In re Tang Tun

161 F. 618, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 395
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Washington
DecidedMay 18, 1908
DocketNos. 3326, 3606, 3647
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 161 F. 618 (In re Tang Tun) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Tang Tun, 161 F. 618, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 395 (W.D. Wash. 1908).

Opinion

HANFORD, District Judge.

In the first of these cases, a man and his wife are contending for the right to come into the United States to reside permanently, and that right has been denied by officers of the government, on the ground that they are Chinese persons who are, by the laws of this country, prohibited from entering. The husband, although of Chinese parentage, has discarded the queue and garb which distinguish the Chinese in outward appearance from the people of other nationalities, and he claims this as his native country ■and the rights of a citizen. The evidence proves conclusively that Tang Tun lived at Seattle continuously for a period of about eight years previous to September, 1905, during which period he was an employé of the Wa Chong Company, á well-known Chinese firm engaged in mercantile business and operating a market garden near Seattle, and he became acquainted with well-known citizens, who have given testimony in his behalf, and who were acquainted with the man he claims as his father.

The evidence also proves conclusively that Tang Tun came to Puget Sound from China on the steamship Tacoma in the year 1897, having then in his possession certain affidávits made by citizens of Seattle, which he exhibited to the collector of customs as evidence to establish his identity and nativity. The law in force at that time vested in the collector of customs authority to decide as to the right of Chinese persons coming to the United States by sea to land and remain in this country, and the collector made an indorsement upon said identification affidavits, indicating- the date of arrival, the name oj the [620]*620vessel, and his decision permitting the contestant to land, and signed it and delivered the affidavits so indorsed to the contestant, but retained duplicates, upon which he made an indorsement indicating a contrary decision, and he also made a record that the contestant’s right to enter the United States had been denied Notwithstanding the record in the Custom House, the contestant did live in Seattle, and was employed by the Wa Chong Company, as above stated, until September, 1905, when he was given a $1,000 interest in his employer’s business, and he then went to China and was there married. The marriage was solemnized by Rev. C. A. Nelson, a Christian missionary at the American Consulate in Canton, China, May 21,1906, and is evidenced by a marriage certificate signed by P. S. Heintzleman, Vice and Deputy Consul General of the United States of America, and authenticated by the seal of the Consulate.

The case appears to me to have been overworked; that is to say, the attorneys have weakened the case for their clients by unnecessarily calling as witnesses Mr. Fitzhenry and Mr. Burritt, whose testimony as to the most important facts is unbelieveable. These witnesses having been, in times past, acquainted with many of the Chinese inhabitants of Seattle, are called frequently to testify with respect to the identity of different Chinese persons claiming to have been born in Seattle. Attorneys looking for this kind of evidence find them convenient, and it appears to be easy to convince them of their ability to verify, from memory, facts suggested by others with respect to Chinese families; but their stock of Chinese reminiscences appears to have become exhausted. In this case both of them made bad guesses when interrogated with respect to a photograph of Tang Tun. I reject their testimony entirely, but I deem it to be the duty of the court to give fair consideration to the other evidence, notwithstanding this objectionable feature of the case. After making due allowance for obvious mistakes and errors in the testimony of Tang Tun and his other witnesses, I am convinced by their positive statements that there was a Chinaman named Quong Lee, who was a merchant, and that he lived with his-wife in Seattle from 1878 until 1884. There is no contradiction m the record of the positive testimony of Tang Tun that he is Quong Lee’s son, that he was born in the year 1879, that he lived with his father in China froffi about 1884 until his father died, that he came to the United States in 1897, and that before coming, the identification affidavits, above referred to, were procured by the manager of the Wa Chong Company in Seattle. He is a competent witness to prove these facts, and I find no ground for discrediting his testimony, except such minor mistakes and errors as may be found in the testimony of the average run of witnesses.

Mr. William B. Thompson, a member of the police force of Seattle, whose veracity appears to be unqüestioned, was examined as a witness, and testified that, during the period from 1878 to 1884, he was engaged in the'trucking and draying business in Seattle, and did work in that line for a Chinese firm of which Quong Lee was manager, and that he frequently saw children, a boy and a girl, at the place of business of said firm, who appeared to be Quong Lee’s children, and that the boy appeared to be about three years of age when he [621]*621first noticed the child, and about six years of age when the family returned to China, which, according to the report of his testimony, was in 1878 or 1879. This last statement is clearly an inadvertence, shown to be such by the testimony in its entirety, and by Mr. Thompson’s own statements. The other evidence fixes the time of departure in the year 1884, and, if the boy was five or six years old then, he must have been born during the time of Quong Lee’s residence in Seattle. Mr. Thompson saw him after his admission to this country in 1897, and became so well satisfied as to his identity that he felt justified in making a positive statement in his testimony that this is the same boy whom he knew in childhood as the son of Quong Lee.

I consider that there is more than a mere preponderance of the evidence in favor of the contestants, and that the right of Tang Tun to invoke the jurisdiction of this court to protect him in his rights as a citizen of the United States, notwithstanding the provisions of the Chinese exclusion law denying such right to alien Chinese, has been well established. This court must and does respect the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of Ju Toy, 198 U. S. 253, 25 Sup. Ct. 644, 49 L. Ed. 1040, and must disclaim jurisdiction, unless the contestants have proved that the Chinese inspectors and the Secretary of Commerce and Labor have unjustly denied their right to enter the United States without giving them a fair and impartial hearing. The contestants have charged the representatives of the government with unfair treatment in the investigation made of their case, and with having rendered an adverse decision, contrary to the facts ánd the law applicable, and, by making such charge, have assumed the burden of proving it. The court finds that the truth of this accusation has been clearly and completely established by the evidence. The reasons which the inspector gave for excluding these contestants from this country are as follows:

“First, that applicant’s status had already been adjudicated by officers duly charged with the enforcement of the Chinese exclusion laws; second, though given an opportunity to show that injustice may have boon done by •the former finding in his case, applicant failed to furnish any evidence to support such a conclusion; and third, the applicant did not furnish sufficient evidence of any status by which he was entitled to admission to the United States.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
161 F. 618, 1908 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-tang-tun-wawd-1908.