| Show ROBBINS K bj w I 1 N S MU MUST ws I 1 MAKE rake 51 PLEA ale ir A judge marshall overrules new demurrer to the indictment ent in exhaustive opinion court holds that attempt was misleading judge marshall in the united states mccurt at salt lake city hari hava handed down a decision in the land fraud case against don C robbins E W senior and others the demurrer of the defendants fen fend danta ants and ordering them to plead to the indictments the action of the court in holding the indictments good i ia s taker taken as a decided victory for the government officials as the robbins case has been iven looked upon as a test case would determine the course to be pursued in other c ases case 11 III ll pending in his opinion the court upheld the contentions of the government in all matters concerning the indictment don C robbins and four others were indicted jointly charged with conspiracy to defraud the govern ni m nt out of coal lands the specific change is that they induced other partes part tf to enar the land as ostensible while as a matter of fact they purchased the lad land for the defendants under an agreement the ground of the demurrer nd r by the defendants was that the acts alleged did not constitute a criminal conspiracy under the strict construction of the statutes it was vas claimed tha thai the fraud was merely constructive a mere fiction of a court of Fh chancery ancery for the purpose of affording a remedy at law and as such was not within section under which the men then were indicted 4 1 1 in hia his opinion judge Sl marshall arshall has t the fol to ray ay in regard G the Z defense 1 I find no authority for this contention thethel the united states supreme court has eom construed trued the statutes as plainly and obviously prohibiting the scheme here in question quey tion and even in a criminal prosecution the statutes cannette can nethe natha strictly construed to exclude its plain and ous ine meaning aning it ie is aud said that no fal false representation were made that t the e var various 4 bous purchasers merely did not voluntarily disclose the true facts but that there was no active fraud actionable at criminal law it is la true that in order to fall within the provision ot of section the conspirator conspirators must contemplate active deception and that the defend aab an Is did not tand in a position to the government as to require a disclosure of all ali matt facts but the defendant defendants arc are not advantaged by this adKus MW eion n the gist of the con was to give the entry a false appearance for purposes of misleading the real purchasers were ere conspirators spira tora tors and pretended purchasers were put forward to conceal the real reat transaction arid and to induce a conveyance which otherwise would have been an impossibility silence in this case would be in f effect a confirmation adf the r representation e arese prese that the apparent facts were ere the real facts to support this view vie the court cited several cases conc concerning eming actionable fraud to show that fraudulent representations can be const construed aed fron a concealing of real facts the court then took up the other reasons assigned in the demurrer and then concluded the opinion the also specially demurred to on tle grounds of yant of certainty and in ao so ninny particulars lars s that a sP pArate resume of them would be too lengthy for this opinion ion I 1 thinie the indictments are sufficiently certain and the demurrers are 0 and the defendants will be required io to plead to the indictments demurrers similar to alio e in the robbins case have been filed in the other case pending beffie judge marshall it is 13 probable ro bable however that the defendants will take a new course of defense and withdraw their demurrers lem the defendants in the eme will be required to plead to 9 indictments within a few das s uell m a new pirn plea in bar is attempted |
