United States v. Labovitz
Decision Date | 13 January 1958 |
Docket Number | No. 12306.,12306. |
Citation | 251 F.2d 393 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America v. Charles V. LABOVITZ and Martin Abrams; Martin Abrams, Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit |
Edwin P. Rome, Philadelphia, Pa. (Morris L. Weisberg, Blank, Rudenko & Klaus, Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellant.
Joseph L. McGlynn, Asst. U. S. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa. (Harold K. Wood, U. S. Atty., Philadelphia, Pa., on the brief), for appellee.
Before BIGGS, Chief Judge, and GOODRICH and HASTIE, Circuit Judges.
On this appeal from a conviction of bribery and conspiracy to bribe a federal employee the only question which requires discussion is one raised concerning the criminal intent which is an essential element of the crime of bribery as defined in Section 201 of Title 18 of the United States Code.
The following factual picture was disclosed by the evidence for the prosecution. Under an Army supply contract the government had paid the contracting corporation an estimated price for certain articles of its manufacture, subject to a price redetermination on the basis of the contractor's cost experience. In due course of renegotiation proceedings the contracting officer reached a tentative conclusion that the contractor should refund about $16,000 to the government. However, the contractor, advised of this, proposed and was authorized to make a further showing as to its costs. At this stage, according to the government's case, appellant Abrams, acting in concert with co-conspirator Labovitz, the president of the contracting corporation, offered money to a government accountant assigned to this case for the purpose of inducing him to recommend to the contracting officer a reduction of the refund claim.
It did not appear whether or not the contractor's proposed supplementary submission did or could afford any factual or legal justification for a reduction of the refund claim. The government did not negative the possibility that, had there been no bribe, the accountant might, on the available data, lawfully and properly have made the very recommendation that Abrams wanted him to make. Moreover, in charging the jury the trial judge spoke of the intention to influence an official decision as the gravamen of the offense. He said nothing about the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the result sought. It is in this context that the question of requisite criminal intent arises.
The bribery statute itself deals explicitly with the element of criminal intent, making it a crime to offer money to any person acting for the United States "with intent to influence his decision or action on any * * * matter * * * before him in his official capacity * * * or to induce him to do or omit to...
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