Court Opinion

ID: 9442595
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:52:38.637257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:08.915540
License: Public Domain

BIGGS, Chief Judge
(concurring).
I concur in the view expressed by Judge FEE that the indictment must be dismissed. The grounds for my conclusion, however, are somewhat different from those expressed by him.
Count 1 of the indictment, the only count attempting to charge Lembo with the commission of a crime or crimes, is so turgid as to be almost incomprehensible. Certainly it cannot be said fairly to apprise the defendant of the charges against him. One could stop here and properly order the indictment dismissed in view of Lembo’s motion, made prior to trial, to dismiss for failure of the indictment to state sufficient facts to constitute an offense. Some ■further explanation is desirable, however, in view of the long history of this case.
It is very far from clear from the voluminous record under what theory the United States tried Lembo and this probably was due to the confusion cast by the *415indictment. No jury was employed but after the evidence was in, the court, delivering judgment, stated that, “* * * the indictment charges this man with two things; First, that he was not a full time, regularly employed workman, having been placed in that classification, and secondly, that he failed to notify the draft board that from October 6, 1944, to January 25, 1945, he was no longer employed there [at Stout’s] in war-time essential industry.” I cannot put this interpretation on the indictment. It seems to charge Lembo with a crime unknown to the Act and to the Regulations, viz., with enjoying a deferred classification when he was not entitled to it as a result of an Occupational Classification Request (Form 42-A) executed by his employer, Stout’s. It is notable that the reference to Section 626.1(b) 1 of the Regulations is at the end of the indictment and that no “charging words” follow it. These may have been omitted by inadvertence. It was probably the intention of the draftsman of the indictment to charge Lembo with failing to report to the local board a fact, a change in employment status, which might have resulted in his reclassification. But an indictment must be tested by what it alleges; not by what the draftsman intended to allege.
That part of the indictment which the trial court referred to as “First” probably does not charge any crime. That part of the indictment which the trial court referred to under the heading “secondly” does state a crime cognizable under the Act if the numerous clauses of qualification which immediately follow it be excluded. To excise these clauses, however, or such of them as would be necessary to render the indictment valid, would cause the court to exercise the functions of a grand jury and would constitute far more than a disregard of surplusage. The court below found Lembo guilty of what the indictment probably intended to charge, designated by the District Court as “secondly”. But it also found Lembo not guilty of the alleged crime which the trial court referred to under the heading, “First”. In endeavoring to cure the obvious defects of the indictment the trial court in effect found Lembo both “guilty” and “not guilty” on the same count. This course cannot enjoy the sanction of law. The fault lies in the indictment which is so badly drawn and so obfuscated with charges that do not constitute crimes as to be unintelligible.
For these reasons I concur in the view that the indictment must be dismissed.

. Regulation 628.1(b) provides: “Each classified registrant shall, within 10 days after it occurs, and any other person should, within 10 days after knowledge thereof, report to the local board in writing any fact that might result in such registrant being placed in a different classification.”

. Defendant’s brief, page 31.