Bridges v. United States
| Decision Date | 29 December 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 12597.,12597. |
| Citation | 199 F.2d 811 |
| Parties | BRIDGES et al. v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
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Gladstein, Andersen & Leonard, Norman Leonard, Vincent W. Hallinan, James Martin MacInnis, San Francisco, Cal., for appellants.
Chauncey Tramutolo, U. S. Atty., Robert B. McMillan, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Francisco, Cal. (James M. McInerney, Asst. Atty. Gen., Beatrice Rosenberg, Carl H. Imlay, John R. Wilkins, Attys., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., John P. Boyd, Sp. Asst. Atty. Gen., of counsel), for appellee.
Before STEPHENS, BONE, and POPE, Circuit Judges.
On the 25th day of May, 1949, a single indictment was returned by a United States Grand Jury charging Harry Renton Bridges, Henry Schmidt, and J. R. Robertson with the crime of conspiracy to fraudulently secure Bridges' naturalization, Count I; 18 U.S.C.1946 ed. § 88, now 18 U.S.C. 1948 Rev. § 371; charging Bridges with the crime of knowingly making a false statement under oath relating to his naturalization proceedings, Count II; 8 U.S.C.1946 ed. § 746(a) (1), now 18 U.S.C.1948 Rev. § 1015(a); charging Schmidt and Robertson each with the crime of fraudulently aiding and abetting an alien (Bridges) to procure naturalization, Count III; 8 U.S.C.1946 ed. § 746(a) (5), now 18 U.S.C.1948 Rev. § 1425. All of the charges contained in the indictment were submitted together to a jury which returned verdicts of guilty against each defendant as charged in each count; judgment and sentence followed; and each defendant appeals on numerous grounds as to each judgment.1
Count I is laid under Title 18 U.S.C. 1946 ed. § 88, (now 18 U.S.C.1948 Rev. § 371) in which Bridges, Schmidt and Robertson were charged with having conspired together to secure the naturalization of Bridges, an alien, by fraudulently representing that he had never belonged to the Communist Party of the United States. The applicable statute is as follows:
§ 88. "If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be fined not more than $10,000, or imprisoned not more than two years, or both."
The texts of the Count, and the alleged overt acts, are set out in the margin.2
Count II is laid under Section 346 of the Nationality Act of 1940, c. 876, 54 Stat. 1137, 1163, Title 8 U.S.C.1946 ed. § 746(a) (1), (now 18 U.S.C.1948 Rev. § 1015(a), in which Bridges, alone, is charged with having fraudulently made a false statement under oath3 in his naturalization proceedings in the Superior Court of California, as follows:
The applicable statute is as follows:
The text of the Count II is set out in the margin.4
Count III is laid under Section 346 of the Nationality Act of 1940, c. 876, 54 Stat. 1137, 1163, Title 8 U.S.C.1946 ed. § 746(a) (5). In this Count Schmidt and Robertson are accused of knowingly encouraging, aiding, advising, and assisting Bridges to secure his naturalization through fraud. The applicable statute is as follows:
The text of the Count is set out in the margin.5
The acts which are the bases of the charges were performed within the period intervening between June 23 to October 1, 1945, and since the indictment was returned on May 25, 1949, the three year period provided by the general statute of limitations,6 within which prosecutions could legally be instituted, had expired and the judgments must be reversed and the indictment dismissed if the prosecution is limited to such period.
The government thinks the prosecution is not so limited because the Congress, aware of the difficulty of prosecuting frauds committed against the government during wartime, enacted the so-called Wartime Suspension Act7 which provided that the three-year period would not begin to run until cessation of war hostilities had been officially proclaimed.
Appellants are of the opinion that not one of the alleged offenses is a fraud against the government cognizable by the Suspension Act, and therefore institution of the prosecution for these offenses was not extended by it.
The first count of the indictment is under the substantive offense of conspiracy, and the second and third counts are offenses defined in the statute commonly referred to as the Nationality Act of 1940. The government is of the opinion that the statute of limitations of five years provided in the Nationality Act of 19408 applies to Counts II and III independently of the general statute of limitations, and the Suspension Act, while appellants claim that it does not apply and that the general statute of limitations of three years is the applicable limitation, we shall go immediately to the consideration of the latter problem.
On June 25, 1948, Title 18 of the United States Code, entitled "Crimes and Criminal Procedure" was enacted and became effective law as of September 1, 1948, Act of June 25, 1948, 62 Stat. 683. By the adoption of the code the criminal laws of the nation, so far as practical, were brought together in orderly manner through the method of simultaneous repeal and reenactment by Congress. By the new code the section of the Nationality Act of 1940, Title 8 U.S.C.A. § 746(a)(1), under which Count II of the indictment in suit was laid, was brought into the new code as § 1015(a) of Title 18, and in the same manner the section of the Nationality Act, Title 8 U.S. C.A. § 746(a)(5), under which Count III of the indictment in suit was laid, was brought into the new code as § 1425 of Title 18, with some change in phraseology not important in this case.
However, the June 25, 1948, Act provided by § 21 thereof the following:
(Emphasis ours.
The sections of the laws under which Counts II and III were laid are enumerated in the schedule. It is clear, therefore, that the laws under which the charges in this case were laid continued effectively until the then existing rights or liabilities were extinguished by the running of a statute of limitations or otherwise.
The Nationality Act contained a section which provided for a five-year limitation, Title 8 U.S.C.A. § 746(g), upon the institution of criminal proceedings for offenses defined therein. That section was included in the schedule of repealed sections but it was not carried over into the new code; instead an omnibus section of the new code included the limitation applicable to the offenses in suit. The section reads:
Title 18 U.S.C.A. § 3282, Act of June 25, 1948, c. 645, 62 Stat. 828.
It is apparent that if the five-year limitation in the old Nationality Act, Title 8 U.S.C.A. § 746(g), remained effective through the provision in the repealing and reenacting Act, both Counts II and III were laid in time under it. It remained effective if the reservation of "rights or liabilities" preserved the limitation, as well as the substantive offenses then existing, as to offenses which had been committed prior to the effective date of the new code. The trial court held that the limitation was preserved and the government supports the holding.
Keeping in mind the remedial purpose of the revisors, and Congress, we think the Saving Clause cannot be given the broad effect claimed for it by the government. What was done, as we have said, was the transfer of laws relating to crime into one code of laws. The offenses charged in Counts II and III were so transferred and in order that no doubt should arise as to their effective continuity from their original setting to the new one the Saving Clause was added. The revisors saw no reason for the period of five years for instituting prosecution for violation of the offenses defined in the Nationality Act and shorter periods for certain other offenses. Therefore, they did not move the five-year limitation section into the new code and did not...
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Bridges v. United States
...each received concurrent sentences of imprisonment for two years on each of Counts I and III. The Court of Appeals affirmed. 9 Cir., 199 F.2d 811. Rehearing en banc was denied. 9 Cir., 201 F.2d 254. Because of an indicated conflict between that decision and part of the decision in Marzani v......
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