Court Opinion

ID: 9450608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 16:53:10.956353+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:23.540774
License: Public Domain

WOODBURY, Senior Circuit Judge (by designation),
(dissenting).
There is, of course, a distinction between possession, custody and control of an unregistered still (§ 5601(a) (1)), and carrying on the business of a distiller without giving bond. (§ 5601(a) (4)). However, insofar as presence at an illicit still is concerned the distinction seems to me minor if not inconsequential. It seems to me that one present at an illicit still may as readily be presumed to be carrying on the business of a distiller as having possession, custody and control of a still. To my mind, presence leads as much to the inference of one activity as to the other. I would affirm on the reasoning of United States v. Gainey, supra.