State v. Gerich

• Citation: 138 Conn. 292,83 A.2d 488
• Court: Supreme Court of Connecticut
• Decision Date: 14 August 1951
• Parties: STATE v. GERICH et al. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut

Page 488

83 A.2d 488

138 Conn. 292

STATE v. GERICH et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

Aug. 14, 1951.

Thomas J. Birmingham and Samuel H. Aron, Hartford, James F. Kennedy, Hartford, for the appellants (defendants Gerich, Seybold, Claude Brodeur and Ger-Ron Farms Corp.)

Donald C. Fisk, Rockville, for the State.

Before BROWN, C. J., and JENNINGS, BALDWIN, INGLIS and O'SULLIVAN, JJ.

O'SULLIVAN, Judge.

The defendants Gerich, Seybold, Claude Brodeur and Ger-Ron Farms Corporation were found guilty of the crime of conspiracy to cheat and defraud. They have appealed. The principal question for determination, as stated in their brief, is whether the evidence supports the court's conclusion that they were guilty beyond a reasonably doubt. State v. Guastamachio, 137 Conn. 179, 183, 75 A.2d 429; State v. Cots, 126 Conn. 48, 53, 9 A.2d 138; State v. Frost, 105 Conn. 326, 332, 135 A. 446.

Since the trial of this case consumed twenty-four court days, any effort to detail the evidence would carry this opinion far beyond reasonable bounds. The following recital of salient facts, amply supported by the evidence, will suffice for our discussion: During the first half of 1944, Gerich, Seybold and Claude Brodeur, to whom we shall refer by his surname, formed a partnership to raise and sell turkeys, an enterprise in which Gerich was then engaged. They operated in this capacity until July 1, 1945, when they organized the defendant Ger-Ron Farms Corporation to take over the business. The three individuals became stockholders in the corporation to the proportionate extent of their interests in the partnership. Each served thereafter as an officer and director of the company.

The term 'New York dressed' is applied to a turkey which has been slaughtered, bled and plucked. Its weight, in that condition, is called 'New York dressed weight.' An eviscerated turkey is one upon which the above-described operations have been completed and from which the entrails, head and feet have been removed. Evisceration decreases the weight of the bird by 18 to 20 per cent.

In 1943, about six months before the partnership was formed, the federal office of price administration established ceiling prices for turkeys. For those which were eviscerated, the range was from 61 to 63 cents per pound retail, depending on the size of the bird, while the price for New York dressed was fixed at 54 cents. On several occasions thereafter, Gerich tried to persuade the O. P. A. officials to elevate the ceilings for the partnership on the ground that its processes for handling, wrapping and shipping turkeys were unusual and that he existing regulations made a reasonable profit impossible. In these efforts he was unsuccessful.

From the inception of their association together, first as partners and then as officers of the corporation, Gerich, Seybold and Brodeur billed the turkeys at New York dressed weight although the charges per pound which they made were those prevailing for eviscerated turkeys. The price of the latter was always higher than that of the former. The effect of this billing policy was that the purchaser was charged for at least 18 per cent more than the turkey weighed. This was not disclosed on the invoices received by the customer prior to February 1, 1945. Until that time, the only pertinent information appearing thereon was the number of turkeys sold to the buyer and the total price therefor. Subsequent to that date, a change was made in the billing. This was the result of a visit of O. P. A. inspectors. Upon examining the duplicate invoices, which disclosed only the information stated above, the inspectors advised Gerich that future invoices should contain notations of the weights and per pound prices of the turkeys. Since the defendants' method of selling was violative of the O. P. A. ceiling regulations and in order to circumvent them, the defendants devised a secret mark-up code for the use of the billing clerks. The first column of the code listed New York dressed weights of turkeys ranging from 8 to 25 3/4 pounds. Then followed three double columns, one of which listed weights and the adjoining one, prices. Heading these columns were three numbers, 1, 4, and 7. Number 1 was for use when the charge was to be 70 cents a pound, and numbers 4 and 7, when the charge was to be 75 and 80 cents, respectively. The code was worked out as a speedy method of transposing the true weight of a turkey into the weight it would have to be, if billed at ceiling prices, to equal the price actually charged for it. For example, if a twenty-pound New York dressed turkey was billed at the ceiling price of 61 cents for eviscerated turkeys but was sold at an actual charge of 80 cents (or a total of $16), the code, under the number 7 heading, would list a weight of 26.3 pounds The customer would then be billed for 26.3 pounds at 61 cents. Following the adoption of the code, the invoices, which were then sent out by the partnership and later by the corporation, carried on them in the lower left hand corner three figures which previously had not appeared thereon. As applied to the example just cited, these figures would be 'No. 824-26/3-61.' The first would refer to the order number, the second to the weight and the third to the price.

Many customers of both the partnership and the corporation were manufacturing concerns which purchased large quantities of turkeys to be sent, during the holidays, as gifts to their customers and employees. Other customers consisted of individuals who bought for their own use. Others were those operating restaurants,...