United States v. Walter

• Decision Date: 22 October 1923
• Docket Number: No. 20,20
• Citation: 263 U.S. 15,68 L.Ed. 137,44 S.Ct. 10
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. WALTER
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

263 U.S. 15

44 S.Ct. 10

68 L.Ed. 137

UNITED STATES

v WALTER.

No. 20.

Argued and Submitted Oct. 3, 1923.

Decided Oct. 22, 1923.

Mr. Solicitor General James M. Beck, of Washington, D. C., for the United States.

Mr. John W. Dodge, of Jacksonville, Fla., for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice HOLMES delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is an indictment in three counts. The first charges a conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States by making and presenting for payment a fraudulent claim against the United States Emergency Fleet Corporation, a corporation formed under the laws of the District of Columbia, of which the United States owned all the stock. The second count charges a like conspiracy to obtain the payment of fraudulent claims against the same corporation. The third count charges a conspiracy to defraud the United States. All the counts are based upon the same facts, and the first two are brought under the Act of October 23, 1918, c. 194, 40 Stat. 1015, amending section 35 of the Criminal Code (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, § 10199), and taken with section 37, making it a crime to conspire to present for, or to obtain, payment of a fraudulent claim against 'any corporation in which the United States of America is a stockholder.' The third count is based upon section 37 of the Criminal Code, Act of March 4, 1909, c. 231, 35 Stat. 1088 (Comp. St. § 10201), punishing conspiracy 'to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose.' A demurrer to all the counts was sustained by the District Court on the grounds that the Act of 1918 must be taken literally, as embracing any corporation in which the United States owned a single share of stock, and so construed went beyond the power of Congress, and that under United States v. Strang, 254 U. S. 491, 41 Sup. Ct. 165, 65 L. Ed. 368, the fraud alleged was not a fraud upon the United States.

Taking up first the Act of 1918, it was enacted after Congress contemplating the possibility of the war that ensued had authorized the formation of the Fleet Corporation under laws deriving their authority from earlier statutes of the United States. We are not informed whether at that time the United States owned stock in corporations other than the instrumentalities created with reference to the needs of that war, but we cannot doubt that the act was passed with a special view to them. United States v. Bowman, 260 U. S. 94, 101, 102, 43 Sup. Ct. 49, 67 L. Ed. 149. The United States can protect its property by criminal laws, and its constitutional power would not be affected if it saw fit to create a corporation of its own for purposes of the Government, under laws emanating directly or indirectly from itself, and turned the property over to its creature. The creator would not be subordinated to its own machinery. That is the case before us. If the law in terms dealt only with the Emergency Fleet Corporation it would be beyond question. See United States Grain Corporation v. Phillips, 261 U. S. 106, 113, 43 Sup. Ct. 283, 67 L. Ed. 552....