Court Opinion

ID: 9489025
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:03:02.579053+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:53:15.678839
License: Public Domain

*1452HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
Judge DeMoss for the majority has written a very thoughtful and comprehensive analysis of the statutory interpretation problem arising in this case. I view it as a close call, but after revisiting this case I cannot come to the same conclusion as the majority. Therefore, I respectfully dissent.
In view of the — albeit limited — legislative history I believe that the meaning of the term “another” should be given a broader interpretation than the one adopted by the majority. The comment of Representative Conyers and the Senate Judiciary Committee report are in agreement. Both legislative expressions explain that § 1346 was intended to “overturn” McNally. Congress unquestionably has the right to change the statutes which it has enacted. It is also significant that there are no expressed legislative comments to the contrary. Congress perhaps could have been more precise, but what Congress did I view as sufficient considering both the language of the statute itself and the accompanying explanations. In any event, I do not believe the majority succeeds in advancing its own restrictive analysis by merely discounting this legislative history.
By enacting § 1346, Congress expressly extended the reach of the wire fraud statute to “include[ ] a scheme or artifice to deprive another of the intangible right of honest services.” I agree with the majority that the term “another” should be given its ordinary meaning and that the most common usage of “another” as a pronoun is “an additional one” or “one more.” Under my ordinary reading of § 1346, however, “another” can easily be read to refer to a state citizen where the perpetrator of the fraud is a governmental official acting in his or her official capacity. Therefore, in light of my less restrictive reading of “another,” I conclude that § 1343, as amended by § 1346, does reach Brumley’s illegal conduct. I believe the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits were correct in Bryan and Waymer so I would not totally discount those decisions. Through this amendment Congress extended the protection offered to interstate wire facilities in order to prevent these facilities from being burdened and polluted by fraudulent schemes which are designed to deprive another of the non-proprietary right of honest services.
The indictment charges Brumley with a continuing offense that both precedes and follows the effective date of § 1346. While the indictment may therefore be technically flawed, this circuit has previously held that a similar error was not sufficient to invalidate a conviction. See United States v. Wells Fargo Armored Serv. Corp., 587 F.2d 782, 783 (5th Cir.1979) (holding that the indictment’s failure to delineate any overt acts after the date when the offense in question was made a felony did not violate the Constitution’s prohibition against ex post facto laws).
This short dissent I believe sufficiently expresses my general view of the problem. In McNally, the Supreme Court stated: “[W]e read § 1341 as limited in scope to the protection of property rights. If Congress desires to go further, it must speak more clearly than it has.” 483 U.S. at 360, 107 S.Ct. at 2882. By that language the Supreme Court advised Congress it could do exactly what it has now done. In view, therefore, of what Congress both did and said I would not frustrate its latest efforts. It passed § 1346 which extended the protection of the relevant fraud statute beyond the limits of tangible and intangible property rights to expressly include “the intangible right of honest services,” a right which can be as important as a property right.
I would affirm the district court in all respects.