Also known as: machinations · scheme · contrivance
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An act of planning a scheme, especially one undertaken for an evil purpose. The scheme itself may also be called a machination when it involves coordinated steps to achieve an improper end.
Miranda Morales and Mason McCarthy coordinated multiple drug shipments through separate crews. Prosecutors charged them jointly because the separate agreements formed parts of one larger organized scheme. The court examined whether the agreements constituted different aspects of the same overall plan under the statute.
Meredith Maxwell's will appointed assets to several relatives but one clause failed for lack of a required witness. The court examined whether the remaining appointments still carried out her overall plan or whether the failed clause distorted the entire disposition so that default rules should apply instead.
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Maria Morales formed a corporation and sold her own land to it without telling later investors about her markup. The corporation sued to recover the profit because the undisclosed transaction was a machination that breached her fiduciary duty to all contemplated original shareholders.
Mariam Mansour's company concealed known defects in its vehicles. The jury awarded large punitive damages after finding the concealment was a deliberate effort to increase profits at consumer expense. The court later reviewed the award to ensure it did not exceed constitutional limits.
Mustafa Mahmoud, a juvenile, faced delinquency charges. The court required the state to prove every element of the alleged conduct beyond a reasonable doubt rather than by a lower standard. The higher burden protected the juvenile from an erroneous finding of guilt.
Mercury Industries challenged a federal statute that reached local violence. The company argued the law exceeded Congress's power because the underlying conduct was not part of any interstate economic activity. The Court agreed that the statute could not be sustained under the Commerce Clause.
A machination involves coordinated steps aimed at an improper or evil end. In conspiracy prosecutions the separate agreements must be shown to form parts of one organized scheme rather than unrelated crimes.
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A court may preserve the effective parts unless the failed portion so distorts the donor's overall scheme that treating the remainder as ineffective better approximates the donor's intent.
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Full disclosure must be made to every person contemplated as an original investor. Partial disclosure to only some subscribers leaves the promoter liable to return secret profits.
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…consistently with the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The statutes in question set up a comprehensive scheme of unemployment compensation, the costs of which are defrayed by contributions required to be made by employers to a state unemployment compensation fund. The contributions are a specified…