Connecticut’s Great Turkey Case
by Ryan C. McKeen
Turkeys aren’t just in our statutes.
We’re a state so rich in law that we’ve had a 24 day trial about turkey preparation that resulted in an appeal to the Supreme Court. State of Connecticut v. John R. Gerich. 138 Conn. 292, (1951). (I love Google Scholar).
In State v. Gerich, Our Court explained the intricacies of turkey slaughtering:
The term “New York dressed” is applied to a turkey which has been slaughtered, bled and plucked. Its weight, in that condition, is called “New York dressed weight.” An eviscerated turkey is one upon which the above-described operations have been completed and from which the entrails, head and feet have been removed. Evisceration decreases the weight of the bird by 18 to 20 per cent.
Gerich and his partners “billed the turkeys at New York dressed weight although the charges per pound which they made were those prevailing for eviscerated turkeys. The price of the latter was always higher than that of the former. The effect of this billing policy was that the purchaser was charged for at least 18 per cent more than the turkey weighed.”
It sounds like a small wrong but it wasn’t. These guys were the Bernie Madoffs of the Connecticut turkey sales.
“When complaints were received that the turkey or turkeys did not conform with the weights, rebates were customarily returned to the purchaser.” The defendants blamed their billing clerk for making a clerical error.
An example of the effect of their scheme of operation is this one instance, typical of many: during September, 1945, the Harvard Club of New York City was billed for 2520 pounds but actually received only 1493 pounds. The court concluded that the defendants had entered into a conspiracy to cheat their customers and that the amount by which the latter had been defrauded exceeded $100,000.
The Court upheld the trial court’s ruling and found the defendants guilty of conspiracy. What a bunch of turkeys.
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