United States v. National Malleable & Steel Castings Co., 8015

• Court: United States District Courts. 6th Circuit. United States District Court of Northern District of Ohio
• Writing for the Court: WESTENHAVER
• Citation: 6 F.2d 40
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. NATIONAL MALLEABLE & STEEL CASTINGS CO. et al.
• Docket Number: No. 8015,8015
• Decision Date: 15 July 1924

6 F.2d 40 (1924)

UNITED STATES
v.
NATIONAL MALLEABLE & STEEL CASTINGS CO. et al.

No. 8015

District Court, N. D. Ohio, E. D.

July 15, 1924.

A. E. Bernsteen, U. S. Atty., of Cleveland, Ohio.

Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Butler, Lamb, Foster & Pope, of Chicago, Ill., for defendants.

WESTENHAVER, District Judge.

This is an indictment charging 52 corporate defendants and 49 individual defendants with the criminal offense of a combination or conspiracy in restraint of interstate trade, in violation of section 1, Act of July 2, 1890, commonly known as the Sherman Anti-

6 F.2d 41

Trust Act (Comp. Stat. § 8820). Of the individual defendants, the following have appeared, and have filed motions to quash and demurrers to the indictment, viz.: S. L. Smith, J. C. Haswell, H. B. Parker, G. H. Thompson, E. E. Walker, J. P. Kennedy, H. Luedinghaus, Jr., T. W. Ludlow, J. L. Simmon, E. T. Ward, R. E. Pelt, and C. F. La Harche. Of the corporate defendants, the following have also appeared, and have filed motions to quash and demurrers to the indictment, viz.: National Malleable & Steel Castings Company, the National Malleable Castings Company, the Dayton Malleable Iron Company, the Albion Malleable Iron Company, the Columbus Malleable Iron Company, the Erie Malleable Iron Company, the Kennedy Corporation, the Meeker Foundry Company, Springfield Malleable Iron Company, Warren Tool & Forge Company, and American Malleable Castings Company. Certain other corporate defendants, 30 in all, upon whom subpœnas or summons to appear and answer have been served, have appeared specially and have filed motions to quash service of summons. Four other corporate defendants have not been served, and two other corporate defendants have not been found

In support of the motion to quash and the demurrers to the indictments, the same objections are urged alike by the individual and corporate defendants. Twenty-six separate grounds or reasons are assigned why the indictments are insufficient. Some are to form and others are to substance. No useful purpose will be served by dealing separately with these several objections. It will be sufficient to state my conclusions and sufficient of my reasons to show the basis on which my conclusions are rested.

In my opinion, after due consideration of all objections urged and an examination of the adjudged cases, the indictment is unexceptionable, both as to form and substance. It states adequately the venue of the crime charged as within the jurisdiction of this court. The crime is adequately alleged to be a continuing conspiracy, in which all of the corporate and individual defendants have been during the past five years and still are engaged, and is not, therefore, barred by the statute of limitations. The criminal participation of the individual defendants, as officers having the active management, direction, and control of the interstate trade and business of the corporate defendants engaged in the illegal combination or conspiracy, is sufficiently averred, within the authorities and within the terms of section 14, Act Oct. 15, 1914, known as the Clayton Act (Comp. Stat. § 8835m). The elements of the crime are not only charged in the language of the statute, but the means whereby the combination or conspiracy is and has been formed and carried on, and the details thereof adequate to identify the specific combination or conspiracy, and to enable the defendants to prepare for trial and to protect them against a new prosecution in the event of acquittal or conviction, are likewise all set forth with particularity and definiteness. If the allegations of the indictment are proved, each and all of the defendants are guilty of a violation of section 1 of the Sherman Act.

These conclusions are amply supported by the adjudged cases. In 3 Zoline's Federal Criminal Law and Procedure, p. 2, is given the indictment which was held good on demurrer in Boyle v. United States (7 C. C. A.) 259 F. 803, 170 C. C. A. 603. At page 41 is given the indictment which was...