15342. {Supplement  to  Notice  of Judgment No.  14008.) ,U. JS,  y. Sea Coast
Canning:   Co.      Judgment   for   the   Government   for   forfeiture   of 
bond.     (F. & D. NQ. 20491.    I. S. No. 8657-x.    S. No. C-503Q.)
At the January, 1927, term of the United States District Court, within and 
for the Southern District of Texas, the United States attorney for said district 
brought an action against the Seacoast Canning Co., Eastport, Me., ? for for- 
feiture of the bond executed by said company to insure compliance with the 
terms of the decree filed January 5, 1926, in the case, U. S. v. 875 Gases> of 
Canned Sardines, involving adulteration, under the food and drugs act, of a 
quantity of canned sardines shipped by the Chas. (Maine) Cooperative Sardine 
Corp. (Co.) from Eastport, Me, into the State of Texas, on or about July 22, 
1925.
On July 27, 1927, judgment was entered against the defendants, the Sea Coast 
Canning Co., and sureties, in the sum of $1,000, together with interest and 
costs. In rendering judgment the court handed down tlie following opinion 
(Hutcheson, D. J.) :
" This is a suit on a bond given in a forfeiture case authorizing the defend- 
ants under certain conditions to take the sardines on their making bond.
" The bond was made and the conditions of the bond were violated by put- 
ting the sardines into the trade before they had been inspected, and the good 
ones, if there were any, segregated from the bad. The defense is that there 
was a misunderstanding on the part of the defendants, they believing that when 
the Marshal delivered the sardines to them, they had been inspected.
" I agree with .the Government in its position that the terms of the bond are 
absolute, and whether the defendants acted mistakenly or intentionally is imma-' 
terial. They took the sardines under an absolute agreement not to sell them 
in their adulterated state, and they did sell them. No amount of mistakes can 
save the fact. 
]
" It is toy opinion therefore, that judgment should go 'for the United States       \ 
for the amount of the bond." 
\
W. M. JAUDINE, Secretary of Agriculture. \