Mazzarella v. Kern

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York

Mazzarella v. Kern

260 A.D. 1012, 24 N.Y.S.2d 26, 1940 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5838

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided December 20, 1940·Published

Opinion

Cohn, J.

(dissenting). The Wicks Law (Laws of 1939, chap. 927, § 2) requires an affirmative act by an alien employee, within six months after the act takes effect, evidencing his intention in good faith to become a citizen. The apparent purpose of the Legislature was to confer upon aliens in the employ of privately operated subway lines a privilege to continue in employment if the transit facilities are acquired by a public agency, upon qualifying themselves for citizenship. In filing his application expressing a desire to declare his intention to become a citizen in accordance with the Naturalization Law, appellant, in my opinion, complied with the statute. The expression “ shall have filed declarations of intention to become citizens ” was obviously not intended by the State lawmakers to be interpreted in the technical sense in which Congress would use such language in a naturalization statute.

The order should be reversed and the application should be granted to the extent of restraining respondents from dismissing the appellant.

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Cohn, J.

(dissenting). The Wicks Law (Laws of 1939, chap. 927, § 2) requires an affirmative act by an alien employee, within six months after the act takes effect, evidencing his intention in good faith to become a citizen. The apparent purpose of the Legislature was to confer upon aliens in the employ of privately operated subway lines a privilege to continue in employment if the transit facilities are acquired by a public agency, upon qualifying themselves for citizenship. In filing his application expressing a desire to declare his intention to become a citizen in accordance with the Naturalization Law, appellant, in my opinion, complied with the statute. The expression “ shall have filed declarations of intention to become citizens ” was obviously not intended by the State lawmakers to be interpreted in the technical sense in which Congress would use such language in a naturalization statute.

The order should be reversed and the application should be granted to the extent of restraining respondents from dismissing the appellant.

Mazzarella v. Kern, 260 A.D. 1012, 24 N.Y.S.2d 26, 1940 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5838 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1940).

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