Gantt v. United States

• Decision Date: 02 April 1901
• Docket Number: 918.
• Citation: 108 F. 61
• Parties: GANTT et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

108 F. 61

GANTT et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 918.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

April 2, 1901

The plaintiffs in error, Isaac F. Gantt and Stephen Shine together with George Nolen, were indicted in the court below under section 5440 of the Revised Statutes. The indictment is as follows:

'The grand jurors of the United States chosen, selected, and sworn in and for the Southern district of Alabama, in the name and by the authority of the United States of America upon their oaths do find and present that Isaac F. Gantt Stephen Shine, and George Nolen, whose names, other than as herein stated, are unknown to the grand jury, late of the district aforesaid, heretofore, to wit, on the 27th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1899, and before the finding of this indictment, and within the said Southern district of Alabama, and within the jurisdiction of this court, did then and there conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to defraud the United States out of its title to the following lands of the said United States, to wit, the south half of the northwest quarter and the northeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section three, and the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter of section four, township three north, range four east, of Saint Stephen's meridian, Alabama, and out of the timber standing and being on the said lands. The scheme and artifice to defraud as aforesaid was to be carried out by one or more of the defendants entering the said described lands under the homestead laws of the United States by making a false affidavit in applying to enter said described lands, and another of said defendants locating thereon a sawmill to manufacture timber and lumber from trees cut upon the said homestead entry, and which said defendants making the affidavits required by law before an officer duly qualified to take and receive final proof for the said entry, and which the said defendants were to acquire the possession of and title to the said lands in fraud of the United States. For the purpose of executing the said conspiracy to defraud the United States as aforesaid, the said Stephen Shine, on or about October 22, 1897, appeared before T. J. Emmons, clerk of the circuit court of Monroe county, Alabama, an officer duly qualified to administer the oath in that behalf, and made the oath required by law for the homestead entry of the said described lands, which said oath was false and untrue. And still further to effect the object of the said conspiracy to defraud the United States, as aforesaid, the said Isaac F. Gantt, on or about the 20th day of October, 1897, located upon the said described lands a sawmill, and erected thereupon a dwelling house and a storehouse, which he has continuously occupied, controlled, and operated since the said location of the said mill and the erection of said dwelling and storehouse. And still further to effect the object of said conspiracy, the said Isaac F. Gantt, on January 3, 1899, caused to be published in the Monroe Journal, a newspaper published at Monroeville, Monroe county, Alabama, a notice of the intention of the said Stephen Shine to make final proof for his said homestead entry, and named among the witnesses to be examined in said final proof proceedings himself, the said Isaac F. Gant, and his co-defendant, George Nolen. And still further to effect the object of the said conspiracy to defraud the said United States as aforesaid, the said Isaac F. Gantt, Stephen Shine, and George Nolen, on or about the 2d day of March, 1899, before T. J. Emmons, clerk of the circuit court of Monroe county,

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