Bartchy v. United States

Background

Petitioner was a man classified as available for military service who took short-term jobs as a merchant seaman and gave his local draft board a union office address in Houston for mail to be forwarded. He sailed to New York, asked the union to forward his draft mail there, and later worked on a ship berthed in Hoboken. A notice to report for induction was mailed to the Houston union office, forwarded to New York, but due to a union official’s mistaken assumption the notice was returned to the local board and never reached petitioner.

Reasoning

The question was whether the evidence showed that he knowingly failed to keep the board advised of an address where mail would reach him under the Selective Training and Service Act and its mail regulation. The Court held that the regulation is satisfied when a registrant in good faith provides a chain of forwarding addresses by which mail may reasonably be expected to reach him, and the record did not justify inferring that he deliberately avoided delivery. The Court reversed the conviction for failing to keep the board advised.

Real world impact

The decision protects people who travel or work at sea and who reasonably rely on organizations to forward draft mail, limiting criminal liability when forwarding chains are used in good faith. It also signals that prosecutors must prove more than mere nonreceipt of mail when a forwarding system is in place.

Dissents or concurrances

A dissenting Justice argued that the evidence showed mail would not reach petitioner during the critical period and would have upheld the conviction.