Field v. United States

• Decision Date: 07 April 1905
• Docket Number: 2,122.
• Citation: 137 F. 6
• Parties: FIELD v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

137 F. 6

FIELD v. UNITED STATES.

No. 2,122.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

April 7, 1905

Syllabus by the Court

The officer of a bankrupt corporation, who is not and has not been a bankrupt, is not liable to punishment under section 29b of the bankruptcy law of July 1, 1898, c. 541, 30 Stat 554 (U.S.Comp.St. 1901, p. 3433), for having fraudulently and knowingly concealed the property of the estate of the corporation in bankruptcy from its trustee.

The present or past bankruptcy of the person accused is an indispensable element of the offense denounced by the statute.

A penal statute which creates and denounces a new offense must be strictly construed. Where it is plain and unambiguous, the courts may not lawfully extend it by interpretation to a class of persons who are excluded from its effect by its terms for the reason that their acts may be as mischievous as those of the class whose deeds it denounces.

James F. Read (James B. McDonough, on the brief), for plaintiff in error.

F. A Youmans (James K. Barnes, on the brief), for defendant in error.

Before SANBORN, Circuit Judge, and PHILIPS and RINER, District Judges.

SANBORN Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff in error, who was not a bankrupt but who was a vice president and one of the directors of the Brown-Rollosson Company, a corporation which was a bankrupt, was indicted, a demurrer to the indictment was overruled, and he was convicted under section 29b of the bankruptcy law of July 1 1898, c. 541, 30 Stat. 554 (U.S.Comp.St. 1901, p. 3433), of the offense of having knowingly and fraudulently concealed property which belonged to the estate of the corporation in bankruptcy from its trustee. Section 29b reads:

'A person shall be punished, by imprisonment for a period not to exceed two years, upon conviction of the offense of having knowingly and fraudulently concealed while a bankrupt, or after his discharge, from his trustee any of the property belonging to his estate in bankruptcy.'

Neither the offense nor the punishment here described exists under the common law. They are the creatures of the act of Congress. In the absence of that act, no one could be legally punished by imprisonment for having concealed property from his trustee in bankruptcy. In the presence of the act, therefore, no one can be lawfully punished by imprisonment for this concealment who is not by the terms of the statute subject to this punishment.

The act specifically designates the persons liable to the punishment which it prescribes. They are those who commit the offense denounced while they are bankrupts or after they have received their discharges in bankruptcy. Under a familiar rule, this specification by the statute of those who are bankrupts, and those who have been bankrupts, as the persons liable to the punishment, necessarily excludes all others from that liability, and no other person can be lawfully punished under this section for the offense it denounces. As the plaintiff in error was not and never had been a bankrupt, it is difficult to perceive how he could have been guilty of the offense of having concealed while a bankrupt, or after his discharge, from his trustee, any of his estate in bankruptcy.

The argument by which counsel attempt to sustain the indictment and conviction is that clause 19 of section 1 of the bankruptcy law (30 Stat. 544 (U.S.Comp.St. 1901, p. 3419)) broadens the meaning of section 29b so that it includes the officers of a bankrupt corporation, who conceal the property of its estate in bankruptcy from its trustee, in the class subject to the punishment it prescribes. That clause reads in this way:

''Persons' shall include corporations, except where otherwise specified, and officers, partnerships, and

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