Terlinden v. Ames

by Melvin Fuller

United States Supreme Court

184 U.S. 270

Terlinden  v.  Ames

 Argued: January 6, 7, 1902. --- Decided: February 24, 1902

August 15, A. D. 1901, Dr. Walther Wever, Imperial German Consul at Chicago, filed his complaint before Mark A. Foote, Esq., a commissioner of the United States in and for the northern district of Illinois, and specially authorized to issue warrants for the apprehension of fugitives from justice of foreign governments, stating that he was 'the duly accredited official agent and representative of the German Empire at Chicago and also the Kingdom of Prussia, forming a part of said German Empire,' and charging that one Gerhard Terlinden, alias Theodor Graefe, a subject of the Kingdom dom of Prussia, did, within the first six months of the year 1901, 'commit within the jurisdiction of the said Kingdom of Prussia various crimes of forgery and counterfeiting and the utterance of forged papers,' in that as a director of the Gerhard Terlinden Stock Company, organized and doing business in said Kingdom, said Terlinden forged and counterfeited certain certificates of the stock of said company amounting to about a million and a half of marks, and put out, uttered, and disposed of the same to Robert Suermont of the city of Aachen, Prussia; the Amsterdamsche Bank, Netherlands; the Disconto Gesellschaft, a corporation doing business in Berlin, Prussia; and other persons and corporations, with felonious intent to cheat and defraud them respectively. The complaint further charged that Terlinden was at the time of committing said crimes a resident of the city of Duisburg and a citizen of said Kingdom of Prussia; that he was a fugitive from said Kingdom; that on or about the 1st day of July, 1901, he fled into the jurisdiction of the United States of America for the purpose of seeking an asylum therein; that he was now said to be concealed within the northern district of Illinois or in the eastern district of Wisconsin; and that the crimes with which he was charged were crimes embraced within the treaty of extradition between the United States and the Kingdom of Prussia, concluded on the 16th day of June, 1852, and ratified May 30, 1853.

It was therefore prayed that a warrant be issued for the apprehension and commitment of Terlinden 'in order that the evidence of his criminality may be inquired into, and the said Gerhard Terlinden, alias Theodor Graefe, may be extradited and delivered up to the justice of the said Kingdom of Prussia, in accordance with the stipulations of said treaty and the acts of Congress passed in pursuance thereof.'

The complaint was duly verified and the commissioner issued his warrant, which was placed in the hands of John C. Ames, United States marshal in and for the northern district of Illinois, and Terlinden was apprehended and held to be dealt with according to law.

Subsequently and on September 25, 1901, Dr. Wever, in his capacity aforesaid, made another complaint before the commissioner, charging (1) the forging of a large number of stock certificates of the Gerhard Terlinden Stock Company; (2) uttering said stock certificates, well knowing them to be forged; (3) forging and counterfeiting the steel stamp of the Royal Prussian revenue office at Duisburg, Prussia; (4) imprinting said forged steel stamp upon the forged certificates of stock so as to make it appear that the tax required by the Prussian revenue law had been paid on said certificates issued by the company in said Kingdom, and thus to give said forged certificates the appearance of genuineness; (5) uttering forged certificates of stock with said forged stamp thereon; (6) forging the acceptance of one Heinrich Schulte to a certain draft for 9,582 marks and 35 pfennings, and uttering the same; (7) forging the acceptance of one Wilhelm Seven to two certain drafts for the sums of 26,250 marks and of 25,912 marks and 45 pfennings, respectively, and uttering the same; or causing all these things to be done; 'contrary to the laws of the Kingdom of Prussia.'

It was stated that these several crimes were fully shown by the testimony of a number of witnesses heard before the examining judge of the Landgericht at Duisburg in the Kingdom of Prussia, 'a court of competent jurisdiction in which the matter of the penal investigation instituted against the said Gerhard Terlinden, alias Theodor Graefe, is now pending, in order that he may answer for said several crimes;' and with the complaint were submitted copies of the depositions of the witnesses together with a copy of the warrant of arrest issued by that court against Terlinden, 'and of the provisions of the Penal Code of the German Empire applicable to said several crimes and providing punishment therefor,' all of which were duly authenticated; and also a verified English translation thereof. This second complaint also showed that the crimes charged were committed within the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Prussia; and that Terlinden was, at the time of committing the same, a subject of that Kingdom; and the commissioner in accordance with the prayer of the complaint issued another warrant, which was served on Terlinden the following day, he being discharged from arrest on the first warrant. On the 17th of October, before any evidence was taken before the commissioner, Terlinden presented to the district court of the United States for the northern district of Illinois his petition praying for a writ of habeas corpus on the following grounds:

'1. No treaty or convention for the extradition of fugitives from justice exists between the United States and the German Empire.

'2. That the treaty or convention for the extradition of fugitives from justice concluded between the United States and the Kingdom of Prussia on the 16th day of June, 1852, and ratified May 30, A. D. 1853, was terminated by the creation of the German Empire and the adoption of the Constitution of said Empire in A. D. 1871, and that no treaty or convention for the extradition of fugitives from justice has been concluded between the United States, on the one part, and the Kingdom of Prussia or the German Empire, on the other, since said time.

Notes