In re Petroleum Industry Investigation

• Decision Date: 20 May 1957
• Citation: 152 F. Supp. 646
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia
• Parties: In re PETROLEUM INDUSTRY INVESTIGATION.

152 F. Supp. 646

In re PETROLEUM INDUSTRY INVESTIGATION.

United States District Court E. D. Virginia, Alexandria Division.

May 20, 1957.

John F. Sonnet, Cahill, Gordon, Reindel & Ohl, New York City (William M. Sayre, New York City, of counsel), for Standard Oil Co. of Texas.

Joseph E. McDowell, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., Gordon B. Spivack, Atty., Dept. of Justice, Washington, D. C., A. Andrew Giangreco, Asst. U. S. Atty., Eastern Dist. of Virginia, Arlington, Va., for United States.

ALBERT V. BRYAN, District Judge.

For convenience in the study of the books and papers produced by the witnesses appearing before the grand jury, the court has allowed the Government attorneys to remove this evidence to their offices in the Department of Justice, just across the Potomac in Washington. But it exacts of them a receipt for each document withdrawn. The receipt binds the attorney, as an officer of the court, to return the evidence to the Clerk, meanwhile to keep it from the public eye and separated from the records of other witnesses or companies.

Full ready to tender all the papers described in the grand jury's subpoena duces tecum, the Standard Oil Company of Texas, however, moves the court to straiten the receipt by adding the stipulation that, "unless otherwise directed by the court", the documents shall be used by Government counsel "in this proceeding only" and be returned to the grand jury or the witness "with all copies". The Government demurs to this restriction in the use of the papers as well as to the requirement for surrender of the copies. It recognizes, of course, its obligation to return the originals of the books and papers.

Obviously, the motion springs from the Company's fear lest the documents, or the information contained in them, be used by the Government for a purpose different from that for which they were subpoenaed. The Company further urges, in its concern, that access to the documents during the Government's custody be limited to those attorneys authorized by the warrant of the Attorney General to appear before the grand jury. The public interest would always be safeguarded, Standard maintains, by the suggested reservation in the receipt of the right to the Government, at any time or times, to ask from the court a different direction in respect to the evidence. Such directions could, presumably, include the impounding of the documents, together with all copies, while the court considered the legality of the requested use.

Without reflection, the possibility of the Government's devotion of the documents to another use affronts the sense of fair play. It implies an abuse of process. But, studied, the diversion proves to be altogether correct, legally and ethically. In the study it must be remembered, always, that the books and papers necessarily have first been obtained without treading upon the Fourth or Fifth Amendment, or upon any other Constitutional protection. This is true because the evidence would not otherwise be before the...