Opinion
No. 9851.
Argued February 7, 1949.
Decided April 8, 1949.
Appeal from the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia (now the United States District Court for the District of Columbia).
See also D.C., 72 F. Supp. 58.
Mr. Benedict Wolf, of New York City, of the bar of the State of New York, pro hac vice, by special leave of Court, and Mr. O. John Rogge, of Washington, D.C., for appellant.
Mr. Charles B. Murray, Asst. U.S. Atty., of Washington, D.C., with whom Mr. George Morris Fay, U.S. Atty., of Washington, D.C., was on the brief for appellee. Mr. John D. Lane, Asst. U.S. Atty., of Washington, D.C., also entered an appearance for appellee.
Before EDGERTON, PRETTYMAN, and PROCTOR, Circuit Judges.
Like the appellant in Fleischman v. United States, ___, U.S.App.D.C. ___, 174 F.2d 519, decided today, the present appellant has been convicted of willfully making default before the Committee on Un-American Activities of the House of Representatives after being summoned to produce before it the records of the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee. Unlike Fleischman, the present appellant was custodian of the records and refused to produce them before some members of the Congressional Committee on April 4, 1946. The court instructed the jury in effect that a quorum of the Congressional Committee was present. For reasons set forth in our opinion in the Fleischman case, we think this was a material question of fact which should have been submitted to the jury.
Reversed.
I think that this judgment should be affirmed. The reasons for my dissent are stated in the dissenting opinion in Fleischman v. United States, ___ U.S.App.D.C. ___, 174 F.2d 519.