Court Opinion

ID: 9478265
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:44:23.116898+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:46:19.738347
License: Public Domain

*573McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Because there is no evidence of value either above or below $500,1 would reverse and remand the judgment of the district court with instructions to discharge the appellant. Section 714m(c), like its counterpart 18 U.S.C. § 641, is essentially a statute proscribing larceny, theft, and conversion. In both statutes the property value elements have historically created a division between felony and misdemeanor. In Cartwright v. United States, 146 F.2d 133, 135 (5th Cir.1944), the court stated:
It is, therefore, well settled that where the grade of larceny, and consequently the punishment, depend on the value of the property, it is essential that the value of the property defendant is charged with having taken be alleged and proved.
Id. (citations omitted) (emphasis added).
Added support for appellant’s contention can be found in United States v. Wilson, 284 F.2d 407 (4th Cir.1960), in which the defendant was convicted of stealing seventy-two specified weapons. The statute under which defendant was convicted provided that whoever steals United States property will be imprisoned for not more than ten years, but that if the value does not exceed $100 the defendant shall not be in prison for more than one year. In Wilson, not unlike here, the Government failed to produce any evidence whatsoever as to the value of the seventy-two weapons. The court refused to take judicial notice that the seventy-two stolen rifles were worth more than $100. The court further noted:
[a] fact which distinguishes a violation punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year from a violation punishable by imprisonment for ten years cannot be permitted to rest upon conjecture and surmise. In order to sustain the imposition of the higher penalty, it was as incumbent upon the Government to prove a value in excess of $100 as it was to prove the identity of the defendant as the perpetrator of the crime, or the ownership of the property.
Id. at 408. Here the government has not put into evidence anything to show the value of the goods at or near the time they were appropriated. Its entire case on this issue rests upon the value per bushel price shown to exist at the time the loan contract agreements were executed. This is not enough. In fact, the Government engaged in a very dangerous venture: In its case in chief, it put into evidence appellant’s statement: “I fed the grain because it had all gone out of condition and ... could not be sold.” As part of its case in chief, this statement of appellant on grain condition and value should have either been refuted by the Government or at least explained away. Otherwise, the rule appears to be that where an actor in his [or her] case-in-chief puts into evidence testimony favorable to the other party’s case and totally at war with the actor’s theory of the case, absent other evidence to the contrary, then, the actor is bound by that evidence and places himself [or herself] in a posture where a directed verdict is in order. Luther v. Loewi & Co., 549 F.2d 1173, 1175 (8th Cir.1977).
In the present case, the only evidence as to value was that the grain was out of condition, had no value, and could not be sold. There was no contrary evidence upon which the jury could reach any other conclusion. If the Government argues that the grain must have been of some value because appellant fed it to his stock, it proves too much because the jury then assumed facts not in evidence. And if we assume some value, what value? Is it above or below $500? See United States v. Ciongoli, 358 F.2d 439 (3d Cir.1966) (Government must prove value); and United States v. Harris, 729 F.2d 441 (7th Cir.1984) (Value must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt).
The district court’s declaration that the value description set forth in the statutes is not a substantial element of the crime of larceny or theft but is only an enhancement factor for sentencing is just wrong and completely ignores precedents and history! Moreover, the district court’s instructions *574to the jury were confusing and misstated the law. No options were given for jury findings on values either in excess of or less than $500.
Accordingly, I would reverse and remand the judgment with directions.