Ackermann v. United States, 12610.

CourtUnited States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)
Citation178 F.2d 983
Docket NumberNo. 12610.,12610.
PartiesACKERMANN v. UNITED STATES.
Decision Date29 December 1949

E. M. Grimes, Taylor, Tex., for appellant.

Henry W. Moursund, U. S. Atty., San Antonio, Tex., Joel W. Westbrook, Asst. U. S. Atty., San Antonio, Tex., for appellee.

Before HUTCHESON, HOLMES, and RUSSELL, Circuit Judges.

RUSSELL, Circuit Judge.

The facts of this case do not bring it within the decision of Klapprott v. United States, 335 U.S. 601, 69 S.Ct. 384, and the trial Court did not hold that the grounds stated in the motion were not sufficient to invoke the authority of the Court. As to this, the order of the Court recites that the Court, having considered the motion, "is of the opinion that there is no merit to said motion and that the same should be denied."

The fundamental difference between the Klapprott case and the present is that the rulings there made are predicated upon a state of facts entirely dissimilar in substance and legal effect to those here presented. While it was there necessary for the Court to discuss the effect and application of Rule 60 (b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., what appears to have been controlling was that there had in fact been no real trial, and a judgment of denaturalization was entered by default at a time when the defendant was not only incarcerated, but immediately concerned with his defense against two criminal prosecutions instituted by the Government for matters not connected with the denaturalization proceeding. However, in the present case, the only detention of the movant arose directly from, and as the result of, the denaturalization proceeding now challenged. There was no prosecution for crime to distract his attention, and he was fairly faced with the question of whether he would proceed in the manner provided by law to correct the finding annulling his American citizenship. Indeed this was the only real question which confronted him. But this is not all. The movant here was not only represented by counsel, but employed counsel of his own selection, and who in fact now represents him in the prosecution of this appeal. He can not complain that his detention in itself prevented him from proceeding for the good reason, if no other, that it appears that he had in fact carried on habeas corpus proceedings seeking his release. Above all these differences, however, and a difference which renders patent the inapplicability of the Klapprott ruling, is the fact that in the present case there is no question raised of any inability of the movant to properly present his defense at the original trial, as was the case with Klapprott. On the contrary, in appellant's case, it is undisputed that there was a full, adversary, proceeding conducted in the same manner as is all such litigation in the Federal Courts, and upon the conclusion of which the finding was adverse to the movant. Thus in the present case the movant has already had the one trial which justice and due process were deemed to require under the circumstances of the Klapprott case. It is hardly necessary to labor the question that there is a vast difference between the principles properly to be applied to insure one fair trial (as in the Klapprott case), and the principles properly applicable to an instance as the present where there is no complaint that in the original, one fair trial, — actually had, — the movant was at any disadvantage, and the relief sought must therefore be, and is expressly, predicated upon reasons which it is claimed prevented an appeal. It is as to this question of appeal that the present motion relates. The ruling in the Klapprott case should not be extended to an appeal from what, even under the circumstances alleged, is only an erroneous judgment. The right of appeal from such a judgment is no part of due process. The right of a litigant to a trial in accordance with the forms of law, and with an opportunity to present his claim or defense, if he desires to do so, is a vital part of due process. A ruling applicable to the latter right is not authority for excusing the failure to take an appeal. There must be, and there is, some finality to judgments rendered after a full and fair hearing.

So much for the inapplicability of the Klapprott ruling here. As has already been shown, the Court ruled upon the merits of the motion. The motion to be relieved from the final judgment sets forth fully the contentions of the movant, but they may be fairly summarized as presenting only the grounds that the evidence in the original trial was insufficient to support the judgment, and that this was established by the stipulation of the Government to this effect entered in the case of one Keilbar, tried at the same time and under the same evidence as was movant (Keilbar v. U. S., 5 Cir., 144 F.2d 866); that movant was prevented from appealing the adverse judgment by poverty and detention as an enemy alien, and by the advice of the Assistant Commissioner for Alien Control, Immigration and Naturalization Department, who advised him in substance to "hang on to their home" rather than expend it by appealing; and that he had by orders dated January 15, 1946 (final judgment cancelling the certificate of naturalization being December 7, 1943), been ordered deported by the Attorney General. It is asserted that the failure to appeal from the judgment is excusable for these reasons and that "it is inequitable and unjust that the judgment herein should have prospective application."

The trial Judge was correct in his holding that none, or all, of these grounds presented any merit. Some question may arise as to the pleaded contention that the evidence in the case of movant was the same as that in the case of his, in effect, codefendant, as to whom the Government conceded there was insufficient evidence to support the judgment cancelling the certificate of naturalization. However, on the ground of the sufficiency of the evidence, there is no ambiguity as to what the movant pleaded and proposed to prove, and it is expressly averred, that this question was proposed to be substantiated "by producing at the hearing on this motion all material evidence adduced at the trial of this case the original trial and cited pertinent authorities * * * and * * * that if he had appealed from said judgment it would have been reversed with instructions to dismiss the complaint on its merits," as was the other proceeding referred to. In view of this statement, the stipulation in this record that upon the hearing of the motion no evidence was introduced but that "on his own volition, the Court read evidence in the transcript of the record in the above mentioned Keilbar case which contains all the evidence in these cases and copies of which are on file in the Keilbar appeal, No. 11,140, Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit," carries great significance. This is the record upon which the movant proposed to establish the insufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment against him. The memorandum and findings of the trial Court in the original proceeding are set forth in U....

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    • United States
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    • January 25, 1999
    ...Cir.1968) (judicial notice of a court's prior cases is permitted to support grant of a motion for summary judgment); Ackermann v. United States, 178 F.2d 983 (5th Cir.1949) (in motion to set aside judgment, court could take judicial notice of its own records in related litigation), aff'd, 3......
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    ...of denaturalization was unlawful and erroneous by producing the record in the Keilbar case. The United States Court of Appeals, 5 Cir., 178 F.2d 983, 179 F.2d 236, affirmed the District Court in its denial of Ackermann's application. The Supreme Court detailed Ackermann's excuse for failure......
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    ...the Court may take judicial notice of those records.” In re Steeley, 243 B.R. 421, 427 (Bankr.N.D.Ala.1999) ; see Ackermann v. United States, 178 F.2d 983, 985 (5th Cir.1949).3 Therefore, the court GRANTS the motion as to the fact that the court documents exist and DENIES the motion as to t......
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