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5 F.2d 963

Docket No. 4479.

Utley v. United States

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Decided June 1, 1925.)

Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals · decided 1925-06-01

2 counsel of record

Relies on Tynan v. United States · Bilboa v. United States · Feigin v. United States

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1925-06-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently June 1940

4 federal appellate ·

20192519301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶11. Criminal law <©=> 1091(10) — Exception necessary for review of instruction.

¶2Assignment of error to the giving of an instruction need not be regarded; the bill of exceptions not showing any exception was taken to the instruction, or that there were any requests for instructions.

¶32. Criminal law <@s=3Í036(8) — Insufficiency of evidence must first be raised at trial.

¶4Insufficiency of evidence to justify verdict may not be raised for the first time by motion for new trial.

¶5In Error to the District Court of the United States for the Northern Division of the *964Western District of Washington; Jeremiah Neterer, Judge.

¶6. Russell Utley and another were convicted under the National Prohibition Act, and bring error.

¶7.Affirmed.

¶8Walter Metzenbaum, of Seattle, Wash., for plaintiffs in error.

¶9Thos. P. Revelle, U. S. Atty., and J. W. Hoar, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of Seattle, Wash.

¶10Before GILBERT, HUNT, and RUDKIN, Circuit Judges.

¶11HUNT, Circuit Judge.

¶12Writ of error to review a judgment of conviction under the National Prohibition Act (Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1923,'§ 10138}4 et seq.). Plaintiffs in error were convicted of possession and sale of intoxicating liquor, and of maintaining a common nuisance at a described place in Seattle.

¶13The evidence of the government was that the place was an old saloon, with a bar and mirror, a table, and a, few chairs; that twice on November 29, 1922, a government agent went to the place, and each timé bought distilled spirits, moonshine liquor, from defendant Hull, who was behind the bar; that defendant Utley was not present when that sale was made; that on the 27th of November an agent bought distilled spirits at the place, and that Utley was present when that sale was'made; that Utley was owner and proprietor of the premises, and had taken possession a few days before.

¶14Defendant Utley admitted that he bought the place on November 24, 1922, but said that he was sick and away from the place after 5 o’clock on that day. Defendant Hull admitted that he sold the liquor to the agent on the 29th, but denied that he knew the premises had been purchased by Utley. He said that he had been employed by a man named Kelly, who had died, and that one Smith was the proprietor when he sold the liquor.

¶15[1] It is argued that the court erred in an instruction pertaining to the possession of the property in the- place; but, as the bill of exceptions fails to show that any exception was taken to the instruction given, or that there were any requests for instructions, the assignment need not he regarded. Feigin v. United States, 3 F.(2d) 866; Diamond v. United States (C. C. A.) 4 F.(2d) 111.

¶16[2] It is also contended that the court erred in overruling motion of the defendants below for a new trial. Such motion was based upon the ground that the evidence was insufficient to support the verdict. But, as there was no motion by the defendants or either of them for an instructed verdict, the case falls within the well-settled rule that insufficiency of the evidence to justify the verdict cannot be raised for the. first time by a motion for a new trial, or in the appellate court. Bilboa v. United States (C. C. A.) 287 F. 125; Clements et al. v. United States (C. C. A.) 297 F. 206, certiorari denied 266 U. S. 605, 45 S. Ct. 92, 69 L. Ed. -; Moore v. United States (C. C. A.) 1 F.(2d) 839.

¶17We find nothing in the record which calls for a reversal of the judgment.

¶18Affirmed.

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