United States v. Zucker

• Decision Date: 02 March 1896
• Docket Number: No. 794,794
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. ZUCKER et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

161 U.S. 475

16 S.Ct. 641

40 L.Ed. 777

UNITED STATES

v ZUCKER et al.

No. 794.

March 2, 1896.

Mr. Whitney, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.

Abram J. Rose, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court.

By the act of June 10, 1890 (chapter 407), known as the 'Customs Administrative Act,' it is provided that 'if any owner, importer, consignee, agent, or other person shall make or attempt to make any entry of imported merchandise by means of any fraudulent or false invoice, affidavit, letter, paper, or by means of any false statement, written or verbal, or by means of any false or fraudulent practice or appliance whatsoever, or shall be guilty of any wilful act or omission by means whereof the United Stated shall be deprived of the lawful duties or any portion thereof, accruing upon the merchandise, or any portion thereof, embraced or referred to in such invoice, affidavit, letter, paper, or statement, or affected by such act or omission, such merchandise or the value thereof, to be recovered from the person making the entry, shall be forfeited, which forfeiture shall only apply to the whole of the merchandise or the value thereof in the case or package containing the particular article or articles of merchandise to which such fraud or false paper or statement relates; and such person shall, upon conviction, be fined for each offense a um not exceeding five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned for a time not exceeding two years, or both, in the discretion of the court.' 26 Stat. 131, 135, § 9.

The present action was brought to recover from the defendants the sum of $346.02, as the value of certain merchandise originally belonging to them, and alleged to have been forfeited to the United States under the above statute.

The complaint, which is in the form prescribed by the New York Code of Civil Procedure, alleged that on or about December 14, 1891, certain described merchandise was imported into the United States, at the port of New York, and, when so imported, was subject to the payment of duties; that the defendants, the owners, importers, and consignees of such merchandise, entered the same at the office of the collector, to whom was produced a duly-certified invoice, purporting to show the actual cost of the merchandise, and also a declaration, which entry and declaration were signed and verified in the manner and form required by law; that said entry, invoice, affidavit, and paper were false and fraudulent, as the defendants well knew, in that the actual cost of such merchandise was greater than the amount stated therein; and that the defendants willfully and wrongfully concealed the actual cost of such merchandise, whereby the United States had been deprived of the lawful duties, or a portion thereof, accruing upon the same.

The defendants made a general denial of each allegation of the plaintiff. As separate defenses they pleaded: (1) That the merchandise mentioned in the complaint was not forfeited. (2) That the action was not brought against the person making the entry of the merchandise in the complaint specified. (3) That the duties and all goods imported by them during the times specified in the complaint had been liquidated and paid by them, and such merchandise delivered to them as the owners thereof, all without fraud, and that more than one year had elapsed since the date of the entry referred to by the United States.

At the trial below, the government, to sustain the issues on its part, offered to read in evidence a deposition that had been duly taken in Paris, France, and was properly authenticated and certified under letters rogatory, properly issued and returned.

The defendants objected to the admission of this testimony upon the following grounds: (1) That this action, though civil in form, was in substance a criminal case; and, under the constitution of the United States, the defendants were entitled on the trial 'to be confronted with the witnesses' against them. (2) That 'the constitutional right of the defendants to be confronted with the witnesses against them is not secured by giving them notice of the execution of letters rogatory in France; and that their failure to attend on such occasion at a place three thousand miles from the place of trial, out of the district and in a foreign country, does not operate as a waiver of their constitutional right, if it can be waived.'

In answer to questions propounded by the court, the defendants admitted that the evidence was material, and placed their objection to it upon the grounds just stated.

The court thereupon sustained the objection, and excluded the evidence, to which action the government excepted.

The United States having no other evidence to offer, the jury, by direction of the court, returned a verdict for the defendants, and the action was thereupon dismissed.

The only question presented for our decision is whether the court below erred in excluding the deposition which the government took in Paris, France, and the materiality of which is conceded by the defendant.

The sole ground of objection to the deposition, as we have seen, was that, in this action to recover the value of merchandise alleged to have been forfeited to the United States under the ninth section of the act of June 10, 1890 (chapter 407), no deposition, wherever taken, could be read against the defendants, without their consent, but the witness must testify in person, before the court, during the progress of the trial.

This objection is supposed to be sustained by the sixth amendment of the constitution, which provides that 'in all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.'

In support of their contention, the defendants cite Coffey v. U. S., 116 U. S. 436, 443, 6 Sup. Ct. 437; Boyd v. U. S., 116 U. S. 616, 634, 6 Sup. Ct. 524; and Lees v. U. S., 150 U. S. 476, 14 Sup. Ct. 163.

Coffey v. U. S. was a civil information, on behalf of the United States, against certain property that had been seized by an internal revenue officer as forfeited to the United States on account of the alleged violations of certain provisions of the Revised Statutes relating to internal revenue. Rev. St. §§ 3257, 3450, 3453. Coffey intervened, and claimed the property. One of the defenses was that a criminal information had been filed against him in respect of the matters set forth in one or more of the counts of the declaration, and that upon a trial he had been acquitted. The principal question presented...