Arroyo v. United States

Citation256 F.2d 549
Decision Date25 June 1958
Docket NumberNo. 5261.,5261.
PartiesWadelmiro ARROYO, Defendant, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES of America, Appellee.
CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (1st Circuit)

Rafael V. Perez-Marchand, Rio Piedras, P. R., with whom Carlos A. Romero Barcelo and Miguel E. Herrero Frank, Rio Piedras, P. R., were on the brief, for appellant.

Ruben Rodriguez Antongiorgi, U. S. Atty., San Juan, P. R., with whom John M. Gallagher, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellee.

Before MAGRUDER, Chief Judge, and WOODBURY and STALEY, Circuit Judges.

WOODBURY, Circuit Judge.

The appellant was indicted, tried by jury on his plea of not guilty, convicted and sentenced in the court below for receiving money from an employer in violation of § 302(b) and (d) of the Labor Management Relations Act, 1947, 61 Stat. 157, 29 U.S.C.A. § 186(b) and (d) quoted in the margin,1 with so much of subsection (c) as has any application here.

The Government introduced evidence at the trial to show that on February 21, 1953, Central Mercedita, Inc., and Puerto Rican Sugar Refinery, Inc., allied corporations engaged in Puerto Rico in the production of sugar for movement in interstate commerce, executed a collective bargaining agreement for the years 1953 through 1955 with the Union de Trabajadores de Factoria, Refineria y Ramos Anexas de la Industrial Azucarera, Local 1781, Afiliada a la International Longshoremen's Association (hereinafter for brevity referred to as the Union), as the duly certified representative of appropriate units of their employees and that the agreement was negotiated and executed on behalf of the Union by the appellant as the Union's president and principal negotiator. Article 6 of the agreement provided that the employers would contribute equally to a welfare fund of $15,000 to be used to furnish medical aid, hospitalization, etc., for the employees of the employers and their families and dependents which was to be administered by a committee to be appointed by agreement of the parties. On the day the agreement was signed, or the day following, the evidence is conflicting, each employer gave the appellant its check in the amount of $7,500 payable to the Union, each check having a voucher attached showing that it covered the employer's contribution to the welfare fund established under the collective bargaining agreement.

On February 24, the appellant, instead of depositing the checks in the Banco de Ponce to the credit of the Union's welfare fund to be withdrawn by checks signed by him and counter signed by a representative of the employers, as had been the practice with respect to previous similar funds, used the checks endorsed by himself and the Union's secretary to open a new account in the name of the Union's welfare fund in the Ponce branch of the National City Bank. A week or so later the appellant gave the bank what purported to be a resolution of the Union giving him authority to draw against this account over his signature only, and subsequently, beginning on March 6, he made withdrawals from the account for his personal benefit, as for the purchase of an automobile. The employers protested as soon as they discovered what was afoot and on March 26, 1953, the bank closed out the account by giving the appellant a manager's check for the balance remaining on deposit of $9,812.89. The appellant deposited this check to the Union's general account in the Banco de Ponce, on which he was the only person authorized to draw, and he drew against it for his personal use and general purposes of the Union. There is no evidence that any part of either account was used for the welfare purposes specified in Article 6 of the collective bargaining agreement.

There can be no doubt that the two corporations involved, Central Mercedita, Inc., and Puerto Rican Sugar Refinery, Inc., are "employers" within the meaning of the statute. Nor can there be any doubt that the appellant was a "representative" of the employees of those employers as that term is defined in United States v. Ryan, 1956, 350 U.S. 299, 76 S.Ct. 400, 100 L.Ed. 335. The basic question presented is whether the appellant can stand convicted on the facts outlined above.

The appellant contends that having accepted checks from the employers payable to the Union's welfare fund, and having deposited those checks in a bank to the credit of that fund, he cannot in reason be said to have "received" himself any "money or other thing of value" from the employers. He concedes that through the personal control he possessed over the welfare fund he not only could but did use it for his own personal expenses, but he says that while he may thereby have violated the local criminal law, the monies he received came from the Union, not from the employers. Thus he contended throughout the trial and contends here that the evidence of his misappropriations was not only irrelevant but also highly prejudicial and should have been excluded. The Government on the other hand contends, and the court below adopting the contention so charged the jury, that even though the checks were made payable to the Union's welfare fund and were so deposited, nevertheless, if by collusion with other Union officials or by more devious means, the appellant in fact possessed complete and sole control over the fund so that he might use all or part of it for his own personal benefit in violation of the collective bargaining agreement and the law, he "received" money from the employers in violation of the statute. We agree with the view of the...

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3 cases
  • United States v. Alaimo
    • United States
    • U.S. District Court — Middle District of Pennsylvania
    • February 9, 1961
    ...F.2d 417, at page 426, and see United States v. Ryan, supra, 350 U.S. at pages 305-306, 76 S.Ct. at pages 404-405; Arroyo v. United States, 1 Cir., 1958, 256 F.2d 549, 551, reversed on other grounds 359 U.S. 419, 79 S.Ct. 864, 3 L.Ed.2d 915, as to "shaking down the employer"; United States ......
  • United States v. Annunziato
    • United States
    • U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit
    • July 26, 1961
    ...limited in its thrust to cases of extortion * * * Congress wished to assure collective bargaining at arms length." Arroyo v. United States, 1 Cir., 1958, 256 F.2d 549, 551-552, reversed on other grounds, 1959, 359 U.S. 419, 79 S.Ct. 864, 3 L.Ed. 2d We think it follows that an employer who m......
  • Arroyo v. United States
    • United States
    • U.S. Supreme Court
    • May 4, 1959
    ...by receiving $15,000 from two of their employers. 2 The judgment of conviction was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. 256 F.2d 549. Certiorari was granted because the case presents an important question as to the scope of this provision of the Labor Management Relations......

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