Williams v. United States, 13797.

• Decision Date: 07 November 1952
• Docket Number: No. 13797.,13797.
• Parties: WILLIAMS et al. v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

199 F.2d 921 (1952)

WILLIAMS et al. v. UNITED STATES.

No. 13797.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

November 7, 1952.

M. Neil Andrews, J. F. Kemp and J. M. Johnson, Atlanta, Ga., for appellants.

Lamar N. Smith, Asst. U. S. Atty. and J. Ellis Mundy, U. S. Atty., Atlanta, Ga., for appellee.

Before HUTCHESON, Chief Judge, and HOLMES, and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.

RUSSELL, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered in an action of libel filed by the United States under Sections 3116 and 3321 of the Internal Revenue Code, 26 U.S.C.A. §§ 3116, and 3321, against a truck, an automobile and certain other property alleged to have been intended to be used in violation of the Internal Revenue Laws. Appellants filed two "Claim Affidavits", claiming title to the vehicles and other property and denying that it was guilty of the offense charged. The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict of guilty. Judgment of condemnation was entered accordingly.

This appeal is prosecuted upon the claim that the evidence is insufficient to support the verdict and that the Court erred in permitting the exhibit of certain documentary evidence. The documentary evidence complained of consists of copies of indictments returned against the claimants, five against Perry charging violations of the Internal Revenue Laws, (beginning in 1938), and one against Williams, Perry and others charging them with a conspiracy to violate the Internal Revenue Laws, during 1949. In each case the claimants had pleaded guilty to the charge. In the latter case, Williams, Perry and Meager, a co-conspirator, pleaded guilty on January 8th, 1951.

From the testimony it was developed that on January 3rd, 1951, two agents of the Alcohol Tax Unit, during the course of a routine investigation in Fulton County, Georgia, discovered the truck parked to the rear of a service station located at the corner of Howell Mill Road and Tenth Street. The service station was closed and no one was near the station or the truck. Further investigation disclosed that the truck contained twenty 100 pound sacks of sugar, and in the cab of the truck there were three 100 pound bags of sugar and four 100 pound bags of rye meal. The two officers kept the truck under surveillance from a vantage point nearby and observed that no one came near it until 12:30 o'clock, A.M., January 4th, 1951, when the automobile drove into the station. Williams, Perry, Meager and another passenger were in the automobile. They watched the men remove three boxes and a suitcase from the automobile and place them in the truck. Perry and Meager drove off in the truck and Williams and the other passenger followed in the automobile. The two officers followed the two vehicles down Howell Mill Road; passed the automobile; and stopped the truck on Wallace Street, just off Marietta Street. Inspection of the truck disclosed that it contained two boxes of groceries, a suitcase, and fifty pounds of yeast in addition to the sugar and rye meal. There was testimony that sugar, rye meal and yeast are among materials generally used in the manufacture of non-tax-paid, or illicit, liquor, though of course these are also used for other purposes. The truck and its contents were seized, but the automobile turned in Wallace Street, backed into Marietta Street, turned around and proceeded back in the direction from which it had come.

During the afternoon of the same day, the officers found the automobile at Beaudry Motor Company in Atlanta, Georgia. The license tag had been removed. C. M. Daniel, an employee of Beaudry, Inc., testified that Williams contacted him at his place of business about 9:00 o'clock the morning of January 4th, and told him that his car was in the building and asked him to have...