Dawson v. United States, 14053.

• Decision Date: 08 May 1953
• Docket Number: No. 14053.,14053.
• Citation: 203 F.2d 201
• Parties: DAWSON v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

203 F.2d 201 (1953)

DAWSON v. UNITED STATES.

No. 14053.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 8, 1953.

Rehearing Denied May 8, 1953.

Leo Brewster, Beale Dean and Richard Owens, Ft. Worth, Tex., Monning & Monning, of Amarillo, Tex., Brewster, Pannell, Leeton & Dean, of Fort Worth, Tex., for appellant.

A. W. Christian, Asst. U. S. Atty., Frank B. Potter, U. S. Atty., and Cavett S. Binion, Asst. U. S. Atty., Ft. Worth, Tex., for appellee.

Before HOLMES, BORAH, and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.

HOLMES, Circuit Judge.

The indictment in this case contained 24 counts. Each of the first nine charged that the appellant, at a certain time and place within the jurisdiction of the court, did willfully, knowingly, and unlawfully, steal, conceal, remove, dispose of, and convert to his own use, a certain large quantity of wheat, which was then and there the property of the Commodity Credit Corporation, an agency and instrumentality of the United States within the Department of Agriculture. Each of the remaining fifteen counts charged the same offense with reference to a certain large quantity of grain sorghum, the specific quantity as to each count being stated in pounds instead of in bushels as in the case of wheat. Having been acquitted on the first eight counts, the appellant appealed from a judgment of conviction on the remaining sixteen counts. The statute under which he was convicted and sentenced was Section 714m(c), Title 15, of the United States Code Annotated.

The appellant was the president and most active officer of the Plains Grain Company, Inc., which stored wheat and grain-sorghum for said federal agency, hereinafter referred to as the C. C. C. He contends that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict, because it failed to show title in the C. C. C. to the commodities described in the indictment. The contract of June the first, 1950, which appellant contends gave him an option to purchase said commodities, provided that he, doing business as Plains Grain & Storage Company, would receive and store the grain in question and would issue warehouse receipts for the same.¹ The grain was to be commingled, and the appellant was required at all times to maintain a stock of the same class, grade, quality, and quantity. The primary obligation of the warehouseman was to store, insure, load out, and ship, grain at the request of the holder of the warehouse receipts, in whom was the legal title and ownership in common of these commodities. Articles 5576, 5621, and 5627 of Vernon's Civil Statutes of Texas; Art. 5634 of Revised Statutes of Texas.

Because of his requirement to insure the grain in his own name against loss or damage by fire, lightning, windstorm, and other casualites, appellant contends that C. C. C. recognized his ownership of the grain. A reading of the entire contract refutes this contention. It is expressly stated therein that the provision in no way limits the obligation of the warehouseman under the other provisions of the contract, and that if he insures against unspecified hazards to the grain, such insurance shall inure to the benefit of the holders of the warehouse receipts and certificates. It is not an uncommon business practice to require a warehouseman to insure property which he holds in trust for the owner. A bailee or trustee is a qualified owner, and has an insurable interest in property of a nature that gives him a right to maintain an action for insurance proceeds which are to be held in trust for the owner.

The appellant contends that the relationship between Plains Grain Company and C. C. C. was nothing more than that of debtor and creditor. His contention is that the warehouseman owned the grain and "the C. C. C. merely owned the warehouse receipts" which were redeemable in marketable grain or in money, calculated on the market value of the grain called for in the receipts. We quote the following from his brief, pp. 42-44: "We know of no criminal action which may be taken against a person on the mere charge that he is a debtor; Article 1, Section 18, of Texas statutes Cons...