United States v. Keitel

Citations

• 211 U.S. 370
• 29 S. Ct. 123
• 53 L. Ed. 230
• 1908 U.S. LEXIS 1549

Syllabus

<p>Where an indictment is quashed because the facts charged are not within the statute the Government has an appeal under the act of March 2, 1907,. c. 2564, 34 Stat. 1246.</p> <p>While abstractly there may be a difference between “interpretation” and “construction,” in common usage the words have the same significance; and “construction” as employed in the act of March 2, 1907, c. 2564, 34 Stat. 1246, includes interpretation.</p> <p>Under §§2347-2350, Rev. Stat.,- a person who is qualified to enter coal lands in his own behalf is prohibited from making an entry ostensibly for himself but in fact as agent for another who is disqualified; and an agreement to obtain land for a disqualified person through entries made by qualified persons constitute? the offense of conspiracy against the United States under § 5440, Rev. Stat.</p> <p>The provisions of the Revised Statutes in regard to coal lands limit the amount of land to be taken by each person entering; and while there may be no statutory limitation on the right of the entryman to sell after acquisition, the statute, according to its plain meaning, will be enforced as not permitting a person to acquire land as agent for a disqualified person and so defeat the purpose of the statute.</p> <p>A person cannot enter land through an agent, even though the agency be undisclosed, if he is disqualified to enter the land himself.</p> <p>The authoritative construction of a statute in a civil case may be applied in a criminal case subsequently arising; although United States v. Trinidad Coal Co., 137 U. S. 160, was a suit to annul patents to coal lands the decision in that case that qualified persons cannot enter coal lands under §§ 2347-2350, Rev. Stat., as agents, or on behalf of, disqualified persons, will be followed as to the construction of those statutes in sustaining indictments under §5440 for conspiracy to defraud the United States by obtaining coal lands by entries in violation of the statutes as so construed.</p> <p>