Deal v. United States

• Decision Date: 16 May 1927
• Docket Number: No. 344,344
• Citation: 274 U.S. 277,71 L.Ed. 1045,47 S.Ct. 613
• Parties: DEAL et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

274 U.S. 277

47 S.Ct. 613

71 L.Ed. 1045

DEAL et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 344.

Submitted April 25, 1927.

Decided May 16, 1927.

Mr. Louis S. Beedy, of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioners.

Mr. W. D. Mitchell, Sol. Gen., of Washington, D. C., Mr. Assistant Attorney General Letts, and Messrs. J. Kennedy White, of Buffalo, N. Y., and Gardner P. Lloyd, of New York City, for the United States.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Upon his appointment as postmaster at Fairbanks, Alaska, petitioner Deal executed the ordinary official bond, with the Fidelity & Guaranty Company as surety, conditioned that he 'shall faithfully discharge all duties and trusts imposed on him as postmaster either by law or by the regulations of the Post Office Department,' etc. The United States sued on this bond in a District Court of Alaska and asked judgment for $9,900, the amount of currency abstracted from a package deposited in the Fairbanks office for registration and transmission. Judgment upon a verdict went for them and was affirmed by the Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, notwithstanding errors by the trial court, recognized, but held to be harmless. 11 F.(2d) 3.

Replying to the petition for certiorari from this court, the Solicitor General very properly said:

'The record is in a jumble, and the treatment of the case by the trial court involved so many inconsistencies that the case is difficult to analyze.'

The trial judge charged the jury upon three inconsistent theories: (1) That the postmaster was liable for the abstracted money only if guilty of some negligence which caused the loss; (2) that liability existed if he had violated some regulation of the Post Office Department respecting care of the registered package, although not shown to be proximate cause of the loss; (3) that the money taken, being property of the United States, was public funds, and the postmaster became liable therefor as an insurer as though it had been received from sale of stamps or money orders.

Among other things, the record discloses—

That on September 15, 1921, the First National Bank deposited at the Fairbanks post office for registration and transmission a package addressed to the disbursing agent at Healy, Alaska, via Nenana, which contained $9,900 in currency and some silver belonging to the United States. The clerk who received and registered it thought the package contained money, but was not so advised. Another clerk placed it in an iron safe and left the door on the day combination.

That during the night of September 15 petitioner Deal permitted an unauthorized person to enter the office. September 16 the package was placed in the pouch destined to Nenana. Upon its arrival at that place the currency was gone-a magazine filled the space.

That some evidence touching treatment of the package at the Fairbanks office and much testimony concerning transportation, tended to show the bills were abstracted while it remained there.

Considering the serious nature of the errors committed by the trial court and upon the entire record, we must conclude that they caused material prejudice to the petitioners' substantial rights. Act Feb. 26, 1919, c. 48 (40 Stat. 1181 (Comp. St. § 1246)). Accordingly, the challenged judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded for another trial. Under this conclusion, we need only consider matters probably important for further conduct of the cause.

The Circuit Court of Appeals properly rejected, and the Solicitor General does not rely upon, the theory that under section 3846, R. S., being Comp. St. § 7208 (section 360, Postal Regulations 1913), the postmaster became liable for the registered package as an insurer. That section provides:

'Postmasters shall keep safely, without loaning, using, depositing in an unauthorized bank, or exchanging for other funds, all the public money collected by them, or which may come into their possession, until it is ordered by the Postmaster General to be transferred or paid out.'

Public money, within this provision, 'obviously is money belonging to the United States in such sense that it may be ordered by the Postmaster General to be transferred or paid out.' Smyer v. United States (Feb. 21, 1927) 273 U. S. 333, 47 S. Ct. 375, 71 L. Ed. 667.

It is admitted that petitioner Deal failed to observe certain regulations intended to secure safety of registered matter; but it is stoutly denied that the evidence showed any causal connection between such negligence or disregard of duty and the loss sustained.

During 1921, the 1913 Edition, Postal Laws and Regulations, was in force. Sections which require special consideration follow:

'Sec. 291. When a post office has been robbed, the postmaster shall immediately report all the facts to the chief inspector and to the post office inspector in charge of the division in which the post office is located. (See section 35.) The report should give, if possible, all the circumstances connected with the robbery, the date, a detailed inventory of the loss, the denominations of stamped paper stolen, the amount of postal and money-order funds and of each class of government property. The postmaster shall be held responsible for the loss if he fails to exercise due care in the protection of the property. If the loss includes the mail key the number should be given. (See section 1527.) Full particulars regarding registered mail lost or rifled should be reported. The chief inspector shall promptly notify the Assistant Attorney General of every such casualty from which a claim for credit under the provisions of section 150 may arise. * * *

'Sec. 940. Postmasters and other postal employees will be held personally responsible by the Post Office Department for the wrong delivery, depredation upon, or loss of any registered letter or parcel if such wrong delivery, depredation, or loss be due to negligence or disregard of the regulations. (The provisions of this section appear unchanged as section 989, Edition 1924 of the Regulations.)

'Sec. 150. (Act May 9, 1888, c. 231, 25 Stat. 135, as amended by Act June 11, 1896, c. 424, 29 Stat. 458.) That the Postmaster General be, and he is hereby, authorized to investigate all claims of postmasters for the loss of money-order funds, postal funds, postage stamps, stamped envelopes, newspaper wrappers, and postal cards, belonging to the United States in the hands of such postmasters, resulting from burglary, fire, or other un- avoidable casualty, and if he shall determine that such loss resulted from no fault or negligence on the part of such postmasters, to pay to such postmasters, or credit them with the amount so ascertained to have been lost or destroyed,' etc.

Did section 291 impose liability for theft from the registered package while held by the postmaster and not protected as the Regulations required, without evidence to show that the loss resulted from failure to observe them? If so, it was unnecessary to show such causal connection, as the United States maintain. But, if section 940 defined the responsibility, as he...