Hallowell v. United States

• Decision Date: 02 December 1918
• Docket Number: 3141.
• Parties: HALLOWELL et al. v. UNITED STATES. [1]
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

253 F. 865

HALLOWELL et al. v. UNITED STATES. ^[1]

No. 3141.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

December 2, 1918

The plaintiffs in error were convicted under a charge of conspiracy to use the mails in furtherance of a scheme to defraud. The scheme involved a pretended location of claimants upon lands in Oregon represented to be included in what was known as the Oregon & California Railroad land grant, and which were then in litigation in a suit brought by the United States against the railroad company to forfeit the grant. The indictment charged that the defendants conspired to devise a scheme to defraud various named persons, and the public generally, through the use of the United States mails by inducing them to pay over to the defendants certain sums of money, with the intention of defrauding them 'out of all sums of money that such persons would pay over to the defendants, or either of them,' and that the scheme contemplated making in substance the following representations:

That in the above-mentioned suit then pending the United States was seeking to compel the railroad company to sell and convey the lands of the grant to persons making application therefor through the defendants, in quantities not to exceed 160 acres to each applicant, and for a price not to exceed $2.50 per acre; that the defendants were the agents of the railroad company, and authorized by it to solicit persons to make applications to purchase lands; that the railroad company conceding that it could not prevail in the suit, desired to procure a large number of persons to make application to purchase the land, and that it would require all persons making application to purchase to enter into a written option obliging themselves, upon procuring title, to convey the timber on the land to the railroad company; that every applicant would receive title within six months from the date of his application, and would make a large sum of money thereby; that all of the tracts of land for which applications were to be made through the defendants were portions of the land involved in the suit then pending.

The indictment then charged that all the representations were false, and known to the defendants to be false, and were made by them for the purpose of executing the fraudulent scheme that it was the purpose of the United States in said suit to acquire for itself all of said lands, and it was the purpose of the railroad company to retain title to itself for all of said lands; that none of the defendants was ever authorized by the railroad company to make any of said representations; that many of the applications so induced were located upon the same tract of land; that many of the applications were made upon lands that never belonged to the railroad company and were not affected by the suit; that many of said tracts had no timber, and many of them were absolutely worthless. The indictment then set forth the commission of certain overt acts, which consisted in the mailing of certain letters through the United States mails.

The plaintiffs in error were convicted as charged, and they bring separate writs of error. They both assign error to the ruling of the court below in admitting certain letters in evidence, written by Hallowell, and signed 'Hallowell & Co.,' and sent to various persons who had made applications to purchase the lands at the instance of the defendants. The letters were all similar in general purport. The letters showed that demand was made in the name of Hallowell & Co., for payment by certain of the applicants of the sum of $2.50 per acre, the purchase price of the lands. Their admission in evidence was objected to as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial, and because entirely outside of the scope of the charge made in the indictment.

Thomas J. Cleeton and James H. McMenamin, of Portland, Or., for plaintiff in error Lick.

Edwin E. Heckbert and Samuel White, of Portland, Or., for plaintiff in error Hallowell.

Bert E. Haney, U.S. Atty., and Robert R. Rankin and Barnett H. Goldstein, Asst. U.S. Attys., all of Portland, Or.

Before GILBERT, ROSS, and HUNT, Circuit Judges.

GILBERT Circuit Judge (after stating the facts as above).

The plaintiffs in error contend that, inasmuch as the indictment charges that it was the purpose of the scheme to induce each of the victims thereof to pay to the defendants named in the indictment the sum of $150 for their services in receiving and presenting to the railroad company the applications to purchase lands, it was error to admit the letters written to certain of the applicants demanding the further sum of $2.50 per acre; the purpose to demand said further sum not having been specified in the...