United States v. Starkey, 16029.

• Decision Date: 23 October 1943
• Docket Number: No. 16029.,16029.
• Citation: 52 F. Supp. 1
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. STARKEY.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Illinois

52 F. Supp. 1

UNITED STATES v. STARKEY.

No. 16029.

District Court, E. D. Illinois.

October 23, 1943.

Ray M. Foreman, U. S. Atty., of Danville, Ill., for plaintiff.

W. M. Acton, of Danville, Ill., for defendant.

LINDLEY, District Judge.

Defendant is charged with violation of the statute and the regulations promulgated in pursuance thereof, forbidding shipping in Interstate Commerce hogs afflicted with cholera or other contagious, infectious or communicable diseases. Title 21, Section 115 U.S.C.A. forbids the shipping of animals so diseased, and Section 122 fixes punishment for violation. Regulation 6, Section 1, Par. 2, B.A.I. Order 309 (9 CFR 76.1), provides similarly that such hogs shall not move in Commerce. No question is presented as to the validity of the charge of violation of the regulation; it is valid. United States v. Pennsylvania Co., D.C., 235 F. 961.

The vendor of the pigs, a farmer, having employed a veterinarian to examine the animals, weighing about 110 pounds each, being advised that they had fever, and having learned, from a post-mortem examination of one of them by the veterinarian, that they were not well and might have cholera or some other disease, took sixteen of his nineteen pigs to market, retaining two, which afterwards died. Defendant's buyer purchased the pigs. Defendant examined them before the deal was completed. He was advised that they had fever. He saw that the hogs were not in good marketable condition, as they were young, unfattened and thin, and knew that the price paid for them was much below the normal market prices of market-ready hogs. The pigs were immediately taken by truck to Indianapolis and, upon examination the next morning, most of them were found to be afflicted with cholera.

Defendant contends that there is no proof that he knowingly transported the diseased hogs. The word "knowingly" in a criminal statute commonly means that state of mind wherein the person charged is in possession of facts under which he is aware he can not lawfully do the act with which he is charged. State v. Smith, 119 Tenn. 521, 105 S.W. 68, 69. Following this reasoning, it has been held repeatedly that proof of knowledge of facts and circumstances which, if followed up, would lead to such knowledge as would put a man of ordinary prudence or exercising ordinary care on his guard and would cause such a man to believe a fact, will justify a finding of actual knowledge. Such was the ruling principle of decisions where the charges were "knowingly" marrying the wife of another, in Brooks v. State, 74 Ark. 58, 84 S.W. 1033, 1035; "knowingly" selling intoxicating liquor to a minor, in State v. Constatine, 43 Wash. 102, 86 P. 384, 385, 117 Am.St.Rep. 1043, and State v. McCormick, 56 Wash. 469, 105 P. 1037; "knowingly" delivering liquor in dry territory, American Express Co. v. Commonwealth, 171 Ky. 1, 186 S.W. 887, 890; "knowingly" purchasing certain property from a soldier, United States v. Koplik, C.C., 155 F. 919, 922; "knowingly" receiving stolen property, State v. Kosky, 191 Mo. 1, 90 S.W. 454; People v. Tantenella, 212 Mich. 614, 180 N.W. 474, 476; State v. Perkins, 181 La. 997, 160 So. 789; and in a suit holding a hotel keeper for money lost at gaming conducted with the "knowledge" of such owner, Kemp v. Hammond Hotels, 226 Mass. 409, 115 N.E. 572, 574. The Supreme Court of Illinois has lately said in this respect in People v. Lipiano, 358 Ill. 475, 193 N.E. 458, 459: "Guilty knowledge may be established by proof of circumstances which would induce belief in a...