Court Opinion

ID: 9651165
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:09:25.496866+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:35.588080
License: Public Domain

*837VAUGHT, District Judge
(dissenting).
This opinion pertains to Cause Number 2807 in its analysis but applies to Cause Number 2808 as to final results.
The indictment is in two counts. The first count charges an unlawful conspiracy to restrain interstate trade and commerce in the manufacture, distribution and sale of food products in many states of the United States in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1. The second count charges an unlawful combination and conspiracy to monopolize interstate trade and commerce in the manufacture and distribution of food and food products in many states of the United States in violation of Section 2 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C.A. § 2. Demurrers to the indictments were sustained and the plaintiff has appealed.
The indictment is long and complicated. The charging part of the first count is contained in paragraphs 22 to 27, and in the second count in paragraphs 28 to 33.
An indictment for conspiracy is probably the most difficult pleading a prosecutor is called upon to prepare. The very nature and character of the crime are such that it is conceived and executed under cover, and often can only be proved by piecing together the overt acts and the means employed by the defendants in devising and carrying out the scheme. There are two general classes of conspiracy. One, a conspiracy to commit a crime, and one, in which the conspiracy itself constitutes the crime. One of the most satisfactory definitions of conspiracy, so far as it pertains to the case at bar, is found in Pettibone v. United States, 148 U.S. 197, 203, 13 S.Ct. 542, 545, 37 L.Ed. 419, where Mr. Chief Justice Fuller said:
“A conspiracy is sufficiently described as a combination of two or more persons, by concerted action, to accomplish a criminal or unlawful purpose, or some purpose not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means, and the rule is accepted, as laid down by Chief Justice Shaw in Commonwealth v. Hunt, 4 Metc. (Mass.) 111, [38 Am.Dec. 346], that, when the criminality of a conspiracy consists in an unlawful agreement of two or more persons to compass or promote some criminal or illegal purpose, that purpose must be fully and clearly stated in the indictment; while if the criminality of the offence consists in the agreement to accomplish a purpose, not in itself criminal or unlawful, by criminal or unlawful means, the means must be set out.”
In United States v. American Naval Stores Company et al., C.C., 172 F. 455, 460, the court well said:
“The gist of the offense is the unlawful agreement.”
Thus, in the case at bar, the gist of the offense is the unlawful agreement.
The indictment brings the accused into court. From that document he must determine what specific acts he is charged with having committed; where, when and how he is charged with having done the act. Crime is made up of acts and intent. Prosecutors, sometimes, in their zeal and ambition to protect the public, overlook the fact that it is their duty not only to prosecute the guilty, but to protect the innocent from the embarrassment and expense of defending a groundless accusation. In recognition of this tendency and in order to throw about the citizen proper safeguards against it, the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution were adopted. They provide, so far as pertinent here, that:
“No person shall * * * be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law * * * nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
and
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right * * * to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; * * *.”
When a grand jury returns an indictment, it is presumed to be in possession of all the facts that are necessary to constitute the offense. If it is not, the indictment should not have been returned. The prosecutor who draws the indictment is equally, advised, and there is no occasion for vagueness, lack of clarity, or ambiguity in the language employed in framing the charge in the indictment. It should be sufficiently definite, clear and simple that a layman can easily comprehend it.
Our courts have always been zealous to safeguard the rights of the citizen in this regard, fully recognizing the gravity of the situation confronting one charged with a crime. His life, his property, his good name may all depend upon the facts pleaded in the indictment. The Constitution guarantees to the citizen the right to be informed of the nature and cause of the *838accusation, and one must be able to ascertain the facts from the charge filed against him. Rather early in our history the courts began to express their views on the subject in clear and concise language. Probably the whole subject has been no more clearly expressed than in that landmark decision, United States v. Cruikshank et al., 92 U.S. 542, 557, 23 L.Ed. 588, when the court said:
“ * * * the accused has the constitutional right ‘to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation.’ * * * the indictment must set forth the offence ‘with clearness and all necessary certainty, to apprise the accused of the crime with which he stands charged;’ and * * * ‘every ingredient of which the offence is composed must be accurately and clearly alleged.’ * * * The object of the indictment is, first, to furnish the accused with such a description of the charge against him as will enable him to make his defence, and avail himself of his conviction or acquittal for protection against a further prosecution for the sama cause; and, second, to inform the court of the facts alleged, so that it may decide whether they are sufficient in law to support a conviction, if one should be had. For this, facts are to be stated, not conclusions of law alone. A crime is made up of acts and intent; and these must be set forth in the indictment, with reasonable particularity of time, place, and circumstances.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Counsel have cited many authorities, but when they are read in the light of the facts involved in each particular case, the principle remains the same. It is quite simple. What, where, when, and how, are the questions to be answered in every criminal charge. The defendant must be able to secure the answers to those questions from reading the indictment. He is not required to guess at any of them.
What does the indictment say in this case? In the first paragraph of count one, which is adopted by reference in count two, it is charged that
“Each of the allegations hereinafter contained in this count shall be deemed to refer to the period of time beginning on or about January 1, 1920, the exact date being to the Grand Jurors unknown, and continuing thereafter up to and including the date of the presentation of this indictment, unless otherwise expressly stated.”
The record discloses that the indictment was presented December 7, 1942. Thus, the defendants are apprised that the period of time covered is 22 years. From the memorandum opinion of the trial court (R. 49), we are informed the indictment contains 30 pages and is made up of 33 separately numbered paragraphs. Many of the paragraphs have several subdivisions. The charging part of the indictment is contained in paragraphs 22 to 27, charging restraint of trade, and paragraphs 28 to 33, charging monopoly. The other paragraphs are made up of definitions, and the nature, extent, organization and growth of the business of the defendants.
The indictment discloses that the defendant Safeway Stores, Incorporated, in 1941, had 2825 stores in 1029 towns in various parts of the United States. Paragraph 22 charges as follows:
“For many years prior to the return of this indictment, and continuously up to and including the day of the finding and presentation of this indictment, defendants, and other persons to the grand jurors unknown, well knowing all the facts alleged in this indictment, have wilfully and unlawfully formed and carried out, in part within the District of Kansas, First Division, a wrongful and unlawful combination and conspiracy to unduly, unreasonably and directly restrain interstate trade and commerce in food and food products, produced, distributed and sold in many states of the United States, in violation of Section 1 of the Act of Congress of July 2, 1890, * * * the Sherman Act.”
Paragraph 23: “The aforesaid combination and conspiracy has consisted in a continuing agreement and concert of action among the defendants, the substantial terms of which have been:
“a. That the defendants acquire by merger and otherwise the business of independent retail grocers and local chains throughout the United States.
“b. That the defendants select local areas throughout the United States wherein they use their dominant advantage to injure and destroy the competition of independent grocers, meat dealers and small local food chains,” (No place is named here.)
“(1) By selling at retail in those areas sufficiently lower than elsewhere, until control or the desired percentage of total retail business is obtained, using the income from other areas and from operations of the business other than retail, to offset the *839losses or reductions in profits incident to such price cutting.” (No “areas” are named here and in vain would defendants ask where all of this was to be done.)
“(2) By combining with other national food chains, operating in such selected areas, to fix, maintain and follow the prices established by defendants.” (What “selected areas” and where wefe they located ?)
“c. That defendants systematically prevent competition in selected trade areas throughout the United States,” (How are the defendants to know or ascertain from this charge, where such “selected trade areas” are located “throughout the United States”?)
“(1) By combining with the independent grocers and local and national food chains operating therein to fix the retail prices and terms upon which food would be sold in such areas,” (What “independent grocers and local and national food chains” and where are they located, and what “food” would be sold in such areas ?)
“(2) By combining with manufacturers of food and food products and others to fix and maintain the resale prices and policies in such selected areas and to aid and assist such manufacturers and others in enforcing the resale prices so fixed and established, * * *.” (What “manufacturers,” and where are they located, and what “food and food products” are meant here? Who are the parties designated as “others”; where located; and what “policies” are to be maintained ?)
Thus the indictment runs throughout its 30 pages. Under paragraph 23, subdivision d, are listed eight charges in which the word “suppliers” is used, but nowhere in the definitions in the indictment is this term defined. The defendants can only guess with whom they are charged with dealing here, and can only guess where they are located. Subdivision e mentions “competitors” without naming them in any instance or locating them, again leaving the defendants to guess, who is meant or where they were located, except that they were somewhere within the broad confines of the United States. Subdivision (2) of subdivision e of paragraph 23 reads:
“By organizing, financing and preparing publicity and propaganda for false front farmer, consumer and housewife organizations, civic clubs and other organizations, and using the statements of such organizations in support of such false comparisons and reports as to prices, values and services offered by defendants and their competitors.”
What is meant here by “false front farmer, consumer and housewife organizations ?” What “civic clubs” and “other organizations?” They are not named and their location is undisclosed. Subdivision e (3) reads:
“By the systematic practice of secretly enhancing their actual prices above their advertised prices through short-changing, short-weighing and marking up prices on store tags and purchases.”
In which of the 2825 stores did these things occur? How can the defendants know from reading the charge ? Or was it meant to charge that they occurred in each store every day for 22 years? Paragraph 24 might so indicate and the defendants could not be certain until the trial. It reads:
“During the period of time covered by this indictment, and for the purpose of forming and effectuating the aforesaid combination and conspiracy, the defendants, by agreement and concert of action, have done the things which, as hereinbefore alleged, they conspired to do.”
As the defendants read this indictment and attempt to comprehend it for the purpose of preparing a defense to the charges, which leave so much to speculation, in what situation are they placed? They have 2825 stores located throughout the United States, doing business every day, making millions of sales each year. If just one act a day in each store was contemplated by the charge, it would mean 1,031,125 acts to be checked in order to be safe in the preparation for trial. An indictment charging one with a crime must be more definite than that. A defendant has a right to be speci'fically charged.
It is agreed that the conspiracy is the crime here, and that overt acts need not be charged, but the vice of the indictment is that in seeking to charge elements of the agreement, the charge becomes vague, ambiguous and so utterly confusing that neither the defendants nor the court can comprehend it. The defendants could be prosecuted many, many times on the same charge, and could not successfully plead a former conviction or acquittal under such a charge.
Paragraph 25 seeks to designate the effect of the conspiracy, and practically every sentence therein is a conclusion of the pleader.
*840Paragraph 26 has to do with the “jurisdiction and venue” and presents a rather novel situation. It reads:
“The combination and conspiracy herein alleged has been entered into and carried out in part within the District of Kansas and within the First Division thereof, where the defendant Safeway Stores, Inc., a Nevada corporation, has retail food stores, offices, and agents, and transacts business. During the period of said combination and conspiracy and within three years next preceding the presentation of this indictment, the defendants have performed within the District of Kansas and within the First Division thereof .many of the acts set forth in Paragraph 23 hereof. Particularly, the said defendants have continuously since September 1, 1939, and down to the present time, advertised food and food products in Kansas City, Kansas, and elsewhere in the state of Kansas, below cost and below the price charged by them for similar products in other locations, for the purpose and with the intent of injuring and destroying competition of independent concerns and local chain stores.”
Here, for the first time, we find a date that apprises the defendants of the time some specific act, which is claimed to be unlawful, is charged" to have occurred. It is charged that the combination and conspiracy alleged has been “entered' into and carried out in part within the District of Kansas.” It will be observed that the indictment alleges, in the beginning of the charge, that the conspiracy was formed 22 years ago. Is it intended, now, to be charged that it was so formed in part in Kansas 22 years ago, or is it intended to charge that it was entered into in part in the state of Kansas in the past three years? Again, the defendants must guess or speculate. But particularizing, it is charged that within three years next preceding the indictment, the defendants have performed many of the acts set forth in paragraph 23 within the state of Kansas. What, specifically? The defendants have a right to be informed.
Then further particularizing, it is charged that the defendants have continuously since September 1, 1939, down to the date of the presentment of the indictment “advertised food and food products” in Kansas City, Kansas, “and elsewhere in the state of Kansas,” below cost and “below the price charged by them” for “similar products” in “other locations” for the purpose and intent of injuring and destroying “competition” of “independent concerns” and “local chain stores.”
What is intended by the phrase, “food and food products,” in this connection? How can the defendants know what is meant to be charged? “Food and food products” cover a wide field. The defendants must defend against this charge. They are continuously dealing in perishable “food and food products”; they 'must be continually on the alert to maintain their stocks of food and food products in a merchantable condition. This, of necessity, when dealing with perishable goods, calls for prompt action in each store, regardless of what the condition may be in other like stores, there, or in other localities.
It is charged that the advertisement was in Kansas City, Kansas, and “elsewhere in the state of Kansas.” Where ? It is charged that the advertisements were “for the purpose and with the intent” of injuring and destroying “competition of independent concerns and local chain stores.” Naturally, the defendants again inquire, what “independent concerns” and what “local chain stores” and where?
Count number two charges “combination and conspiracy to monopolize” in the same language as count number one.
An indictment for conspiracy to restrain interstate trade and commerce is governed by the same rules of law as any other offense. It is not enough to allege the crime in the words of the statute. To charge one with “murder,” “burglary,” or any other crime, the elements of the offense must appear, as hereinbefore designated. If any of these elements in such cases is absent in the charge, then the charge is defective.
It is true that in a conspiracy charge such as we have in the case at bar, the agreement itself is the crime, but one has the right to know and be informed by indictment which charges it, where and when the ageement was formed and what its elements were.
This court has consistently held that the place of an alleged offense must be charged with particularity. In Skelley v. United States, 10 Cir., 37 F.2d 503, it held:
“Indictment charging that defendant at Oklahoma City willfully, unlawfully, and fraudulently received, concealed, bought, and facilitated transportation and concealment after importation of smoking opium, under 21 U.S.C.A. § 174, held insufficient for failure to designate specifically the *841place where the offense was committed; nature and cause of accusation not being sufficiently stated to comply with Const. Amends. 5, 6.”
In holding the demurrer to the indictment should have been sustained, the court said:
“ * * * Oklahoma City has a population of about 150,000, and of course, there are innumerable places therein where the crime charged might have been committed. The police officers who made the arrest and discovered the drug in the possession of appellant gave the name of the street and the street number in their testimony, where the drug was found; but for some inexplainable reason the pleader did not put the location in the indictment. Nor did he otherwise ‘earmark’ the charge as Judge Booth aptly terms it in Myers v. United States, 8 Cir., 15 F.2d [977], 987 et seq., so as to separate and make certain from the general charge therein contained the particular offense of which appellant was accused and was to be put on trial.”
In White v. United States, 10 Cir., 67 F.2d 71, 79, the court followed the reasoning in the Skelley case, supra, and after a careful analysis of the leading federal cases dealing with indictments charging a conspiracy, the court concluded:
“In dealing with laws which are intended equally for the protection of the innocent as well as the punishment of the guilty, too much latitude should not be indulged solely for the purpose of arriving at a desired result in an individual case. The looseness in criminal pleading brought to light in this case should not receive encouragement through judicial sanction.”
The majority opinion in the case at bar states that we must depart from the holding in the Skelley and White cases for the reason that they are out of harmony with Glasser v. United States, 315 U.S. 60, 62 S.Ct. 457, 462, 86 L.Ed. 680.
An analysis of the Glasser case leads to a different conclusion. The particular count of the indictment which was under consideration, after alleging that during certain periods, Glasser and Kretske were assistant United States attorneys for the Northern District of Illinois, employed to prosecute all delinquents for crimes and offenses cognizable under the authority of the United States, and more particularly, violations of the federal internal revenue laws relating to liquor, charged in substance that the defendants conspired to “defraud the United States of and concerning its governmental function to be honestly, faithfully and dutifully represented in the courts of the United States” in such matters “free from corruption, improper influence, dishonesty, or fraud.” The means were then set out in detail. The indictment contained every ingredient of the conspiracy. It charged a conspiracy was entered into by the defendants within the jurisdiction of the court, and with sufficient clarity, how, when, and where the conspiracy was formed. It left nothing for speculation or guess so far as these elements were concerned. Certain matters, as to details, might be called for, or requested by, a bill of particulars, but the indictment must always be definite and clear as to the ingredients of the offense. If these are not set out with sufficient clarity to inform the defendant what he is required to meet, it is a defective indictment. If the ingredients of the offense are not contained within the four corners of that document, nothing that might be supplied by the prosecutor by way of a bill of particulars can suffice. It was not even contended in the Glasser case that the indictment was not specific as to the elements constituting the conspiracy. The court said:
“* * * The particularity of time, place, circumstances, causes, etc., in stating the manner and means of effecting the object of a conspiracy for which petitioners contend is not essential to an indictment.” (Emphasis supplied.)
It will be noted that this conclusion is not with respect to the elements of the conspiracy itself, but to the means of effecting the object of the conspiracy. The indictment contains all of the necessary elements of the conspiracy. That which the court says is not essential to be alleged in the indictment has reference to the overt acts.
In the case at bar, we are not dealing with overt acts. They are not necessary elements in the charge of conspiracy. Where allegations in the indictment are not definite in stating the alleged conspirators, the place, time and manner in which the unlawful agreement was reached, which constituted the conspiracy, the indictment is so defective that it cannot be cured by a bill of particulars.
I feel that this court in the Skelley and White cases properly stated the law and that these cases are not affected by the Glasser case, since in that case the Supreme Court, after in effect holding that the indictment alleged every necessary element *842of the conspiracy, and alleged an overt act in carrying the conspiracy into effect, said the “particularity of time, place, circumstances, causes, etc., in stating the manner and means of effecting the object of a conspiracy, for which petitioners contend is not essential to an indictment.”
An examination of Crawford v. United States, 212 U.S. 183, 29 S.Ct. 260, 53 L.Ed. 465, 15 Ann.Cas. 392, and Dealy v. United States, 152 U.S. 539, 14 S.Ct. 680, 683, 38 L.Ed. 545, on which the Supreme Court bases the above conclusion in the Glasser case, discloses that in the Crawford case the defendant and others were indicted for a conspiracy to defraud the United States by means stated in the indictment, and in relation to a contract between the Postal Device and Lock Company and the Post Office Department of the United States by which that company was to furnish certain satchels to the department for the use of the letter carriers in the free delivery system of the government. The indictment set out a number of acts of the defendants with minute particularity in the furtherance of the conspiracy and charged that on June 3, 1902 the defendant and Machen and one Lorenz, intending to defraud the United States, unlawfully and fraudulently conspired “knowingly, wrongfully and corruptly to defraud the United States in a dishonest manner, and through and by means of a dishonest scheme and arrangement.” Then follows the full terms of the agreement. The indictment informs the defendant exactly what he is charged with having done, and when, where and how he was to consummate the conspiracy. It leaves nothing to speculation or guess and he knows with what he is called upon to defend.
In Dealy v. United States, supra, in an •opinion by Mr. Justice Brewer, the court said:
“The gist of the offense is the conspiracy. As said by Mr. Justice Woods, speaking for this court, in United States v. Britton, 108 U.S. 199, 204, 2 S.Ct. 531 [27 L.Ed. 698]: “This offence does not consist of both the conspiracy and the acts done to effect the object of the conspiracy, but of the conspiracy alone. The provision of the statute that there must, be an act done to effect the object of the conspiracy merely affords a locus penitentiae, so that, before the act done, either one or all of the parties may abandon their design, and thus avoid the penalty prescribed by the statute.’ Hence, if the conspiracy was entered into within the limits of the United States and the jurisdiction of the court, the crime was then complete, and the subsequent overt act in pursuance thereof may have been done anywhere.”
The construction placed by the majority opinion upon the Glasser case, which is based upon the Crawford and the Dealy cases, in my judgment, is not consistent either with the Glasser case or the cases upon which it is based.
It is with great reluctance that I dissent from the majority opinion of my distinguished friends on this court, but I have such a firm conviction that an indictment cannot be stated in legal conclusions and in terms so general and indefinite as those contained in this indictment, that I must conclude that the judgment of the lower court should be affirmed.