Alaska Pacific Fisheries v. United States

The plaintiff in error corporation was tried and convicted under counts IX, X, XI, XIII, and XIV of an indictment charging it with unlawfully fishing in the waters of Alaska, over which the United States has jurisdiction, and within the First division of that territory, without having the tunnel of its traps — “closed and without having 25 feet of the webbing or net of the heart of such trap on each side next to the pot thereof lifted or lowered in such manner as to permit the free passage of salmon and other fishes.”

The indictment was returned into the court below September 12, 1918, to which the defendant appeared by its attorneys and filed a demurrer, which was by the court overruled on the 24th of the same month, whereupon the defendant pleaded not guilty, and on the same day an order was entered setting the case for trial, “to follow cause No. 1307-B of the regular trial calendar.” After the 24th day of September, 1918, the bill of exceptions recites: “The case was not again called during the term on account of want of time to try it, and the cause passed over until April 18, 1919, on which date an order was entered setting said cause for trial on June 9, 1919. On June 9,…