Fannon v. United States
Opinion of the Court
The trial of these cases was consolidated in the District Court, and they were brought and submitted here in the same way by stipulation of counsel.
The statute upon which the indictment in each case was based was passed during the late war, and was entitled “An act to provide further for the national security and defense by encouraging the production, conserving the supply, and controlling the distribution of food products and fuel,” the fourth section of which (Comp. St. 1918, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §' 3115 >/sff) was amended October 22, 1919 (41 St L. 298), and, so far as here applicable, is as follows:
“That it is hereby made unlawful for any person * * * to conspire, combine, agree, or arrange witb any other person, (a) to limit the facilities for transporting * * * supplying, storing, * * * any necessaries; * * * (c) to restrict distribution of any necessaries; * * * provided, that this section shall not apply to any farmer, gardner, horticulturist, vine-yardist, planter, ranchman, dairyman, stockman, or other agriculturist, with respect to the farm products produced or raised upon land owned, leased, or cultivated by him. * * * ”
The indictment charged that the defendants thereto did on or about April 6, 1920, knowingly, willfully, unlawfully, and feloniously conspire, combine, agree, and arrange together and with other persons to the grand jurors unknown, to limit the facilities for transporting, supplying, and storing many necessaries, to wit, foods, feeds, and fuel, including many carloads of oranges and lemons, and large quantities of jiotatoes, wheat, lettuce, cabbage, asparagus, live stock ready for slaughter for use as meat, and fuel oil, by then and there and by means
The only points made on behalf of the- plaintiffs in error is that the act itself is invalid, as being in contravention of the Constitution, and that the indictment does not state facts sufficient to constitute an offense under it.
The first of such points is based largely upon the recent decision of the Supreme Court in the case of United States v. L. Cohen Grocery Co., 41 Sup. Ct. 298, decided February 28, 1921 (Advance Sheets).
The same statute made it unlawful for any person willfully “to make any unjust or unreasonable rate or charge in handling or dealing in or with any necessaries,” and the question presented to the Supreme Court in' the Cohen Grocery Company Case was whether that language constituted a fixing by Congress of an ascertainable standard of guilt and was adequate to inform persons accused of the violation thereof of the nature and cause of the accusation against them.
‘“If any danse, sentence, paragraph, or part oí this act shall for any reason be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect, impair, or invalidate tlie remainder thereof, but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, or part thereof, directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered.” . Comp. St. 1018, Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1019. § 3115%oo.
The provision involved in the Grocery Company Case, being distinct from that involved in the present one, is therefore unaffected by the decision to which reference has been made. Berea College v. Kentucky, 211 U. S. 45, 55, 29 Sup. Ct.33, 53 L. Ed. 81.
The offense with which the plaintiffs in error here were charged was specifically and in detail described in the indictment and clearly brought the case within certain specific provisions of the statute expressly declared criminal and punishable in a prescribed way.
In each case the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FANNON v. UNITED STATES
- Status
- Published