Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/61

 UNITED STATES V. GOGGIN. 53 �as uecessary to allege wherein the fraud consisted at its in- ception, and when made the basis for obtaining the pension certificate, as it would be, if it consisted of some device prac- ticed at the very time the claim was presented foi* payment. It was necessary to show the alleged fraud and the acts which constituted it, on the trial, and it was, therefore, necessary that it should be alleged, at least with sufficient particularitj' to enable the defendant to plead any judgment which might foUow, as a bar to a subsequent prosecution for the same offence. The allegation is that a claim was presented by the defendant, as a pensioner, under and by virtue of a certain instrument known as a pension certificate; but this certificate is not described so that it can be identified; and I think it should bave been so described as to make it capable of iden- tification — as by date, the names of the persons who pur- ported to sign it, and the like — so as to satisfy the require- ments of the rule as laid down by the supreme court in U. S. V. Simmons. If we adopt as authoritative, upon the question under consideration, the case of the U. S. v. Jkttïline, 15 Inter. Eev. Eec. 32, which is a case some- what in opposition to U. S. v. Ballard, 13 Inter. llev. Rec. 195, it is very clear that we should bave to hokl this indict- ment insufficient ; and I incline to the opinion that the cor- rect rule is stated in the former case. �It was stated upon the argument that what is alleged in the indictment in regard to fraud in obtaining the pension certificate relates to the evidence of the offence, and not the ofïence itself ; but it is not the presentation of the claim for payment which makes the offence, it is the presentation for payment of a false or fraudulent daim, and as no fraud can be committed but by deceitful practices, the particular deceitful practices by which the fraud is alleged to have been commit- ted, or which make the claim fraudulent, should be to such extent set forth as to make the fraud appear upon the face of the indictment. This may be, to a certain extent, alleging the evidence of the offence, but it is rather the statement of essential faets which constitute the fraud, and therefore make the presentation for payment of the claim a criminal offence. ��� �