Nilva v. United States
Headline: Court upholds an attorney’s criminal contempt conviction for failing to produce subpoenaed corporate records, but vacates his one-year-and-a-day sentence and sends the case back for resentencing.
Holding: The Court affirmed that an attorney wilfully disobeyed a subpoena by failing to produce corporate records, sustaining his criminal contempt conviction on that single specification, but vacated his sentence and remanded for resentencing.
- Confirms contempt conviction possible for failing to produce subpoenaed corporate records.
- Requires resentencing when convictions are reduced to fewer specifications.
- Alerts lawyers that representing corporations carries subpoena-compliance risks.
Summary
Background
An attorney in St. Paul who was a nominal officer of a slot-machine distributing company was called to produce company records by two subpoenas before a retrial of the company’s owner and another defendant. The attorney said he and office staff searched for the records and brought what they could, but the judge found his testimony evasive, had company records impounded, and later charged the attorney with three contempt specifications: false testimony and two failures to obey subpoenas for corporate records. At a contempt hearing the attorney introduced four impounded records as exhibits; a prior FBI agent’s trial testimony was also admitted over objection. The district court convicted him on all three specifications and sentenced him to a year and a day; the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Reasoning
The Supreme Court narrowed the dispute to whether sufficient evidence sustained the conviction based solely on the third specification — failure to produce specified corporate ledgers and registers. Applying earlier decisions, the Court held that criminal contempt can be proved when subpoenaed corporate records exist and are within someone’s control. The majority found the record supports that those records existed and were within the attorney’s control, and that the judge reasonably rejected the attorney’s claim of good faith compliance. Because the Government abandoned the other two specifications, the Court concluded the third specification alone sustained conviction.
Real world impact
The Court affirmed the contempt conviction but vacated the original sentence because it had been imposed for all three specifications; the case was remanded so the trial court can reconsider punishment now that only one specification stands. This affects lawyers and corporate officers who answer subpoenas and shows judges may reassess sentences when convictions are narrowed.
Dissents or concurrances
A dissent argued reversal was required, faulting the trial for insufficient admissible evidence, reliance on hearsay from a prior trial, denial of confrontation, rushed proceedings, and a judge’s failure to step aside when he had presided over the related trial.
Opinions in this case:
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