Ledbetter v. United States

• Decision Date: 23 May 1898
• Docket Number: No. 196,196
• Citation: 18 S.Ct. 774,170 U.S. 606,42 L.Ed. 1162
• Parties: LEDBETTER v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

170 U.S. 606

18 S.Ct. 774

42 L.Ed. 1162

LEDBETTER

v UNITED STATES.

No. 196.

May 23, 1898.

This was a writ of error to review the conviction of the plaintiff in error to review the conviction found against him by the grand jury for the Southern district of Iowa, April 28, 1896, for a violation of section 16 of the act of February 8, 1875 (18 Stat. 307), in carrying on the business of a retail dealer in liquors without the payment of the special tax repuired by law.

Defendant was convicted upon the first count in the indictment, which reads as follows:

'The grand jurors of the United States of America duly impaneled, sworn, and charged to inquire in and for the body of said Southern district of Iowa, at a term of the United States district court begun and held at Keokuk, in said district, on the 14th day of April, A. D. 1896, in the name and by the authority of the United States of America, upon their oaths do find and present that Lewis Ledbetter, late of said district, heretofore, to wit, on the ___ day of April, A. D. 1896, in the county a Appanoose, in the Southern district of Iowa, and within the jurisdiction of this court, did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously carry on the business of a retail liquor dealer without having paid the special tax therefor, as required by law, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America.'

After his conviction defendant moved for an arrest of judgment upon the insufficiency of the indictment. This motion was overruled, and the defendant sentenced to pay a fine of $250 and costs of prosecution.

Defendant thereupon sued out a writ of error from this court, assigning as error that the indictment did not state facts constituting an offense against the laws of the United States, (1) because it did not set forth that the defendant sold or offered for sale foreign or domestic spirituous or malt liquors otherwise than as provided by law; (2) that he was not informed with sufficient particularity as to the time and place and means so as to apprise him of the crime of which he was charged; and (3) that the indictment did not allege that any crime had been committed at a date prior to the finding of the indictment.

H. Scott Howell and W. C. Howell, for plaintiff in error.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Boyd, for the United States.

Mr. Justice BROWN, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.

Defendant did not demur to the indictment, nor move to quash, or take advantage of its alleged insufficiency upon the trial, but after conviction moved in arrest of judgment upon the ground that it failed to aver with sufficient particularity the details of the offense and the time and place of its commission.

1. The principal alleged defect in the indictment is set forth in the third, fourth, and fifth assignments of error, which charge that the indictment did not state facts which would constitute an offense against the laws, in that it did not allege that the defendant sold or offered for sale foreign or domestic distilled spirits, wines, or malt liquors otherwise than as provided by law, or any of said liquors, or to whom said liquors were sold or offered for sale, and because it did not allege that defendants had sold or offered for sale any of said liquors in quantities less than five wine gallons at the same time, and because the indictment did not allege that the defendant had notp aid $25, the amount of the tax provided by the statute, and, generally, because the allegations of the indictment are only a legal conclusion, unsupported by the primary and individualizing facts which constituted an offense, etc.

By section 16 of the act of February 8, 1875 (18 Stat. 310), under which defendant was convicted, it is provided that 'any person who whall carry on the business of a * * * retail liquor dealer * * * without having paid the special tax as required by law * * * shall, for every such offense, be fined,' etc.; and the first count of the indictment charged, in the very words of this section, that the defendant 'did then and there willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously carry on the business of a retail liquor dealer without having paid the special tax therefor, as required by law, contrary to the statute in such case made and provided, and against the peace and dignity of the United States of America.'

Defendant insists that is was not sufficient to charge him with the offense in the language of the statute, but that the indictment should have set forth the particular facts which showed that he was a retail liquor dealer, and should also have averred that he had not paid the tax of $25 provided by law.

By section 18 of the same act, retail tax of in liquor are required to pay a special tax of $25, and 'every person who sells or offers for sale foreign or domestic distilled spirits, wines or malt liquors, otherwise than as hereinafter provided, in less quantities than five wine gallons at the same time, shall be regarded as a retail dealer in liquors.'

The question presented for out consideration is whether it is sufficient to charge the offense in the language of the statute creating such offense and fixing the punishment therefor, or whether it is necessary to charge it in the language of the statute defining the business of a retail liquor dealer, averring that the defendant had done the acts therein stated without payment of the special tax, and had therefore rendered himself amenable to the punishment provided by the former section.

We do not undertake to say that the latter would not be a proper course, but we think an allegation in the language of the statute creating the offense is sufficient. We have no dis- position to qualify what has already been frequently decided by this court, that where the crime is a statutory one it must be charged with precision and certainty, and every ingredient of which it is composed must be clearly and accurately set forth, and that even in the cases of misdemeanors the indictment must be free from all ambiguity, and leave no doubt in the minds of the accused and the court of the exact offense intended to be charged. U. S. v. Cook, 17 Wall. 168, 174; U. S. v. Cruikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 558; U. S. v. Carll, 105 U. S. 611; U. S. v. Simmons, 96 U. S. 360; U. S. v. Hess, 124 U. S. 483, 8 Sup. Ct. 571; Pettibone v. U. S., 148 U. S. 197, 13 Sup. Ct. 542; evans v. U. S., 153 U. S. 584, 14 Sup. Ct. 934, 939.

But we are of opinion that the statute in this case (section 16) does define the offense with the requisite precision, and that the pleader has chosen the safer course in charging it in the language of this section. The offense does not consist in selling or offering for sale to a particular person distilled spirits, etc., in less quantities than five gallons at one time, but in carrying this on as a business; in other words, in the defendant holding himself out to the public as selling or offering for sale, etc. While it has been sometimes held that proof of selling to one person was, at least, prima facie evidence of criminality, the real offense consists in carrying on such business; and if only a single sale were proven it might be a good defense to show that such sale was exceptional, accidental, or made under such circumstances as to indicate that it was not the business of the vendor. U. S. v. Jackson, 1 Hughes. 531, Fed. Cas. No. 15,455; U. S. v. Rennecke, 28 Fed. 847. It is quite evident thata n indictment averring in the language of section 18 that the defendant sold or offered for sale the liquors named, without averring that he made this a business, and that he had not paid the special tax required by law, would be insufficient.

In addition to this, however, section 18, in defining retail dealers in liquors, declares that 'every person who sells or offers for sale foreign or domestic distilled spirits, whnes, or malt liquors, otherwise than as hereinafter provided, in less quantities than five wine gallons at the same time, shall be regarded as a retail dealer in liquors.' The statute, by the use of the words 'otherwise than as hereinafter provided,' thus introduces an exception into the general words of the definition, and it might be open to doubt...