Stokes v. United States

• Decision Date: 18 March 1895
• Docket Number: No. 746,746
• Citation: 15 S.Ct. 617,157 U.S. 187,39 L.Ed. 667
• Parties: STOKES et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

157 U.S. 187

15 S.Ct. 617

39 L.Ed. 667

STOKES et al.

v UNITED STATES

No. 746.

March 18, 1895.

This was an indictment against the defendant Stokes and 13 others for a conspiracy to commit the offense described in Rev. St. § 5480, of using the post-office establishment of the United States for fraudulent purposes.

The artifice was described as one wherein each of the defendants represented himself as a dealer in various kinds of merchandise, certifying each other to be financially responsible, and ordering merchandise from various parties, having no intention of paying for the same.

Upon the trial, Stokes and eight others were found guilty, and subsequently sentenced to fines and imprisonment.

Defendants thereupon sued out this of error.

John D. Burnett, for plaintiffs in error.

Sol.Gen. Conrad, for the United States.

Mr. Justice BROWNdelivered the opinion of the court.

Error is assigned to the action of the court in overruling a demurrer to the indictment, and to the introduction of certain testimony.

1.The indictment is claimed to be defective in failing to set out with sufficient certainty the agreement showing the conspiracy.The indictment is for a conspiracy (Rev. St. § 5440) to commit an offense described in section 5480, as amended by the act of March 2, 1889(25 Stat. 873), which reads as follows: 'If any person having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud * * * to be effected by either opening or intending to open correspondence or communication with any person, whether resident within or outside the United States, by means of the post office establishment of the United States, or by inciting such other person or any person to open communication with the person so devising or intending, shall, in and for executing such scheme or artifice or attempting so to do, place or cause to be placed, any letter * * * in any post office * * * of the United States. * * * or shall take or receive any such therefrom, such person so misusing the post office establishment shall, upon conviction, be punishable,' etc.

We agree with the defendants that three matters of fact must be charged in the indictment and established by the evidence: (1) That the persons charged must have devised a scheme or artifice to defraud; (2) that they must have intended to effect this scheme by opening, or intending to open, correspondence with some other person through the post-office establishment, or by inciting such other person to open communication with them; (3) and that, in carrying out such scheme, such person must have either deposited a letter or packet in the post office, or taken or received one the therefrom.

So, also, a conspiracy to commit such offense must state a combination between the defendants to do the three things requisite to constitute the offense.In this particular the indictment charges that the defendants'did then and there conspire, combine, confederate, and agree together to commit the act made an offense and crime by section 5480; * * * that is to say, the said defendants conspired * * * and agreed together in devising, and inte ding to devise, a scheme and artifice to defraud various persons, firms, and companies out of their property, goods, and chattels, and particularly to defraud [here follow the names of certain individuals and firms], and other persons, firms, and companies to the grand jury unknown, of their goods and chattels.'

Defendants' argument assumes that these are all the allegations of the agreement constituting the conspiracy, but the indictment continues as follows: 'The scheme and artifice to defraud as aforesaid was to be carried out by each of said defendants representing himself to be engaged as a dealer in various kinds of merchandise and goods, and to have an office, and to use, in correspondence, sheets of paper with his pretended business printed thereon; and the said defendants were mutually to represent each other to the said persons, firms, and companies, and others unknown to the grand jurors, intended to be defrauded as aforesaid, as financially responsible, and entitled to receive various kinds of merchandise and goods on credit, and the said scheme and artifice to defraud as aforesaid was to be further effected by ordering merchandise and goods from the persons, firms, and companies as aforesaid, and from other persons, firms, and companies to the grand jurors unknown, having no intention, then and there, to pay for such merchandise and goods so ordered as aforesaid but to convert the said goods and merchandise to the use of each and of each other.'

We think this states with sufficient clearness the first requisite of an indictment, under section 5480, of a scheme or artifice to defraud.The allegation is not of what was actually done, but of what the defendants conspired and intended to do.The indictment continues: 'That the post-office establishment of the United States was to be used for the purpose of executing such scheme and artifice to defraud, as aforesaid, pursuant to said conspiracy, by opening correspondence with the said persons, firms, and companies, and other persons, firms, and companies unknown to the grand jurors, and by inciting said persons, firms, and companies and others as aforesaid to open correspondence with the said defendants by means of the post-office establishment of the United States.'This is a sufficient allegation of the second requisite of the offense.'And that, for the further purpose or executing said conspiracy to defraud as aforesaid, the said J. T. Stokes did wrongfully and unlawfully deposit in a certain post office of the United States, to wit, the post office at Olivia, Conecuh county, Alabama, in the Southern district of Alabama, on or about the thirtieth day of November, eighteen hundred and ninety-one, a letter addressed to Bion F. Reynolds, Brockton, Massachusetts, which said letter was substantially in words and figures as follows, to wit: [Here follows a copy of a letter ordering samples of shoes.]And which said letter was then and there inclosed in a sealed envelope, deposited in the post office at Olivia as aforesaid, to be conveyed by the post-office establishment of the United States to the said Bion F. Reynolds, and the said letter contained a check on Morris & Co., bankers, Montgomery, Alabama, for eight and 80/100 dollars, payable to the order of the said Reynolds, and the...