Court Opinion

ID: 9456281
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:47:37.181711+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:54.927875
License: Public Domain

MATTHES, Chief Judge,
with whom Circuit Judges VAN OOSTERHOUT, MEHAFFY and GIBSON join, concurring.
I join in the affirmance of the judgment of conviction. The course traveled by this appeal in this court, as a result of my brother Heaney’s dissenting opinion, motivates me to express my views in regard to procedural aspects of an appeal in the hope that this court, whether sitting en banc or as a panel, hereafter will adhere to what I regard to be deeply entrenched principles applicable to the consideration and disposition of cases by courts of appeals.
From the outset of this case appellants challenged the constitutionality of 18 U.S.C. § 610 and sought dismissal of the indictment on that ground. The validity of the statute was a live issue throughout the trial. Additionally, at trial appellants requested an instruction submitting the issue of voluntariness, and objected to the instruction which made reference to this question. See Footnote 2, Judge Heaney’s dissenting opinion, reported at 434 F.2d 1125 (8th Cir. 1970). Thus, there can be no doubt that appellants laid the proper foundation in the district court for challenging on appeal the propriety of the submission of the case to the jury. But appellants, represented by a battery of retained counsel, experienced and skilled in the defense of criminal cases, on appeal abandoned all errors asserted during the trial and elected to proceed in this court by presenting only issues for review designed to bring about an outright reversal and discharge of the appellants.
Appellants’ initial exhaustive brief, consisting of 98 pages, stands as irrefutable evidence that they were consciously and purposefully foregoing any relief on the ground of trial irregularities. Manifestly, they were familiar with the provisions of Rule 28(a), Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, relating to the contents of the brief of an appellant, and included in their brief a “Statement Of Issues Presented For Review.” These issues summarized were:
I. The indictment failed to allege an offense under 18 U.S.C. § 610;
II. Section 610 is unconstitutional because it abridged appellants’ and all union members First Amendment rights;
III. Section 610 is unconstitutional because of vagueness;
IV. Section 610 deprives unions and their members of liberty and property without due process, in violation of the Fifth Amendment;
V. Section 610, as construed and applied by the district court, unlawfully abridges the rights of appellants to vote and to choose their senators and representatives in Congress as guaranteed by Article I, Section 2 and the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution;
*1129VI. The verdict of the jury negating a willful violation of § 610 required an acquittal on the conspiracy charge.
In the expansive development of the foregoing issues in the argument portion of appellants’, brief, there is no hint or suggestion of error in giving or rejecting instructions. And to remove any doubt as to the precise relief sought by appellants in this court they concluded their brief with this statement:
“CONCLUSION.
For each of the reasons stated herein above, we respectfully submit that the judgment below should be reversed. Each of said reasons requires a reversal without a new trial, and no request is made for a new trial. The relief sought, and impelled by said reasons, is a reversal and discharge of the defendants.”
The majority of the original panel, which affirmed, squarely met and considered the issues presented by appellants. But, notwithstanding the obvious, namely, that appellants had deliberately and consciously elected to abandon and waive any and all claims of prejudicial trial errors, my brother Heaney, sua sponte, injected an issue foreign to appellants’ brief, faulted the district court for not properly instructing the jury as to whether the contributions to candidates had been voluntarily made, and voted to remand for another trial.
The rules designed to govern appellate procedure clearly delineated in the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and sanctioned by many decisions, convinces me that a court of appeals should confine its review to the issues which an appellant properly raises and presents in his brief. Certainly, the reviewing court should not assume the role of an advocate and engage in the practice of ferreting out errors deliberately and consciously abandoned by an appellant, in order to grant relief not asked for, but in fact specifically disclaimed. Such gratuitous procedure by the reviewing court does not, in my view, comport with the proper and orderly administration of justice.
The salutary purpose of Rule 28(a) (2), Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, ' providing that the brief of an appellant shall contain “[a] statement of the issues presented for review”1 and of pre-1968 local rules of this court, has been spelled out in meaningful language. This court, speaking through Judge Kimbrough Stone, stated, “[t]he purpose of the rule is to definitely and separately point out the errors complained of in order to clearly define and confine the issues on appeal.” (Emphasis supplied.) New York Casualty Co. v. Young Men’s C. Assn., 119 F.2d 387, 389 (8th Cir. 1941); Accord, Cohen v. United States, 142 F.2d 861, 863 (8th Cir. 1944); Turner County S. D. v. Miller, 170 F.2d 820, 828 (8th Cir. 1948); 2 Mogis v. Lyman-Richey Sand & Gravel Corp., 189 F.2d 130, 133 (8th Cir. 1951);3 Chain Institute v. Federal Trade Commission, 246 F.2d 231, 235 (8th Cir. 1957); Bell v. United States, 251 F.2d 490, 493-494 (8th Cir. 1958).4 In McIntosh v. United States, 362 F.2d 636 (8th Cir. 1966), Judge Blackmun, now an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, reiterated that specifications of error not urged in the brief on appeal are abandoned. Finally, in Smith v. American Guild of Variety Artists, 368 F.2d 511, 514 (8th Cir. 1966), Judge Van Oosterhout again recognized the rule and supported the court’s refusal to consider a point not raised or briefed with numerous citations. But see Laclede Gas Co. v. N.L.R.B., 421 F.2d 610 (8th Cir. 1970),5 where Judges Heaney and *1130Lay remanded the case to the National Labor Relations Board for consideration of an issue not raised on appeal. Judge Van Oosterhout dissented on the ground that since the issue was not raised the cause should not be remanded.
I am not unmindful that the United States Supreme Court has established the principle that “[i]f two questions are raised, one of non-unconstitutional and the other of constitutional nature, and a decision of the non-constitutional question would make unnecessary a decision of the constitutional question, the former will be decided.” Alma Motor Co. v. Timken-Detroit Axle Co., 329 U.S. 129, 136, 67 S.Ct. 231, 234, 91 L.Ed. 128 (1946); Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority, 297 U.S. 288, 347, 56 S.Ct. 466, 80 L.Ed. 688 (Brandeis, J., concurring); Clay v. Sun Insurance Office, 363 U.S. 207, 80 S.Ct. 1222, 4 L.Ed.2d 1170 (1959).6 Nor am I unaware of the practice of the Supreme Court of refusing to decide constitutional questions when other grounds of decision can be found in the record, whether or not they have been properly raised before the court by the parties. Neese v. Southern Ry., 350 U.S. 77, 76 S.Ct. 131, 100 L.Ed. 60 (1955); Communist Party of United States v. Subversive Activities Control Bd., 367 U.S. 1, 119-120, 81 S.Ct. 1357, 6 L.Ed.2d 625 (1961) (Douglas, J., dissenting) .
But, notwithstanding this principle, and with due deference to the teachings of the Supreme Court, the conclusion is inescapable that the practice and procedure in the United States courts of appeals are governed by the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.
It is known generally by the federal bench and the members of the legal profession that for a number of years many judges, lawyers and legal scholars recognized a compelling need for uniform rules to govern the practice and procedure in. the United States court of appeals. The Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States, after lengthy, responsible and deliberate study and consideration, culminated its efforts, and on December 4, 1967, the Supreme Court of the United States, by appropriate order, adopted the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. The Supreme Court, in its order of adoption, provided that these rules are to govern the practice in appeals to United States courts of appeals from the United States district courts, and the review of the United States courts of appeals of decisions of specified lower federal agencies. Rule 1 provides that “these rules govern procedure in appeals to United States courts of appeals from the United States district courts and the Tax Court of the United States; * * *.”
Thus, the conclusion is inescapable that the Supreme Court has decreed through adoption of the rules that all appeals in the courts of appeals are to be governed by the provisions of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. These rules are easily understood. They mean what they say. They are binding upon every judge of every court of appeals and should be adhered to, not ignored. If courts of appeals are permitted to engage in fashioning remedies according to the dictates of the judges and contrary to the guidelines enunciated in the rules, one of the objectives so long sought and finally achieved — uniformity of practice and procedure — will effectively be scrapped.

. The Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure became effective July 1, 1968.

. This case holds that an unargued assertion of error is waived.

. This ease stands for the proposition that contentions of error in the trial court not presented on appeal will be considered as having been abandoned.

. In the Bell case, Judge Van Oosterhout cites numerous cases supporting the rule.

. This case did not present any constitutional issues.

. In Clay, Justice Black states that the principle has never been made a rule and elevated to a position of absoluteness but its application is merely discretionary, to be used under the proper circumstances. 363 U.S. at 222-226, 80 S.Ct. 1222 (dissenting opinion).

. “All that is required of an indictment is that it be a plain, concise and definite *1131written statement of essential facts constituting the offense charged. Rule 7(c), Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; Rood v. United States, 8 Cir., 340 F.2d 506, 510. With respect to the use of general corporate funds this indictment meets these requirements. Entry of the plea of not guilty, therefore, gave rise to a question of fact as to the source of the corporate funds. When the Supreme Court, in the Auto Workers case, asked ([United States v. International Union United Auto, etc., Workers] 352 U.S. [567] at 592, 77 S.Ct. [529] at 542 [1 L.Ed.2d 563]) : ‘[W]as the broadcast paid for out of the general dues of the union membership or may the funds be fairly said to have been obtained on a voluntary basis?’ The Court was referring to questions of fact which must be resolved at the trial level and was not referring to any inadequacies in the indictment.”
United States v. Lewis Food Company, 366 F.2d 710, 713 (9th Cir. 1966).