United States v. Casares-Moreno

122 F. Supp. 375, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3213
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedJune 21, 1954
DocketCrim. A. No. 23,608
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 122 F. Supp. 375 (United States v. Casares-Moreno) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Casares-Moreno, 122 F. Supp. 375, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3213 (S.D. Cal. 1954).

Opinion

TOLIN, District Judge.

The defendant here was indicted under a penal statute providing for the punishment of any alien who attempts to enter the United States after having been deported, Title 8 U.S.C.A. § 1326. The principal defense offered was that defendant was not an alien, but, rather, a native-born citizen of this country. The matter was tried before a jury which returned a verdict of Guilty, thus, under the instructions, necessarily finding that defendant was not born in this country.

The matter is now before this Court on a motion for new trial. Two principal grounds are offered in support of the motion. The first is that the verdict is not supported by the evidence. The principal dispute of fact was relative to the birthplace of defendant. Defendant claimed he was born in the United States and offered certain evidence showing that his parents had given birth to a son in this country. The prosecution contended that the son born in the United States was not the defendant here but, rather, his brother, and that the defendant here had taken on the name and identity of such brother. The prosecution offered evidence in support of their contention, including testimony by members of defendant’s family, that this defendant was not the child born in the United States but rather was born in Mexico, and that the child bom in the United States died a short time after birth. The contradictory evidence on this subject presented a valid issue of fact for the jury’s determination. Their verdict is amply supported by the evidence.

The second principal ground urged in support of the motion for new trial involves an instruction given by the Court. Defendant produced a public birth certificate showing that his parents had given birth to a son in the United States. The certificate indicated on its face that it was:

“Offered for filing pursuant to order of the Superior Court of Los Angeles, County, made the 13th day of August A.D. 1936, establishing of record the fact of birth.”

Defendant seasonably requested that the jury be instructed that if they found “that the birth certificate was placed on record by the defendant herein and that the same is his birth certificate, such facts must be accepted by you.” The instruction, as requested, is not completely clear. The requirement that the jury must find that “the same is his-birth certificate” seems to beg the question. However, the Court revised several of defendant’s offered instructions-which were defective. Therefore, having adopted a liberal policy respecting-offered instructions, it follows that if the specific instruction now under consideration was correct in principle, even if imperfect in enunciation of a legal principle, it should have been revised and given. The offered instruction was-taken by the Court to mean that if the jury found that defendant caused the birth certificate to be recorded, then they must find that this certificate referred to-defendant’s birth, and that the facts recited therein must be taken as conclusive. Since there was no doubt under the evidence but that this defendant caused the delayed entry of this birth certificate, the instruction, in effect, amounted to-a directed verdict on the basis that the-birth certificate was conclusive as to the place of defendant’s birth.

The Court did not give the instruction as proposed, but rather, instructed that the certificate was “prima facie” evidence of the facts set forth therein.1 Defendant contends that this was in error.

[377]*377The defendant does not contest the proposition that ordinarily the record of an instrument which the law requires to be recorded is only prima facie evidence of the validity of the instrument. See, McGarrahan v. New Idria Mining Co., 96 U.S. 316, 24 L.Ed. 630; Barthel v. Stamm, 5 Cir., 145 F.2d 487; Dill v. Snodgress, 213 Ark. 526, 211 S.W. 2d 440; Powell v. Sandefur, 190 Okl. 54, 120 P.2d 365. See also, Calif. Health and Safety Code, § 10551. He does contend, however, that since the instrument was recorded pursuant to an order of the Superior Court, that it thereby gains some higher status. Specifically, defendant says that it is a judgment and that under the “full faith and credit” clause of the Constitution, must be treated as a conclusive adjudication of the facts therein recited.

The same contention was before the Court in Ex parte Lee Fong Fook, D.C.N.D.Cal., 74 F.Supp. 68 2. The court there disposed of the contention with the following remarks in 74 F.Supp. at pages 70, 71:

“At the hearing in this Court, petitioner contended, as he did through his counsel before the Board of Special Inquiry, that the decree of the Superior Court of the State of California has established petitioner’s birth in the United States, and that it was beyond the authority and power of the immigration officials to pursue any inquiry as to the decree’s validity. The argument of the petitioner in this regard is that the State Court decree is an adjudication of petitioner’s citizenship by which the United States is bound under the Full Faith and Credit provision of the Constitution, Const. Art. IV, as extended by statute to the Federal Courts. 28 U.S.C.A. § 687.
“Neither reason nor authority support this contention.
“The proceeding authorized by California state law for the establishment of the fact of birth is not an adversary proceeding, save and except that the statute requires that notice of the hearing be given to the District Attorney of the county wherein the hearing is had. The United States not being a party to such proceeding, nor having consented thereto, is not bound by the state court adjudication. Particularly is this so as to the administration of laws of the United States, which it alone enforces. Const. Art. I, Sec. 9, Clause 1. If the California Court had granted petitioner a decree of naturalization, pursuant to its authority so to do expressly granted by Congress (54 Stat. 1140, 8 U.S.C.A. § 701), then of course such a decree would be fully binding on the United States and could only be attacked in the manner provided by Federal Statute. 8 U.S.C.A. § 738. But jurisdiction to adjudicate the citizenship status of a United States resident has never been conferred by Congress on state courts. Consequently, any state court judgment purporting to exercise that jurisdiction cannot to that extent, claim of the Federal Courts full faith and credit.”

Other reasons also support the conclusion reached by the court. Generally the “Full Faith and Credit” clause of the United States Constitution requires that, when there is no challenge to jurisdiction, this Court give the same effect to a state judgment (or a state public act or record) as the courts of that state would be required to give it. See, Mills v. Duryee, 7 Cranch 481, 11 U.S. 481, 3 L.Ed. 411; Thompson v. Whitman, 18 Wall 457, 85 U.S. 457, 21 L.Ed. 897. Nothing greater is required of this Court. Wright v. Georgia R. & Banking Co., 216 U.S. 420, 30 S.Ct. 242, 54 L.Ed. 544.

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

Related

Schmidt v. Retirement Board
37 Cal. App. 4th 1204 (California Court of Appeal, 1995)
Minor Child v. State Health Commissioner
167 N.W.2d 880 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
122 F. Supp. 375, 1954 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3213, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-casares-moreno-casd-1954.