United States v. American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp.
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
433 F.2d 174 (1970)
- Written by Rich Walter, JD
Facts
The United States government (plaintiff) prosecuted the American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corporation (defendant) for conspiring with the Crane Company and others to violate the Sherman Act. At trial, the government introduced an incriminating six-page set of undated and unsigned handwritten notes found in Crane's files. The government claimed the notes were written by Raymond Pape, a Crane official. Pape did not testify as to his authorship of the notes. However, a former Crane secretary who had some familiarity with Pape's handwriting identified him as the author of at least four of the six pages. The judge accepted this testimony as sufficiently authenticating those four pages. The judge admitted all six pages as evidence. The judge instructed the jurors that if they believed Pape wrote the four pages, they could compare them with the other two pages to decide if Pape wrote the whole set of notes. The jury convicted American Standard. On appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, American Standard argued the judge’s admission of the notes was reversible error.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Seitz, J.)
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