Rudd v. United States
| Decision Date | 28 October 1909 |
| Docket Number | 2,875. |
| Citation | 173 F. 912 |
| Parties | RUDD v. UNITED STATES. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Paul R Stinson (R. R. Brewster on the brief) for plaintiff in error.
A. S Van Valkenburgh, U.S. Atty., and Leslie J. Lyons, Asst. U.S Atty.
Before HOOK, Circuit Judge, and RINER and AMIDON, District Judges.
Rudd was convicted of using the mails in aid of a scheme to defraud, contrary to section 5480 of the Revised Statutes (U.S. Comp. St. 19071, p. 3696). He had been associated with others in selling county rights to handle a machine for which one of them had secured a patent, and to facilitate the business they were engaged in they sent through the mails circulars and other communications containing alluring representations which the government charged and the evidence showed quite clearly were contrary to well-known fundamental physical laws. The machine was designed as an attachment to a pump for lifting water, and it consisted principally of a heavy pendulum, a lever, some cogwheels, and a spring. It was represented that the power for the operation of the pump came from the swing of the pendulum and the spring; that the latter was auxiliary to the pendulum, and replenished the loss in the momentum of the swinging weight. It was also said that they were adapted to pumps in wells as deep as 300 feet that there were three sizes of them, and each strike of the pendulum on size No. 1, which was the smallest, exerted a lifting power of 500 pounds and had a capacity of 20 gallons of water per minute; that one winding of the spring would require only about 15 minutes of labor, and would furnish enough power for 12 consecutive hours of operation, or for about 12 days for the average user of water; also that the arrangement was so simple a 17 year old boy could attend to it. There were other representations; but the above will indicate with sufficient particularity the character of their literature.
The main defense was that, though the machine may have been impracticable, the accused honestly believed in its efficiency, and that what he did was without intent to defraud. Of course, if this was so, there was no violation of the law which was designed to prevent the use of the post office in intentional efforts to despoil. Durland v United States, 161 U.S. 306, 16 Sup.Ct. 508, 40 L.Ed. 709. A representation may be so obviously without foundation as to afford cogent evidence of a criminal intent in him who makes it; but nevertheless, if in fact it proceeds from honest ignorance or delusion, it does not help to...
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