Court Opinion

ID: 9651024
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 16:03:04.89396+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:12:29.116211
License: Public Domain

MANTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting). Every fair construction of the evidence in this record shows an earnest as -well as honest intention on the part of the individual defendants to embark in a merchandising business which may or may not have been sound economically — varying with the opinion of men. The law never proposed to deprive men of their liberty for crime without proof of a criminal intent. Mere mistake never caused imprisonment; such is the pride of our law enforcement. Every stipulation of employment by the defendants’ customers was made by fulfillment of orders with prices as promised. Arrangements were made with wholesale grocers to supply merchandise. The defendants, young and enthusiastic, kept their every pledge and promise in every particular. After.the wholesaler, under the spur of competition, complained to the postal authorities, the latter questioned the prospect of the future of the business, and after a while stopped the defendants’ use of the mails. The business judgment of the postal authorities became supreme, in so far as the use of the *548mails was concerned. That was the first time any customer of the merchandising company suffered. Loss in business the first months was to be expected, particularly when embarking upon a new method of merchandising and building up trade. Full faith in the enterprise commanded the defendants to continue on after notice and inquiry by the postal authorities. The prohibition of the use of the mails came later. The continued use of the mails in carrying on their business after the investigation started was evidence of good faith, rather than the contrary, as the prevail-, ing opinion reads. There is no evidence of criminal intent, and not the slightest of fraud or a fraudulent scheme. The sending of the seventh letter was as innocent as all the others. ' The defendants should never have been deprived of the full use of the mails in their business. It is most regretful that imprisonment will follow from such a fanciful doctrine of what amounts to a fraud.
I dissent.