Ryan v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““A conspiracy to commit a crime always, in the nature of the case, precedes the commission of the crime; and in my opinion it does not follow, because at the time that a conspiracy is entered into to conceal property from a trustee no trustee has been appointed and no proceedings in bankruptcy begun, that therefore the crime of conspiracy under section 5440 cannot have occurred. The indictment alleges, as a part of the conspiracy, a plan to bring about the filing of petitions in involuntary bankruptcy and adjudications thereon, and that, pursuant to the conspiracy, property was removed and concealed before the proceedings were taken, was intentionally omitted from the schedules, and was kept concealed from the trustee after his appointment and qualification. In my opinion, such a conspiracy constitutes a criminal offense. The true test is: Could a conviction be had if no bankruptcy proceedings were ever taken? I think it could, if, in addition to the organization of the conspiracy, any of the parties to it did any act to effect the object of the conspiracy. Undoubtedly a criminal prosecution in such a case would be harsh and unusual; but, in my opinion, a crime would have been committed in such' a case, even if no proceedings in bankruptcy were in fact ever taken. A conspiracy to murder, joined with a single act done by the conspirators to effect the object of the conspiracy, would be á crime under section 5440, and would not cease to be a crime because no murder was committe”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Steigman v. United States

2. ““Thus the counts for conspiracy, on tlio one hand, and those for aiding and abetting unlawful carriage of explosives, oil the other hand, cannot rightly be defined as ‘interdependent,’ nor were both charges either proved or provable by the same evidence, as contended; and the further contention that commission of the offenses averred in the last-mentioned counts was relied upon and involved for conviction under the conspiracy counts is unsupported by the averments in such counts, wherein neither of such commissions of offense is set forth in the specification of overt acts, so that no question arises whether their averment therein as overt acts would affect the rule above stated as to the independent, nature of the other counts. Undoubtedly the evidence introduced in support of the conspiracy charge may weli serve as evidence tending to support the charges of aiding and abetting commission of the offenses averred in the other counts; but this coincidence in part gives no support to either contention of identity of the offenses charged, or of identity of the evidence involved for conviction. It is obvious that proof to convict of commission of the unlawful carriages, as aiders and abettors, must extend beyond the requirements for proof of the conspiracy.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Preeman v. United States

3. ““If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such parties do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be fined not more than ton thousand dollars, or impi-isoned not more than two years, or both.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Harrison v. Moyer