Green, Moore & Co. v. United States
| Citation | 19 F.2d 130 |
| Decision Date | 04 May 1927 |
| Docket Number | No. 4881.,4881. |
| Parties | GREEN, MOORE & CO., Inc., et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Charles A. McCoy and Griffin T. Hawkins, both of Lake Charles, La. (McCoy & Moss, of Lake Charles, La., on the brief), for plaintiffs in error.
Philip H. Mecom, U. S. Atty., and J. Fair Hardin, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Shreveport, La.
Before WALKER, BRYAN, and FOSTER, Circuit Judges.
This is an indictment, in three counts, against Green, Moore & Co., a corporation, John A. Lowe, and Crawford Doyle, for violations of section 49 of the Criminal Code (Comp. St. § 10216). The first count charges the defendants with cutting, the second count with removing, and the third count with transporting by tramroad, the timber on particularly described public land of the United States.
According to the government's evidence, the corporation defendant was operating a sawmill, and the individual defendants were, respectively, its mill manager and woods foreman. The land on which the timber was growing was a narrow strip, of an average width of 88 yards, and extending along a range line for 2 miles and then at right angles along a section line for 1 mile. It had not been surveyed until 1923. After it was surveyed, one Daniel Laughlin entered it under the homestead laws, but before he had acquired title the defendants built a tramroad on the land, and cut and removed the timber. Laughlin became a witness for the government, and on his direct examination stated that he personally notified Doyle that he was homesteading the land. The trial court sustained objections to questions on cross-examination which sought to elicit from this witness answers to the effect that he had filed a suit for trespass against the corporation defendant, in which he alleged that the land belonged to him.
A newspaper, which contained a news item to the effect that the government owned some lands subject to homestead in the parish in which the land in question is located, was admitted in evidence over the objection and exception of defendants, but only for the purpose of showing the fact of publication, and not for the purpose of showing that defendants had knowledge of that fact. The bill of exceptions also discloses that objections to certain questions on behalf of the prosecution were overruled, and that objections to other questions asked by defendants were sustained; but it does not go further, and disclose what evidence was brought out by the government, or what evidence defendants would have elicited, except for the rulings of the court. In this state of the record, it is impossible to say that defendants suffered any injury by reason of the rulings upon these matters.
Exceptions were taken to several charges, given at the government's request, which in substance were as follows: (1) Notice to a corporation must be given through some person, and need not be given to an officer of the corporation, but notice to an agent, such as the head of a grading crew, woods foreman, or mill manager, is notice to the corporation; (2) it was not necessary to prove to an absolute certainty that defendants positively knew of the existence of the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. Moore, 78-1594
...Krepper, 159 F.2d 958, 967-968 (3d Cir. 1946), Cert. denied, 330 U.S. 824, 67 S.Ct. 865, 91 L.Ed. 1275 (1947); Green, Moore & Co. v. United States, 19 F.2d 130, 131 (5th Cir.), Cert. denied, 275 U.S. 549, 48 S.Ct. 86, 72 L.Ed. 420 (1927); United States v. Holmes, 187 F.2d 222, 225 (7th Cir.......
-
U.S. v. Scrimgeour, 80-5205
...McKelvey v. United States, 260 U.S. 353, 356-57, 43 S.Ct. 132, 133-34, 67 L.Ed. 301 (1922); Green, Moore & Co. v. United States, 19 F.2d 130, 131 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 275 U.S. 549, 48 S.Ct. 86, 72 L.Ed. 420 The conjunctive reading of Section 1623(d) comports with accepted principles of......
-
Fredrick v. United States
...negative in the information exceptions which might exculpate the accused from liability under the Act." See also Green, Moore & Co. v. United States, 5 Cir., 19 F.2d 130, 131, certiorari denied, 275 U.S. 549, 48 S.Ct. 86, 72 L.Ed. 420; Williams v. United States, 78 U.S.App.D.C. 147, 138 F.2......
-
United States v. Thompson-Powell Drilling Company
...F.2d 838; United States v. Kemmel, D.C., 160 F. Supp. 718; Old Monastery Co. v. United States, 4 Cir., 147 F.2d 905; Green, Moore & Co. v. United States, 5 Cir., 19 F.2d 130. The defendant has cited for its viewpoint the case of Holland Furnace Co. v. United States, 6 Cir., 158 F.2d 2, and ......