Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission

185 P.2d 805, 30 Cal. 2d 719, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 201
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 17, 1947
DocketL. A. 19835
StatusPublished
Cited by46 cases

This text of 185 P.2d 805 (Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Takahashi v. Fish & Game Commission, 185 P.2d 805, 30 Cal. 2d 719, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 201 (Cal. 1947).

Opinions

EDMONDS, J.

The superior court granted a peremptory writ of mandate directing the Fish and Game Commission to issue to the petitioner, Torao Takahashi, an alien ineligible to citizenship of the United States, a commercial fishing license. Upon its appeal from the judgment, the commission asserts that section 990 of the Fish and Game Code, which declares that a license shall not be granted to such an alien, is controlling. The constitutionality of that statute is the only question for decision.

In his amended petition, Takahashi alleges that since 1915, and until 1941, he was a duly licensed commercial fisherman, engaging in that occupation on the high seas. He was evacuated from California by military order in 1942. Upon his return to California in 1945, petitioner asserts, he qualified to obtain a fishing license within all of the requirements of the California Fish and Game Code “except only that he is a person of Japanese descent.” The commission then refused to issue a license to him “solely because of his Japanese ancestry,” and “solely because of the provisions of Section 990 of the Fish and Game Code. ’ ’ This provision is unconstitutional on its face, and as applied to him, says Takahashi, because it was enacted for the purpose of discriminating against persons solely because of race, and is being administered in furtherance of that purpose. The bar of the statute, therefore, [723]*723denies him due process of law as guaranteed by the state and federal Constitutions and the equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the federal Constitution. The remedy of mandamus is invoked, the petition concludes, because he has no adequate or any remedy at law or in any other proceeding. The relief sought is a peremptory writ requiring the commission to issue to him a commercial fishing license “to engage in commercial fishing on the high seas.”

By its answer, the Fish and Game Commission denies that it refused Takahashi a license because of his Japanese ancestry. Upon information and belief, it asserts that he is ineligible to citizenship of the United States and, for that reason, it is not authorized or empowered under the applicable statute to issue a license to him. The remaining allegations of the petition are denied generally, specifically, or upon information and belief. As separate defenses, the commission alleges that the petition does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action; that Takahashi is not qualified to receive or to have issued to him a commercial fishing license under the provisions of section 990 of the Fish and Game Code; and that he has no legal capacity to sue.

A demurrer to the petition was overruled. Petitioner then moved for a peremptory writ, the matter came on for hearing upon the pleadings, and judgment was rendered in his favor. By this judgment, the court found that Takahashi, although “a person ineligible to citizenship in the United States, . . . is qualified to have issued to him a commercial fishing license, under the provisions of section 990 . . . authorizing him to bring ashore in California, for the purpose of selling the same in a fresh state, his catches of fish from the waters of the high seas beyond the State’s territorial jurisdiction.”

The commission perfected its appeal from this judgment and the transcript was filed within rule time. A few days later, the superior court, on application of Takahashi, entered an amended judgment directing that, by a peremptory writ of mandate, the commission be ordered to issue to him a commercial fishing license. Under the terms of the amended judgment and the amended peremptory writ of mandate, the commission is required to issue a license to Takahashi permitting him to fish commercially in territorial waters of the state as well as on the high seas.

In aid of appellate jurisdiction, the commission filed a notice of appeal from the amended judgment. By stipula[724]*724tion, the record on appeal was augmented to include the notice of appeal from the amended judgment, the affidavit of Takahashi and the original and amended order made under section 1110(b) of the Code of Civil Procedure, the amended judgment granting the peremptory writ of mandate, and the amended peremptory writ of mandate. The amended order made under section 1110(b) provides that the appeal taken from the judgment of the superior court granting the writ of mandate “shall not operate as a stay of execution of said judgment.” Upon application of the commission, this court granted a writ of supersedeas staying proceedings upon both judgments until the determination of the appeal.

The commission, represented by the attorney general, does not question the validity of the amended judgment upon the ground that it was rendered after the appeal was perfected because the parties desire to have a decision upon the basis of its provisions. Also, the appellant does not now rely upon its separate defense that Takahashi has no legal capacity to sue.

Turning to the merits of the controversy, the commission contends that fish, like game, is the property of the state and held by it in its sovereign capacity as a trustee for all of its people; therefore, an individual cannot obtain an absolute property right in fish or game except upon such conditions, restrictions and limitations as the state may impose. It is well established, the argument continues, that the state, in the interest of conservation, may confer exclusive rights of fishing and hunting on its own citizens and, without violating constitutional inhibitions, expressly exclude aliens and nonresident citizens. The state may further classify aliens into two groups, those who are and those who are not eligible for citizenship, and such legislation is presumed to be constitutional. The reduction of the number of persons eligible to fish bears a reasonable relation to the object of conservation of fish and is within the purview of the state’s police power; therefore, the classification is a reasonable one. And the inherent power of the state to regulate fish and game applies to fish brought into the state from the high seas by an ineligible alien.

Concerning the question as to whether the statute is being administered so as to discriminate against the Japanese, the commission relies upon the fact that no proof was offered by Takahashi in support of his allegation in that regard. For that reason, says the appellant, the allegations of the answer [725]*725must be taken as true. The court may not take judicial notice that Japanese are the only ineligible aliens who engage in commercial fishing in ocean waters bordering California, and there is no basis for a conclusion that there was unconstitutional discrimination against Japanese aliens by description rather than name in the 1945 amendment to section 990. Nor may the court take judicial notice of alleged discrimination, as found in certain reports made by a committee of the California Senate and other articles. In conclusion, the commission argues that section 990 of the Fish and Game Code does not divest Takahashi of rights under the treaty with Japan, because that treaty was abrogated in 1940.

Takahashi claims that section 990 of the Fish and Game Code is unconstitutional. Because it constitutes discriminatory race legislation, he argues, it violates due process as guaranteed by the California and United States Constitutions, and denies equal protection of the laws in violation of the federal Constitution. More specifically, he contends that the legislative history of section 990 discloses that this legislation was and is aimed exclusively at persons of the Japanese race.

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Bluebook (online)
185 P.2d 805, 30 Cal. 2d 719, 1947 Cal. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/takahashi-v-fish-game-commission-cal-1947.