Ex parte Desjeiro

152 F. 1004, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5077
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon
DecidedApril 15, 1907
DocketNos. 3,084, 3,085
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 152 F. 1004 (Ex parte Desjeiro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Desjeiro, 152 F. 1004, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5077 (circtdor 1907).

Opinion

WOEVERTON, District Judge.

The above cases Have been, by stipulation of counsel, consolidated, and were heard together. Each of the petitioners was convicted in the justice’s court in and. for the precinct of Astoria, Clatsop county, state of Oregon, upon a complaint charging as follows:

[1005]*1005“The said defendant [Desjeiro on the 6th day of July and Furia on the 8th day of August, A. D. 1906], in the county of Clatsop and state of Oregon, then and there being, did then and there willfully and unlawfully take and fish for salmon fish in the waters of this state, to wit, in the waters of the Columbia river, without first having been a bona fide resident of the state of Oregon, Idaho, or Washington for the period of sis months prior thereto.”

And both are now held for imprisonment.

The facts as developed at the trial before the justice, and certified here under writ of certiorari, are that Desjeiro fished for and caught six salmon fish in the waters of the Columbia river by means of a floating salmon gill net at a point in said river south of the middle channel thereof, and opposite the county of Clatsop in the state of Oregon; that in taking the fish he placed the net in the waters of the river at a point within the boundary of the state of Oregon for the purpose of fishing and taking salmon fish thereby; that the net drifted with the current across the boundary into Washington, where he also fished for and caught six other salmon fish; that, he delivered his catch to the cannery of the Columbia River Packers’ Association at Astoria, in Clatsop county, Or. Desjeiro was at the time a resident neither of the state of Oregon, of Idaho, or of Washington, but was an actual resident and inhabitant of the state of California, and a subject of the King of Italy, never having been naturalized in this country. The same facts appear as it relates to Furia, except it is shown that he was a naturalized citizen, and caught fish on the Oregon side of the ship’s channel'in the Columbia river; but in all other respects he was engaged in catching fish in violation of the statute of Oregon.

The section of the statute which Desjeiro and Furia are alleged to have violated is as follows:

“It shall be unlawful for any person to take or fish for salmon fish or sturgeon in any waters of this state, unless such person be a citizen of the United States, or has declared his intention to become such, and has been a bona fide resident of the state of Oregon, or the states of Washington or Idaho, for tlie period of six months: Provided, that a license issued by the state of Washington, such state having concurrent jurisdiction on the Columbia river with this slate, shall be deemed valid as to gill nets, and as to gill net fishermen, for use on the Columbia River, as though issued, by the fish warden of this state.” Section 4092, B. & C. Comp. as amended by Sess. Laws Or. 1903, p. 218.

In order to a clear understanding and solution of the question presented for determination, certain other provisions of the statute, as well as certain provisions of the statute of the state of Washington, should be noted in this connection. Section 4093, B. & C. Comp., as amended by Sess. Laws Or. 1905, p. 116, provides that:

“Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention to become such, and is a resident of the state of Oregon, or the states of Washington or Idaho, desiring to engage in tlxe business of operating a fish-trap, wier, pound net, set net, gill net, fish wheel, or seine, or other fishing appliance not prohibited by law, for the purpose of catching fish in anj^ of the waters of this state, or over which the state of Oregon has concurrent jurisdiction, shall make application in writing to the fish warden of said state, specifying with convenient certainty the character of the appliance that the applicant desires to obtain license for, and the location, if for a stationary appliance, and upon payment of a license fee as hereinafter provided, said [1006]*1006fish warden shall Issue to such applicant a license to operate the character of appliance desired in said application.”

Section 4113, B. & C. Comp., as amended by Sess. Laws Or. 1903, p. 237, prescribes that:

"Any person or persons violating any of the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished” as in said section designated.

By section 2 of an act providing for the protection and propagation of the food fishes in the waters of the state of Washington, etc., Sess. Laws Wash. 1899, pp. 194-206, c. 117, it is enacted that:

‘‘The use of set nets and gill or drift nets, subject to said license and regulation (as thereinafter provided) for said purpose, is authorized in all the waters of this state, except as otherwise provided by law: Provided, however, that * * * a separate license shall be required for each trap * * ⅜ gill net, drift net or set net, which license shall be numbered and dated,” etc.

And that:

“No license shall be issued to any person who is not a citizen of the United States, unless such person has declared his intention to become such one year prior thereto, and is and has been for one year immediately prior to the time of the application for license an actual resident of the state of Washington: ⅜ ⅜ * provided, licenses issued by the state of Oregon shall 'be deemed valid as to gill nets for use on the Columbia River as though issued by the fish commissioner of this state.”

Section 20 prescribes a penalty for a violation of any of the provisions of the act.

Under their respective Constitutions and the acts of Congress admitting them into the Union the states of Oregon and Washington, although their common boundary is the middle channel of the Columbia river, are each accorded and have concurrent jurisdiction over the entire river. In re Mattson (C. C.) 69 Fed. 535. And the vital and pivotal question involved is whether the statute under which the petitioners were convicted is invalid and inoperative by reason of noncon-currence therein by the Regislature of the state of Washington. Almost the identical question was decided in the case just cited. There the defendant, an inhabitant of the state of Washington, was arrested and imprisoned for fishing on Sunday, an act of the legislative assembly of the state of Oregon inhibiting the conduct (Sess. Laws Or. 1891, p. 33), which was a general law applying to all the waters of the state. It was insisted that as the Regislature of the state of Washington had not concurred in the enactment, or had not a similar statute of its own, the act was void, and insufficient by which to constitute the offense. In his determination of the cause Judge Bellinger says :

“It is no reason for this assumption of legislative control by Oregon within the boundaries of Washington that the latter state has the right to legislate similarly with reference to the river. Washington is precluded, by the legislation of Oregon over the river, from legislating otherwise. What is thus accorded to Washington is not a right, but the necessity of acquiescence, to avoid a conflict of jurisdiction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
152 F. 1004, 1907 U.S. App. LEXIS 5077, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-desjeiro-circtdor-1907.