United States v. Reynolds
United States v. Reynolds
Opinion of the Court
The defendant was indicted for the violation of section 8485 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and convicted. The section under which he was indicted is in these words:
“Sec. 5485. Any agent or attorney or any other person, instrumental In prosecuting any claim for pension or bounty land, who shall directly or indirectly contract for, demand, or receive or retain, any greater compensation for his services or instrumentality in prosecuting a claim for pension or bounty land than is provided in the title pertaining to pensions, or who shall wrongfully withhold from a pensioner or claimant the whole or any part of the pension or claim allowed and due such pensioner or claimant, or the laud-warrant issued to any such claimant, shall be deemed guilty of a high misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall, for every such offense, be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or imprisonment at hard labor not exceeding two years, or both, at the discretion of the court. ”
Tho indictment contained three counts. The first two charge, in effect, that, being instrumental in the prosecution of a claim for pension for one Sina Green, the widow of a soldier in the war of 1861, the defendant did then and there unlawfully contract for, demand, receive, and retain from said Sina Green, to whom a pension was granted under the act of congress 4th July, 1862, and an act of congress 7th June, 1888, a greater sum than is provided in the title pertaining to pensions. The first count charged that his said compensation fixed by him was greater than the sum of §25. Tho second count, that it was greater than §10. The third count charges that he was instrumental in prosecuting a claim for arrears of pension for Sina Green, widow of a soldier, etc., and “did then and
The motion in arrest of judgment is based on two grounds: (1) Because they state that defendant was instrumental in getting the claim, but do not state in what capacity or in what way he was instrumental. The precise question was made in U. S. v. Koch, 21 Fed. Rep. 873, before Brewer, J., and overruled. I concur in this conclusion. (2) Because the counts are fatally defective in that they are drawn without the use of the exact and material words of the special section of the statutes under which the charge is made. The language of these counts is that of section 5485. No rule is more familiar than that an indictment for a statutory offense may, in charging the offense, merely use the language of the statute. U. S. v. Mills, 7 Pet. 138; U. S. v. Britton, 107 U. S. 661, 2 Sup. Ct. Rep. 512. In U. S. v. Wilson, 29 Fed. Rep. 286, a similar objection was made to an indictment, on grounds somewhat stronger than in this case, and it was overruled.
(3) Another objection is to the third count of the indictment, in that it does not charge that the arrears of pension therein mentioned was obtained and allowed subsequent to the allowance of the original pension. If this count charged as an offense that the defendant made a charge for obtaining the arrears of pension, this objection would hold, because no charge in many instances can be made simply for obtaining arrears of pension. But this is not the charge. The gravamen is that he retained and received a greater compensation than that provided in the title pertaining to pensions, a compensation, to-wit, of $53. This brings up these issues: Was he instrumental in getting for Sina Green the arrears of pension under the act of congress stated? Did he receive and retain as compensation therefor the sum of $53? If so, he has violated the section, whether the lawful compensation be $25, or $10, or nothing. The motion in arrest of judgment is refused.
The motion for new trial goes to all the counts and the evidence upon them. There is no evidence that defendant -was ever instrumental in getting a pension for Sina Green under the act of 1881, as charged in the first two counts of the indictment. The verdict, if it be sustained, must be on the third count. There can be no doubt that section 5485 deals with two offenses in a person employed as agent or attorney, or who is instrumental in obtaining a pension. One is the obtaining compensation greater than that allowed by law, either by contracting for it, demanding it, receiving it, or retaining it. U. S. v. Brown, 40 Fed. Rep. 458. The other is withholding it under any other pretense or without .pretense. The count-charged that the money was claimed or retained as compensation. Unless there was evidence to sustain that, there must be
The motion is refused.
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