Hill v. United States
| Decision Date | 01 April 1921 |
| Docket Number | 2863. |
| Citation | 275 F. 187 |
| Parties | HILL v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Chester H. Krum, of St. Louis, Mo., for plaintiff in error.
A. B Dennis, of Danville, Ill., for the United States.
Before BAKER, ALSCHULER, and EVANS, Circuit Judges.
Plaintiff in error was convicted on two counts of an indictment which charge or attempt to charge him (a) with publishing uttering, and passing a falsely altered and spurious Federal Reserve bank note with guilty knowledge, and (b) with having in his possession a falsely altered and spurious bank note.
The latter count is challenged because no violation of any statute of the United States is disclosed. We think the exception well taken.
Nowhere in this count is it alleged that plaintiff in error knew that the bank note in his possession was altered or spurious. This was a fatal omission. U.S. v. Carll, 105 U.S. 611 26 L.Ed. 1135. The count of the indictment here under consideration is not as full or complete as the one condemned in the Carll Case.
Neither in the government's brief nor on the oral argument do we find a serious attempt to justify or excuse the absence of this necessary allegation.
The other count upon which plaintiff in error was convicted we quote in full:
'And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do further present that Elzey B. Hill, alias Edward G. Howe, on, to wit, the 7th day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred nineteen, at East St. Louis, in the county of St. Clair, in the state of Illinois, in the Eastern district aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of said court, did then and there willfully, knowingly, falsely, unlawfully, and feloniously publish, utter, and pass to Walter J. Gillen as true and genuine a certain falsely altered and spurious circulating bank note, to wit, a certain Federal Reserve bank note, which had been issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Mo., to pay to the bearer on demand the sum of $1, but which had been falsely altered so that the bank note purported to be a bank note issued by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Mo., of the denomination of and constituting a contract of said Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Mo., to pay to the bearer on demand the sum of $10, the face of which said altered Federal Reserve bank note is in words and figures following: (Photograph of face of note)-- and the back of which said altered Federal Reserve bank note is in words and figures following: (Photograph of back of note)-- he, the said Elzey B. Hill, alias Edward G. Howe, then and there well knowing that said Federal Reserve bank note had been falsely altered as aforesaid, with the intent in him, the said Elzey B. Hill, alias Edward G. Howe, to damage and defraud the said Walter J. Gillen, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided and against the peace and dignity of the United States.'
Counsel for plaintiff in error vigorously attacked this count on numerous grounds. Unfortunately we have no assistance from counsel for the government. To all intents and purposes, the government has defaulted, resting its case on an assertion that it 'expresses the confident expectation that we will not be able to find reversible error in the record. ' These confident assurances can hardly be accepted as an answer to the specific and well fortified criticism of opposing counsel.
It is first contended that this count of the indictment fails to allege that the Federal Reserve bank is engaged in the banking business, an alleged requirement of the statute. In view of the act of Congress creating the Federal Reserve bank (38 Stat. 251), we think the court was justified in taking judicial notice of the fact that the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is an association engaged in a banking business. Matter of Dunn, 212 U.S. 374, 29 Sup.Ct. 299, 53 L.Ed. 558; Beck v. Johnson (C.C.) 169 F. 154; Leonard v. Lennox, 181 F. 760, 104 C.C.A. 296.
More serious is the urge of counsel to the effect that the indictment fails to apprise the plaintiff in error of the character of the alterations. In other words, the pleader failed to set forth the genuine instrument.
It is claimed that a photographic representation of the altered instrument does not sufficiently apprise the accused of the offense with which he is charged so that he may prepare himself to meet the issue. It might have been the safer practice to set forth either by precise words or by exact copy the bank note as it appeared originally and the bank note as it was altered. But we are not satisfied that this was not in substance what was done. The Federal Reserve Bank Act prescribes that 'the comptroller of currency shall * * * cause plates and dies to be engraved in the best manner to guard against counterfeits and fraudulent...
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Hewitt v. United States
...v. United States, 6 Cir., 90 F.2d 828, 831, 832, and cases cited; Eslick v. United States, 6 Cir., 76 F.2d 706, 707; Hill v. United States, 7 Cir., 275 F. 187, 189; Grandi v. United States, 6 Cir., 262 F. 123, 124; United States v. Drexel, 2 Cir., 56 F.2d 588, 589; Hass v. United States, 8 ......
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Hiatt v. United States
...of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or that it was one of the Federal Reserve Banks created by the act. This court, in Hill v. United States, 275 F. 187, 189, "In view of the act of Congress creating the Federal Reserve Bank (38 Stat. 251), we think the court was justified in taking judi......
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Rua v. United States, 20178.
...of the counterfeit nature of the bills. He relies on United States v. Carll, 105 U.S. 611, 26 L.Ed. 1135 (1881), and Hill v. United States, 275 F. 187 (7th Cir. 1921). While these cases do support the appellant's contention, both were decided long prior to the enactment of the Federal Rules......
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U.S. v. Hall, 86-1159
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