1st Cir.1987); see also Hughes v. United States, 899 F.2d 1495 (6th Cir.1990); United States v. Keefer, 799 F.2d 1115 (6th Cir.1986); United States v. Abadi, 706 F.2d 178 (6th Cir.1983); United States v. Beer, 518 F.2d 168, 170 (5th Cir.1975). In Beer, for example, the court stated that: 28 [w]hen dealing with a pervasive, all-encompassing statute, however, the courts must be extremely careful to insure that reasonable limits are observed. This is merely a restatement of the canon of construction that criminal statutes are to be strictly construed. [citations omitted] In order to exclude 'trivial' falsehoods from the purview of the statute, the courts have read a requirement of materiality into its second clause.... 29 Beer, 518 F.2d at 171. The fact that courts resort to canons of statutory construction to determine that statutes like Sec. 1014 require proof of materiality, however, does not alter our conclusion that proof of materiality is a statutorily required element of the crime. 30 The primary objective of statutory construction is to determine legislative intent. United States v. Jones, 811 F.2d 444, 447 (8th Cir.1987). While it is the function of the legislature to make the laws, it is the function of the courts to finally and authoritatively interpret what the law says. Sutherland Stat. Const. Sec. 45.03 (5th Ed). In this case, we construe Sec. 1014 to require proof of the materiality of a false statement. 31 Because the statute requires proof of the materiality of a false statement, materiality is an element of Sec. 1014. Gaudin, therefore, dictates that we vacate the defendants' convictions on both counts I and II and remand the case to the district court for retrial. The trial court's determination of materiality as a matter of law denied the defendants' constitutional right to have a jury determine each and every element of a charged crime, including the materiality of a false statement charged under Sec. 1014 and under the Sec. 371 charge of a conspiracy to violate Sec. 1014. 32