Markham v. United States

• Decision Date: 16 December 1895
• Docket Number: No. 544,544
• Citation: 160 U.S. 319,40 L.Ed. 441,16 S.Ct. 288
• Parties: MARKHAM v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

160 U.S. 319

16 S.Ct. 288

40 L.Ed. 441

MARKHAM

v UNITED STATES.

No. 544.

December 16, 1895.

The plaintiff in error was indicted in the district court of the United States for the district of Kentucky for the crime of perjury, as defined in section 5392 of the Revised Statutes.

The defendant pleaded not guilty. The first and second counts related to certain statements by the accused, alleged to have been willfully, falsely, and feloniously made, in a deposition, given, under oath, before G. C. Loomis, a special examiner of the pension bureau of the United States, such statements being material to an inquiry pending before the commissioner of pensions in reference to a claim of the accused for a pension from the United States. The third count set out another statement of the accused in the same deposition, and charged that he did not believe it to be true.

The defendant was found guilty upon the fourth count of the indictment, which was as follows:

'And the grand jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, do further present that at Bowling Green, in the district aforesaid, on the seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the matter of the hereinafter mentioned deposition became and was material to an inquiry then pending before, and within the jurisdiction of, the commissioner of pensions of the United States, at Washington, in the District of Columbia, whereupon said William H. Markham did then, at said Bowling Green, willfully and corruptly take a solemn oath before G. C. Loomis, then and there a special examiner of the pension bureau of the United States, and then and there a competent officer and having lawful authority to administer said oath; that a certain written deposition then and there by said Markham subscribed was then and there true, and in giving said deposition said Markham was asked by said Loomis a question in substance and effect as follows, to wit: 'Have you received any injury to forefinger of right hand since the war, or since your discharge from the army?' by which said question said Loomis referred, and said Markham well understood said Loomis to refer, to the right hand of said Markham. And in answer to said question said Markham then and there made and subscribed an answer and statement in substance and effect as follows, to wit: 'No, sir; I never have,'—which said statement that said Markham never had received any injury to the forefinger of his right hand since his (said Markham's) discharge from the army was then and there material to said inquiry, and was then and there not true; whereas, in truth and in fact, the said Markham had then and theretofore received an injury to the forefinger of his (said Markhan's) right hand, as he, the said Markham, then and there very well knew. And so the jurors aforesaid, upon their oaths aforesaid, say that said Markham did commit willful and corrupt perjury, in the manner and form as in this count aforesaid, against,' etc. There was no demurrer to the indictment nor any motion to quash either of the counts.

The defendant moved for an arrest of judgment upon the following grounds: (1) That the count upon which he was found guilty charged no offense under the statute. (2) That its averments did not inform the court that any offense had been committed, nor show that Loomis, the examiner, was authorized to administer the oath alleged. (3) That the averments did not set forth the proceeding or cause in which the defendant was charged to have given his deposition, or made oath to the statement alleged to be false, in such manner as to show that the deposition and the alleged false statement were material to any inquiry or matter before the commissioner of pensions, nor the what said inquiry related, nor show that Loomis, special examiner, had any lawful authority to swear or require the defendant to swear to the deposition or statement averred to be false, nor for what purpose, nor upon what cause, or investigation of what claim, or of any claim, pending before any department of the government, or in any court. (4) That it did not aver facts sufficient to show the materiality of the oath or statement alleged to have been made. (5) That the words charged to have been sworn to by defendant were not averred to have been sworn to willfully and corruptly. (6) That it failed to aver what charge was under investigation.

The motion in arrest of judgment was overruled, and the accused was sentenced to make his fine to the United States by the payment of $5, and to be imprisoned at hard labor in the Indiana state prison, south, at Jeffersonville, Ind., for the full period of two years from a day named. From that judgment the present writ of error was prosecuted.

Samuel McKee, for plaintiff in error.

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

Mr. Justice HARLAN, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The contention that the indictment was insufficient in law cannot be sustained.

By section 4744 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of July 25, 1882, c. 349, it is provided: 'The commissioner of pensions is authorized to detail from time to time clerks or persons employed in his office to make special examinations into the merits of such pension or bounty land claims, whether pending or adjudicated, as he may deem proper, and to aid in the prosecution of any party appearing on such examinations to be guilty of fraud, either in the presentation or in procuring the allowance or such claims; and any person so detailed shall have power to administer oaths and take affidavits and depositions in the course of such...