St. Clair v. United States

This is a writ of error to review a judgment of conviction under section 215 of the Penal Code (18 USCA § 338), commonly known as the mail fraud statute. The indictment charged the devising of a scheme and artifice for obtaining money and property by means of false and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, in the usual form, and the mailing of certain letters for the purpose of executing the scheme and artifice. It also contained the usual conspiracy count, but as to this the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The facts material to a proper understanding of the errors assigned are as follows:

July 13,1923, five of the defendants named in the indictment, by written declaration, formed what is called a common-law trust. The powers of the trustees under the declaration were broad and general, the declaration itself bearing a striking resemblance to the articles of incorporation of an ordinary business corporation. The trustees had acquired by assignment five leases from the state of Washington, covering second-class tide lands in Jefferson county, in that state, and it is to he inferred from the record that the principal or ostensible purpose of the trust was to…