Court Opinion

ID: 9468236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:08:39.975812+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:40:45.880587
License: Public Domain

JAMES HUNTER, III, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent.
I agree that the general principles of collateral estoppel may be applied to administrative proceedings, as the majority outlines in section II, but I do not believe this case should be remanded to the Merit Systems Protection Board for further inquiry. Appellant’s conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 113(d) (1976) necessarily decided the precise issue before the Board and hence his dismissal should be affirmed.
In remanding the case for further scrutiny of the record supporting appellant’s prior conviction, the majority states: “When a prior criminal judgment is sought to be used as an estoppel, the court must examine the record of the criminal proceeding, including the pleadings, evidence, jury instructions and other relevant matters in order to determine specifically what issues were decided. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 444, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970); Emich Motors Corp. v. General Motors Corp., 340 U.S. 558, 569, 71 S.Ct. 408, 414, 95 L.Ed. 534 (1950).” At 47-48. While both Ashe and Emich addressed the estop-pel effect of a prior criminal judgment, only Emich involved a prior conviction, the situation presented by this case.1
Emich concerned the use of a prior criminal conviction of the antitrust laws to *52establish a prima facie case in a subsequent civil suit against the identical defendant. The court held that the estoppel effect of the prior convictions “extends only to questions 'distinctly put in issue and directly determined’ in the criminal prosecution” and that “[i]n the case of a conviction based on a jury verdict of guilty, issues which were essential to the verdict of guilty must be regarded as having been determined by the judgment.” Emich, 340 U.S. at 569, 71 S.Ct. at 414.
The Court went on to recognize that simply looking at the judgment of conviction may not reveal what issues were necessarily decided in the earlier proceeding. The jury’s general verdict might not identify what means charged in the indictment were used in effectuating the conspiracy. Hence, in that case, it was important to look behind the guilty verdict — to the record, pleadings, and jury instructions — in order to identify precisely what issues were decided.2 Id., at 569, 71 S.Ct. at 414. The court undertakes such an in depth examination solely to determine what was put in issue and determined by the prior conviction.3
Such an inquiry is not required in this case. The precise issue before the Board— did the appellant strike and shove the victim — was necessarily decided by the section 113(d) conviction. Section 113(d) states:
Whoever, within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States is guilty of assault shall be punished as follows . . .
******
(d) Assault by striking, beating or wounding by fine of not more than $500 or imprisonment for not more than six months or both.
18 U.S.C. § 113(d) (1976).
Although this statute has been referred to as a petty offense, United States v. John*53son, 637 F.2d 1224, 1242 n.26 (9th Cir. 1980), it is clear that conviction under section 113(d) requires some form of physical contact. United States v. Iron Shell, 633 F.2d 77, 88 (8th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, —- U.S. --, 101 S.Ct. 1709, 68 L.Ed.2d 203 (1981). The statutory language would seem to require actual striking, beating or wounding, yet several courts have interpreted these words as tantamount to simple battery at common law. Johnson, 637 F.2d at 1242 n.26; Iron Shell, 633 F.2d at 88; United States v. Stewart, 568 F.2d 501, 504-05 (6th Cir. 1978). But even under common law battery, a finding of bodily injury or offensive touching is required. W. Lafave & A. Scott, Handbook on Criminal Law § 81 at 604 (1972). In addition, it is important to note that appellant was convicted of § 113(d), assault by striking, beating or wounding, rather than § 113(e), simple assault. The increased severity of § 113(d) further supports the Board’s dismissal. If the appellant had simply assaulted the victim, without bodily injury, he would have been convicted of simple assault, § 113(e), not assault by striking, beating or wounding, § 113(d). Therefore, the section 113(d) conviction necessarily included a finding of bodily injury or an offensive touching.
This finding supports the Board’s action. The appellant was dismissed for striking and shoving the victim in violation of the Standard Schedule of Disciplinary Offenses and Penalties for Civilian employees which proscribes: “disorderly conduct; fighting; threatening or attempting to inflict bodily injury to another; engaging in dangerous horseplay or resisting competent authority.” Joint Appendix at 20, (Opinion of the Merit Systems Protection Board at 2 n.1). A remand to determine what issues were actually adjudicated in the criminal conviction is not required. The statutory language is clear on its face, and even if construed as simple battery, a conviction necessarily includes a finding of bodily injury or offensive touching. Therefore, the Board’s opinion is supported by substantial evidence and appellant’s dismissal should be affirmed.

. Ashe v. Swenson concerned the estoppel effect of a prior acquittal. Unlike a criminal conviction, where the reviewing court knows that the necessary elements of the crime have occurred, a judgment of acquittal could be based on a myriad of factors. Hence, close scrutiny of the record underlying an acquittal is required because the court must conclude “whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consider*52ation.” Ashe, 397 U.S. at 444, 90 S.Ct. at 1194 (quoting Mayers and Yarbrough, Bio Vexari: New Triáis and Successive Prosecutions, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 1, 38-39 (I960».

. As the Emich court stated:
A general verdict of the jury or judgment of the court without special findings does not indicate which of the means charged in the indictment were found to have been used in the conspiracy. And since all of the acts charged in the indictment need not be proved for conviction ..., such a verdict does not establish that defendants used all of the means charged or any particular one. Under these circumstances what was decided by the criminal judgment must be determined by the trial judge hearing the treble damage suit, upon an examination of the record, including the pleadings, the evidence submitted, the instructions under which the jury arrived at its verdict, and any opinions of the court.
340 U.S. at 569, 71 S.Ct. at 414 (emphasis added).
This passage reveals that the underlying concern is to determine precisely what issues were presented before and determined by the prior conviction. If, as was the case in Emich, the indictment contained several disparate allegations, a reviewing court would need to scrutinize the record of the prior proceeding to determine what was placed in issue. In our case, however, such an inquiry is superfluous. A necessary condition of the criminal conviction — bodily harm or offensive touching — is the precise issue before the Merit Systems Protection Board.

. The majority also relies on Basista v. Weir, 340 F.2d 74 (3d Cir. 1965) and Kauffman v. Moss, 420 F.2d 1270 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 400 U.S. 846, 91 S.Ct. 93, 27 L.Ed.2d 84 (1970) for the proposition that a mere judgment may not support the use of collateral estoppel in a subsequent suit. While both Basista and Kauffman certainly identify the importance of looking beyond a mere conviction, they stress that the inquiry is required in order to determine exactly what questions were placed in issue and ultimately decided by the prior court. In the instant case, this question is answered by an examination of 18 U.S.C. § 113(d), the underlying statute.
In Basista, the court refused to give estoppel effect to a prior assault and battery conviction in a subsequent civil rights suit, because there was some doubt as to the basis for the underlying conviction. As the Basista court stated: “There is no doubt, however, that, at best, the present Quarter Sessions judgment against Ba-sista is ambiguous and therefore must be treated as insufficient to support collateral estop-pel.” 340 F.2d at 82. In contrast, the appellant’s conviction for assault by striking, beating, or wounding, clearly precludes the issue in question. It arises from the identical incident at issue before the Board.
In Kauffman the court refused to give estop-pel effect to a prior state court conviction when the subsequent case included an allegation the police officers involved in the first suit had conspired illegally. Such a claim of intrinsic prejudice necessarily involves the veracity of the first proceeding and prevents it from acting as an estoppel. 420 F.2d at 1274-75.