Ted David Howze v. United States

Ted David Howze appeals his conviction by the District Court, sitting without a jury, of willfully refusing to submit to induction into the armed forces, 50 U.S.C. App. § 462. The issue is whether Howze’s Local Board erred when it refused to reopen his classification after Howze submitted a SSS form 118 (“Dependency Questionnaire”) on January 20, 1966, 32 C.F.R. §§ 1625.2 , 1625.4. Petrie v. United States, 407 F.2d 267 , 9th Cir. (1969).

In his form 118, Howze stated that his father (age 62) and his mother (age 58) received a total of $36 a month in social security benefits, that neither had any other sources of income, that he earned $75 a week and that he was giving $80 a month to support his infant son. He also showed other monthly obligations of $112 (ear payments and in come tax). He asserted that neither his sister nor any of his five brothers was able to contribute to the support of Howze’s parents. Howze stated that his father had stomach cancer.

The information in Howze’s form 118, if true, presented a prima facie case for a III-A deferment. A local board would have a basis in fact to grant a III-A classification on the basis of the information Howze submitted. Howze’s…