Opinion ID: 289442
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Refusal of Instruction.

Text: 61 The district court refused Williams' request to charge the jury as follows: 62 The law required that Westec Corporation file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and that Westec Corporation send through the mails or other modes of transportation in interstate commerce various reports and documents such as annual reports, semi-annual reports, and quarterly reports. You are instructed therefore that you cannot convict the Defendant, James W. Williams, for doing, or causing to be done, as an officer of Westec Corporation, merely that which the law required him to do. 63 The authority relied on for that instruction is Parr v. United States, 1960, 363 U.S. 370, 390-392, 80 S.Ct. 1171, 4 L.Ed.2d 1277. The legally compelled mailing in Parr were mailings of valid and correct tax assessments, not of false documents. 64 The substantive counts in Case No. 107 charge that it was part of the scheme and artifice to defraud that the defendants would mail to the Securities and Exchange Commission, American Stock Exchange, financial institutions, brokerage companies, and the shareholders and prospective shareholders of Westec the annual, semi-annual and quarterly reports of Westec, which reports contained false, fraudulent and misleading statements and representations concerning the operating results of Westec and financial condition of Westec. 65 The indictment then takes up the several reports and describes the alleged omissions and false statements in each report. Certainly the Parr decision cannot have the effect of according immunity to any person for filing false reports merely because the law requires reports to be filed. The requested instruction might well have conveyed such a meaning to the jury. To say the least, it was highly misleading. The district court properly refused the instruction. 66 In case numbered 26,829 in this Court the judgment of conviction is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion. In case number 26,830 in this Court the judgment is affirmed. 67 Case No. 26,829 — Reversed and remanded. 68 Case No. 26,830 — Affirmed.