Sheridan v. United States, 9970.

• Decision Date: 19 November 1945
• Docket Number: No. 9970.,9970.
• Parties: SHERIDAN v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

152 F.2d 57 (1945)

SHERIDAN v. UNITED STATES.

No. 9970.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

November 19, 1945.

No appearance for appellant

Vincent Fordell, of Detroit, Mich. (John C. Lehr, Francis X. Norris, Vincent Fordell, and Kenneth W. Smith, all of Detroit, Mich., on the brief), for appellee.

Before ALLEN and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and RAYMOND, District Judge.

MARTIN, Circuit Judge.

Upon his trial in the district court for alleged violation of the National Stolen Property Act, U.S.C.A., Title 18, Sec. 415, Paul Davis Sheridan waived counsel proffered him by the trial court and chose to defend himself. He was convicted by the verdict of a jury and was sentenced by the district judge to concurrent terms of imprisonment of five years on each of the three counts of the indictment.

From the indictment and from the approved stipulated statement of evidence filed as a supplemental transcript of record, it appears that, on July 19, 1943, Sheridan obtained money and other value by negotiating in Jackson, Michigan, three falsely made checks. On Sunday evening, July 18, 1943, he registered at the Otsego Hotel in that city. On the next day, when checking out of the hotel at an unspecified hour, Sheridan presented to its chief clerk a check for $50.00, dated July 18, 1943, drawn on the First National Bank of Boston, Massachusetts, payable to cash, signed as maker by P. H. D. Sheridan, and bearing the endorsement of "P. H. D. Sheridan, 230 Park Avenue, New York." After deducting $3.50 in payment of Sheridan's hotel bill, the hotel clerk gave him $46.50 in cash for the check, which later was returned unpaid to the hotel.

Around noon of the same day, Sheridan entered a jewelry store in Jackson and purchased from the manager, for $36.00, two articles of luggage which he said he wished to buy for his son at Camp Custer, Michigan. He presented in payment a check for $62.50, dated July 15, 1943, drawn on the First National Bank of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, payable to P. H. D. Sheridan, and purporting to be signed as maker by "U. S. E. F. C. 14A A. J. Davis, Commissioner." When offering this check, Sheridan exhibited two bank books. The store manager did not see him endorse the check, but accepted it in payment for the luggage and handed him $26.50 in change. The check, deposited by the jeweler in the Jackson Bank and Trust Company, was later returned unpaid.

The third transaction, also around noon of July 19, 1943, embraced in one of the three counts of the indictment, was the obtaining by Sheridan of $62.50, in cash, by presentation to the National Bank of Jackson of a check for $62.50, dated July 15, 1943, drawn on the First National Bank of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, payable to P. H. D. Sheridan and purporting to be signed as maker by "U. S. E. F. C. 14A A. J. Davis, Commissioner." The records of the bank show that the check was forwarded for payment to the bank upon which it was drawn and was later returned, marked "unpaid," to a basket on the desk of the assistant cashier of the National Bank of Jackson, Michigan. This official, as an expert, explained to the jury the various rubber stamp endorsements appearing on the three checks described in the respective counts of the indictment, and testified that it was obvious that all three checks had been forwarded to the drawee banks and had been returned to the forwarding banks unpaid, and marked: "No Account." The victims of Sheridan's transactions were not reimbursed for their losses.

An agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation testified that, from an investigation conducted in Washington, D. C., it was ascertained that the United States Department of Commerce has no such agency as "U. S. E. F. C. 14A," and that "A. J. Davis, Commissioner," is a nonexistent person.

Sheridan cross-examined the Government's witnesses, but did not take the stand in his own behalf. When the district attorney rested, the defendant moved that the case be dismissed on the ground that the Government had failed to establish that the checks involved were in fact false, and upon the further ground that the checks had not been transported, or caused to be transported, by him in interstate commerce within the meaning of the Federal statute upon which the indictment was based. The motion to dismiss was denied.

A motion for new trial, subsequently made, was overruled; and, on this appeal from the judgment of sentence and conviction below, Sheridan presents the same points which he urged in the trial court. Only one of these assignments of error need be discussed. The vital issue which he raises is that he was improperly convicted under U.S.C.A., Title 18, Section 415,¹ of transporting or causing to be transported in interstate commerce falsely made securities, where the evidence discloses that "the only use of interstate commerce was by banks which, after cashing certain checks, transported them to obtain reimbursement."

Sheridan preferred to represent himself personally on his appeal to this court, and was permitted to appear in propria persona at the hearing. He made an oral argument and has filed three briefs in support of his points on appeal. He insists that his conviction and sentence should be set aside upon the controlling authority of Kann v. United States, 323 U.S. 88, 65 S.Ct. 148, 157 A.L.R 406, decided on December 4, 1944, since he was tried and sentenced in the district court. In that case, the Supreme Court, in a five to four decision, reversed a conviction under the Mail Fraud Statute, U.S.C.A., Title 18, Sec. 338, upon the ground that an...