United States v. Chandler

132 F. Supp. 650, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3083
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedMay 20, 1955
DocketCiv. No. 7447
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 132 F. Supp. 650 (United States v. Chandler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Chandler, 132 F. Supp. 650, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3083 (D. Md. 1955).

Opinion

COLEMAN, Chief Judge.

This is a suit by the Government for revocation of the defendant’s citizenship, brought under Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1451(a), and Section 338(a) of the Nationality Act of 1940, 8 U.S. C.A. Sec. 738(a), the complaint, as amended, alleging that this last named Section was continued in force and effect by Section 405(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1101 note. The proceeding is before the Court on defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint on the ground that: (1) this proceeding was not instituted upon an affidavit in conformity with Section 340 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (2) the complaint is based on a repealed statute; (3) the complaint and relief sought thereby are barred on the grounds of res adjudicata and estoppel by prior judgment; and (4) the complaint indistinguishably pleads separate and independent statutory grounds for revocation of citizenship in such a way as to impede the defendant in answering and defending. The proceeding is also before the Court on defendant’s motion to strike certain enumerated allegations of the complaint which need not be repeated here because the grounds for objection to these allegations have been, in substance, dealt with in the arguments and briefs directed to defendant’s motion to dismiss.

As stated in the complaint, on May 13, 1943, the defendant filed a petition for naturalization in. the United States District Court in Savannah, Georgia, and was admitted to citizenship by that Court on May 14, 1943. The complaint then sets forth in detail that defendant procured his naturalization by concealment of material facts and by wilful misrepresentation, such alleged concealment and wilful misrepresentation being summarized in paragraphs 7 and 8 of the complaint, as follows: “7. In the proceedings which led to his naturalization, the said defendant deliberately and intentionally concealed facts relating to his membership in the Communist Party and its affiliated organizations, facts relating to his prior arrests, and facts relating to his absence from the United States subsequent to 1923, and his intentions at the time of filing his petition for naturalization, and his true state of mind at the time he took the oath of allegiance to the United States required of him at the time of naturalization, all of which facts were material to his naturalization.

“8. The said defendant concealed material facts and made wilful misrepresentations in the proceedings leading to [652]*652his naturalization as hereinabove set forth in order to prevent the making of a full and proper investigation of his qualifications for citizenship to conceal his lack of attachment to the principles of the Constitution; to induce the naturalization examiner to make an unconditional recommendation to the Court that his petition be granted; to preclude inquiry by the Court concerning his qualifications for citizenship, and to procure naturalization in violation of law.”

Attached to the complaint is an affidavit of one Reuben Speiser, Attorney, Immigration and Naturalization Service, United States Department of Justice, asserting that he “as such has access to the official records of the said Service, from which the following facts appear”, and then follows a detailed statement of facts which have been embodied in the complaint, a summary of which is contained in paragraphs 7 and 8 of the complaint which we have quoted above.

The affidavit concludes with the three following paragraphs: “2. That the naturalization of said Joseph William Chandler was procured by means of his concealment of material facts and willful misrepresentation, as more particularly set forth in paragraph 1.

“3. That good cause exists for the institution of a suit under Section 340 (a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, Public Law 414, 82nd Congress, to set aside and cancel the naturalization of Joseph William Chandler as having been procured by concealment of material facts and by willful misrepresentation.

“4. That the last known place of residence of said Joseph William Chandler is 11818 Huggins Drive, Silver Spring, Maryland.”

It is this affidavit which forms the basis of the first ground, above stated, of defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint, namely, that this affidavit does not conform to the requirements of Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and more specifically, because the affidavit is merely a hear-say on hear-say summary of what a Government attorney read in the files of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Section 340(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides, insofar as pertinent to the question before us, as follows: “It shall be the duty of the United States district attorneys for the respective districts, upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any court specified in subsection (a) of section 310 of this title in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen may reside at the time of bringing suit, for the purpose of revoking and setting aside the order admitting such person to citizenship and canceling the certificate of naturalization on the ground that such order and certificate of naturalization were procured by concealment of a material fact or by willful misrepresentation, • and such revocation and setting aside of the order admitting such person to citizenship and such canceling of certificate of naturalization shall be effective as of the original date of the order and certificate, respectively: * *

As opposed to defendant’s contention, the Government maintains that the reference in the above provision to an affidavit of good cause is not jurisdictional; that the Government sua sponte could bring'the present proceeding without any affidavit at all; in other words, that the correct interpretation of the above-quoted provision is that if a United States District Attorney is presented with an affidavit showing good cause for revocation of citizenship of an individual, it shall then be his duty to bring such a proceeding, but that he may bring the same sort of proceeding even though no such affidavit has been made.

We believe there is weight in the Government’s contention, but since we find that, even assuming an affidavit was a jurisdictional requisite, the affidavit in the present case is adequate in character, there is no necessity for ruling that the Government had the right to bring the present proceeding unsupported by an affidavit.

[653]*653In Schwinn v. United States, 112 F.2d 74, a decision of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, it was held that the affidavit was not jurisdictional under a section of the law that contained language identical with Section 340(a) as it now stands in the Immigration and Nationality Act insofar as it related to an affidavit. The Court said, 112 F.2d 74, 75-76: “There is nothing to the point that because the district attorney did not introduce evidence at the trial to the effect that he had been presented with an affidavit showing the deficiencies of the petition, the judgment must be reversed. The portion of § 405, Tit. 8 U.S.C.A.

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Related

United States v. Galato
171 F. Supp. 169 (M.D. Pennsylvania, 1959)
United States v. Miller
152 F. Supp. 27 (N.D. California, 1957)
United States v. Chandler
152 F. Supp. 169 (D. Maryland, 1957)
United States v. Costello
142 F. Supp. 325 (S.D. New York, 1955)
United States v. Hyman Stromberg
227 F.2d 903 (Fifth Circuit, 1955)

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Bluebook (online)
132 F. Supp. 650, 1955 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3083, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-chandler-mdd-1955.