United States v. Korner

56 F. Supp. 242, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2153
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. California
DecidedJune 13, 1944
DocketCivil Action 2578-PH
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 56 F. Supp. 242 (United States v. Korner) 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. Korner, 56 F. Supp. 242, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2153 (S.D. Cal. 1944).

Opinion

HALL, District Judge.

A copy of the Memorandum this day filed in United States v. Kusche, D.C., 56 F.Supp. 201, is filed herewith and made a part hereof.

The statements in the complaint concerning the objects and purposes of the Bund, the defendant’s. knowledge of it, etc., are identical with the statement contained in the complaint in the Kusche case on the same matters.

There is one divergence: In the Kusche case it was. alleged that the defendant joined the Bund four years after he obtained his citizenship; whereas, the defendant in this case is alleged to -have joined the Bund before he took his citizenship papers.

In that connection,' it .appears from the face of the complaint that the defendant joined the Bund in 1933, and was a member of the Bund during the entire five year period previous to his naturalization on August 12, 1938, and continued as a member of the. Bund until the next year.

The query is whether or not such membership during, the. five year period requires a different answer than in the Kusche case to the five objections made on behalf of this defendant. Those objections are the same as in the Kusche case and are set out in full in the memorandum in that case and are not here repeated.

The First Objection as to laches must be and is answered against the defendant as ’it is in the Kusche case.

The Second Objection, that the Hitler Government was a new “State” and did not come into 'existence' until after defendant took his oath of allegiance, is not applicable for the reason that 'the defendant was naturalized in the instant case in 1938, long after the Hitler Government came to power in Germany.

As to the Third and Fourth objections:

As will be observed from the Memorandum of Opinion filed in the Kusche case, it is my conclusion that the judgment of admission is res judicata as to the applicant’s attachment and allegiance, and cannot be set aside on the ground of “illegal procurement,” and that such judgment can be set aside only on the ground of extrinsic fraud.

The question as to the Third and Fourth objections then resolves itself into determining whether or not the complaint states a cause of action for extrinsic fraud, by virtue of the allegations in it that the defendant was a member of the Bund during the five year period. In my opinion it does not.

The requirements for stating a cause of action for extrinsic fraud as to attachment and allegiance in a de-naturalization case, and the authorities supporting those requirements, are set forth at length in the Memorandum in the Kusche case. In addition to those authorities, there has just come to hand the Opinion of the Supreme Court, in Hazel-Atlas Glass Co. v. Hartford-Empire Co., 64 S.Ct. 997, wherein the Court, while holding that the Circuit Court has sufficient power over its own judgments to set one of them aside after the expiration of the term and without an independent suit in equity, nevertheless affirmed the proposition that the fraud required as a basis for setting aside a judgment must be extrinsic fraud, historically recognized by courts of equity as the kind of fraud necessary to vitiate judgments.

The Court said, 64 S.Ct. at page 1001:

“Every element of the fraud here disclosed demands the exercise of the historic power of equity to set aside fraudulently begotten judgments. This is not simply a case of a judgment obtained with the aid of a witness who, on the basis of after-discovered evidence, is believed possibly to have been guilty of perjury. Here, even if we consider nothing but Hartford’s sworn admissions, we find a deliberately planned and carefully executed scheme to defraud not only the Patent Office but the Circuit Court of Appeals(Emphasis supplied)

From that Opinion it appears that there *245 was diligence in bringing the proceeding to cancel the judgment after the discovery of the fraud, as the discovery was made in 1941, and the proceeding was commenced in 1941. It also appears that there was diligence in the efforts to uncover the fraud, as within less than 10 days after the original Opinion of the Circuit Court the Hazel Company started an investigation, which, however, was fruitless. The Supreme Court held nevertheless that the fraud was so gross that the showing of diligence to uncover it was unnecessary to relief.

The complaint in the instant case meets none of the minimum tests for ascertaining whether or not a complaint states a cause of action for setting aside a judgment on the ground of extrinsic fraud, as those tests are laid down in the authorities cited in the Memorandum in the Kusche case, and as those tests are affirmed in the Hazel-Atlas case, supra, just decided by the Supreme Court.

Without excluding the rest of the things said in the Kusche case, or expressing the following as a limitation of what may be required to state a cause of action for extrinsic fraud, let it be said, that here, as in the Kusche case: “There is no allegation that, although given repeated opportunity by the law, the plaintiff ever made an inquiry, before the judgment of naturalization, as to whether or not defendant believed in national socialism, as to what organizations he belonged to, as to whether or not he belonged to any organizations, political or otherwise, and there is no allegation that he did not voluntarily disclose these things; there is no allegation that the defendant had been informed in any citizen-training program conducted under the general auspices of, or in any text book published by, the plaintiff or that he otherwise knew, that he could not entertain or express certain political beliefs, and still be attached to the Constitution of the United States. Indeed, it is presumed that the defendant had been informed by the plaintiff or otherwise, and that he knew, that the first amendment to the Constitution provided that, ‘Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or of the right of the people peaceably to assemble.’

“The plaintiff’s attachment to the principles of the Constitution of the United States was proved by the testimony of two credible citizens of the United States, if the statute was followed, and it must be presumed it was, there being no allegation to the contrary. But there is no allegation that those two citizen witnesses or either of them swore falsely about his attachment or his behavior or anything at all. Indeed, not the slightest inkling is given as to what those two witnesses testified to at all.

“Can it be that the alien is guilty of fraud as to what his thoughts and beliefs are, because he did not disclose (if he did not disclose) them to an examiner voluntarily? He had been repeatedly asked if he was an anarchist, or a polygamist, or believed in assaulting or killing officials of this or other governments, or believed in overthrowing this government by force and violence. Must he then in addition to that disclose to the naturalization officials, voluntarily, his opinions and beliefs on the entire gamut of actual and possible

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
56 F. Supp. 242, 1944 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-korner-casd-1944.