Court Opinion

ID: 9470309
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 03:02:15.724272+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:50.048860
License: Public Domain

CARDAMONE, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I am in agreement with most of the majority’s opinion and with the result it reaches in this case, but I cannot agree with its reasoning on the issue of the sufficiency of evidence of customary practices to prove theft from the mail. In the context of mail fraud prosecutions, which necessarily require similar proof of mailing, our Court has repeatedly upheld the use of evidence of routine business practices to establish that on a particular occasion an item had been placed in the mail.- See, e.g., United States v. Huber, 603 F.2d 387, 399 (2d Cir. 1979), cert. denied, 445 U.S. 927, 100 S.Ct. 1312, 63 L.Ed.2d 758 (1980); United States v. Toliver, 541 F.2d 958, 966 (2d Cir.1976). We have also held that an addressee’s non-receipt may be proven by evidence that an item which is regularly received in the mail did not arrive on the occasion in question. See, e.g., United States v. Robinson, 545 F.2d 301, 303-04 (2d Cir.1976). A jury armed only with this type of circumstantial evidence of mailing and non-receipt could infer that an item was properly mailed and not received by the addressee. If the item is then found in improper hands and no other plausible explanation is provided, the jury may conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the person in whose possession the item was found stole it from the mails. See United States v. Lopez, 457 F.2d 396, 398 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 866, 93 S.Ct. 162, 34 L.Ed.2d 114 (1972). It is true that Lopez involved some direct evidence of mailing and non-receipt while we are here faced with circumstantial evidence, but I think that Lopez read together with Huber, Toliver and Robinson can only lead to the conclusion that circumstantial evidence of mailing and non-receipt is sufficient in and of itself to place before the jury the issue of theft from the mail.
It is a fact of modern-day life that sizeable organizations, such as the companies *889and banks involved in this case, mail and receive through the postal system innumerable items on a daily basis. Checks mailed in large numbers simply cannot be singly recollected. The same is true of checks received in large numbers from the mail. Consequently, the only proof of mailing and non-receipt ordinarily available in cases of this nature will be customary practices. Cf. United States v. Indelicato, 611 F.2d 376, 381-82 & n. 4 (1st Cir.1979) (mail theft statutes must be read in light of the realities of delivering and receiving mail in a modern urban environment). Nothing has been called to our attention indicating abuse by the prosecution or unfairness to defendants in the use of customary business practices to prove mailing and non-receipt. Permitting such proof is a good rule, one which has been established in similar situations, and one that should be maintained.
By holding that evidence of customary practices, without more, is insufficient to establish mailing and non-receipt, my colleagues unnecessarily increase the burden of proof on the government in theft from the mail cases under 18 U.S.C. § 1708. The majority’s rationale is based on their concern with the possibility that in cases such as the one before us any of the several hands involved in mailing and receiving the checks had an opportunity to steal them at various non-mail stages in transit from company to company. Thus, the majority concludes that in this instance there is a reduced probability that the theft which occurred was from the mail. But the government, even in criminal cases, need not offer absolute, unequivocal proof beyond all doubt or to a mathematical certainty. If such proof was necessary, circumstantial evidence of the elements of a crime would never be sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Circumstantial evidence is intrinsically no different from testimonial evidence. See Holland v. United States, 348 U.S. 121, 140, 75 S.Ct. 127, 137, 99 L.Ed. 150 (1954). If the evidence of customary practices proffered by the government in this case indicated something other than that the cheeks were stolen from the mail, it was up to defense counsel to comment on the ambiguity of the government’s proof and up to the jurors to decide if that ambiguity raised a reasonable doubt in their minds as to whether the theft was from the mail. In this case the jury concluded that it had no doubt that the checks were stolen from the mail. Unless we are to rule that circumstantial evidence such as customary practices is suspect proof and overrule Huber, Toliver, Robinson and Lopez, it seems to me that we must conclude that evidence of customary practices is sufficient standing alone to establish mailing and non-receipt and, therefore, to prove theft from the mail beyond a reasonable doubt. It is on this basis that I vote to affirm the judgment of conviction.