Milby v. United States

Citations

• 120 F. 1
• 57 C.C.A. 21
• 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4453

Syllabus

<p>1. Criminal Law — Fraudulent Use oe Mails — Statutes—Construction.</p> <p>Rev. St. § 5480 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3696], provided that if any person, having devised any scheme or artifice to defraud, to be effected by correspondence with any persons by means of the post office of the United States, should, for the purpose of executing such scheme, place any letter in any post office of the United States, he should, on conviction, be punished, etc. By Act March 2, 1889 [page 3696], section 5480 was amended so as to read that if any person, having devised a scheme to defraud or to dispose of any counterfeit money, etc., to be effected by a correspondence through the mails, should place any letter in the post office, etc., he should be punished. Held, that the amendment was not' intended to restrict the statute to schemes to defraud by the intended sale of counterfeit money, but was enacted to include such schemes within the prohibition of section 5480.</p> <p>2. Same — Indictment.</p> <p>Where an indictment charged the use of the mails for the purpose of defrauding others unknown, by inducing the recipient of the letter deposited to place counterfeit money in circulation to such others, it contained a sufficient allegation of an intention to defraud, though the recipient of the letter could not have been defrauded.</p> <p>3. Same — Conviction on Several Counts.</p> <p>Where a conviction is based on several counts in an indictment, it will not be reversed, if any of the counts are sufficient.</p> <p>4. Same — Indictment.</p> <p>A count in an indictment, charging defendant with making use of the post office establishment in aid of a fraudulent scheme to sell counterfeit money, and that he did not in fact have or intend to sell any counterfeit money, and that when the letters of purchasers were returned to him he intended to convert the money therein sent and delivered through the postoffice to his own use, sufficiently charged a scheme to defraud, prohibited by Rev