Cunard S. S. Co. v. Elting

87 F.2d 309, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 2486, 1937 A.M.C. 446
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedJanuary 4, 1937
DocketNo. 131
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 87 F.2d 309 (Cunard S. S. Co. v. Elting) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cunard S. S. Co. v. Elting, 87 F.2d 309, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 2486, 1937 A.M.C. 446 (2d Cir. 1937).

Opinion

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge.

The causes of action in the case at bar were all brought to recover steamship fines alleged to have been imposed upon the Cunard Steamship Company without warrant of law.

The aliens involved in causes of action Nos. 1, 2, and 3 were brought to the Port of New York and, on arrival, were found to be afflicted with loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases which two physicians of the United States Public Health Service certified might have been detected by competent medical examinations at the time of foreign embarkation.

The affliction of the alien in cause of action No. 1 was a gonococcus infection of the urethra — a venereal disease. The government physicians certified that it was not easily curable. The alien testified before the Board of Special Inquiry that a physician who had examined him prior to sailing had only looked at his hands and eyes, but the foreign physician certified that when examined the alien “showed no signs of gonococcus infection of the urethra.” None of the details of the examination were set forth in the certificate.

The alien involved in cause of action No. 2 was afflicted with ringworm of the fingernail which the government physicians certified might have been detected by a competent medical examination at the foreign port and was not easily curable. She testified that the diseased condition had existed for two or three years before sailing. There was a certificate from a foreign physician that he had “carefully examined” her the day before she sailed and “found her showing no contagious disease or any abnormal condition preventing her from admission into the United States.”

The alien in cause of action No. 3 also had ringworm of the fingernails. She testified that she had been examined in Finland before sailing and that the doctor there had told her that her condition-“was nothing dangerous” and gave her no-treatment. The government physicians-certified that the disease was not easily curable and that the condition of the alien-“might have been detected by competent medical examination at the port of embarkation.” The Cunard Line in Liverpool sent a letter, which was made part of the record, saying that the alien had been subjected to rigorous examinations-by physicians before sailing and that, if she had contracted ringworm of the nails,, the disease would have been detected.

Each of the above three aliens was-excluded by the Board of Special Inquiry, but, upon application to the Secretary of Labor, was allowed to land for- hospital treatment, was cured, and thereafter admitted to the country as a quota immigrant. Notwithstanding the admission,, fines were imposed upon the Cunard Line-for bringing them to the United States.

It is not now contended that the diseases with which the three aliens were af[311]*311flicted could not have been detected by a competent medical examination prior to embarking, but it is said that they were lawfully admitted into the United States and that such admission tolled the fines. The Department of Labor ruled that hospitalization and subsequent admission after cure did not exempt the aliens from the excluding provisions of the Immigration Act and held that, because their status became changed before they were permitted to land, the steamship line was not relieved from responsibility for fines. Such also was the conclusion of the trial court.

Section 3 of the Immigration Act of 1917, as amended (8 U.S.C.A. § 136), provides that “persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any form or with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease” shall be “excluded from admission into the United States.” It is not disputed that the diseases with which the aliens here were afflicted came within that category. Section 9 of the act, as amended (8 U.S.C.A. § 145), made it unlawful for persons to bring to the United States any alien so afflicted and provided that, if it should appear to the Secretary of Labor that the existence of such diseases might have been detected at the time of foreign embarkation by means of a competent medical examination, the transportation company bringing them to these shores should pay certain prescribed fines to the collector. Section 18, as amended (8 U.S.C.A. § 154), provides that:

“No alien certified, as provided in section sixteen of this act [section 152 of this title], to be suffering from tuberculosis in any form, or from a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease other than one of quarantinable nature, shall be permitted to land for medical treatment thereof in any hospital in the United States, unless the Secretary of Labor is satisfied that to refuse treatment would be inhumane or cause unusual hardship or suffering, in which case the alien shall be treated in the hospital under the supervision of the immigration officials at the expense of the vessel transporting him.”

It is argued that the foregoing provision of section 18 for the admission of aliens (suffering from dangerous contagious diseases) in order to receive hopital treatment gives the Secretary of Labor the right to admit them permanently if cured and requires their deportation only when they are not cured. The plaintiff seeks to strengthen its argument by referring to the clause in section 18 which immediately follows the one we have quoted and provides for hospital treatment of aliens found to be insane, and directs the deportation of such aliens as soon as it is safe. But we cannot see that an express provision for the deportation of insane persons who have been admitted to hospitalization suggests an implied power to grant permanent admission to aliens afflicted with dangerous contagious diseases, when they are excluded by the express terms of section 3. That they cannot be admitted permanently . seems clear not only from the terms of section 3 but from the Regulations adopted for their temporary admission that were in force prior to the amendment of section 9 in 1924. Those Regulations provided that:

“The treatment of an alien under this rule shall not be construed to alter in any manner the status of the alien with reference to his right to enter or remain in the United States, nor to affect in any manner the liability of transportation companies under Section 9. * * * ”

The foregoing rule was continued in force after the amendment of section 9 in 1924 whereby the amount of fines to be imposed was increased. In the Regulations of 1930 it became paragraph 1 of subdivision G. The amendment of section 9 after the long-continued departmental interpretation of its scope was a legislative adoption of the administrative construction. Helvering v. Bliss, 293 U.S. 144, 151, 55 S.Ct. 17, 20, 79 L.Ed. 246, 97 A.L. R. 207; Robertson v. Downing, 127 U.S. 607, 612, 613, 8 S.Ct. 1328, 32 L.Ed. 269.

Nothing is said in section 18 about permanent admission and nothing in that section creates an exception to the excluding provisions of section 3 and the imposition of fines under section 9. Accordingly it seems clear that section 18 is directed to hardships resulting from a refusal to permit an alien to receive prompt medical treatment and not to hardships arising from ultimate deportation when he arrived with a “dangerous contagious disease.”

It follows from the above that the fines imposed in the cases of the three aliens were proper and cannot be recovered, because the admissions were unlawful. Lamport & Holt v. Elting, 74 F.(2d) 238, 240 (C.C.A.2).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Navigazione Generale Italiana v. Elting
88 F.2d 607 (Second Circuit, 1937)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 F.2d 309, 1937 U.S. App. LEXIS 2486, 1937 A.M.C. 446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cunard-s-s-co-v-elting-ca2-1937.