United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Bowman, 260 U.S. 94 (1922)

United States v. Bowman

No. 69

Argued October 17, 1922

Decided November 13, 1922

260 U.S. 94

Syllabus

1. A criminal statute dealing with acts that are directly injurious to the government and are capable of perpetration without regard to particular locality, and subjecting all who commit them to punishment, is to be construed as applicable to citizens of the United States upon the high seas or in a foreign country, though there be no express declaration to that effect. P. 260 U. S. 97.

2. Section 35 of the Criminal Code, as amended October 23, 1918, c.194, 40 Stat. 1015, is applicable to citizens of the United States who, on the high seas or in a foreign country, conspired to defraud the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation, of which the United States was the stockholder, by obtaining and aiding to obtain the allowance and payment or a false and fraudulent claim against the Corporation, and who, in a foreign country, made and caused such claim to be made. P. 260 U. S. 100.

3. Penal statutes should be fairly construed according to the legislative intent. P. 260 U. S. 102.

4. Citizens of the United States, while in a foreign country, are subject to penal laws passed by the United States to protect itself and its property, and for infractions abroad are triable, under Jud.Code § 41, in the district where they are first brought. P. 260 U. S. 102.

287 F.5d 8 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the district court quashing an indictment on demurrer.

Page 260 U. S. 95