Coules v Pharris

• Date: 13 September 1933
• Docket Number: Case No. 123
• Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court

United States, Supreme Court of Wisconsin.

(Rosenberry, C. J.; Owen, Fowler, Fritz, Fairchild, Wickhem, Nelsen, JJ.)

Case No. 123

Coules

and

Pharris.

Aliens — Position of — Aliens who Enter Unlawfully — Access to Courts.

The Facts.—The plaintiff sued to recover for personal services performed for the defendant, who contended that the former lacked capacity to bring the action since he was at the time an alien and unlawfully within the United States. Judgment for the plaintiff was given by the Circuit Court of Fond du Lac County. On appeal,

Held: that the judgment must be reversed. “The statute expressly prohibiting aliens from entering this country as this respondent has entered it, creates a public policy of the United States to keep without our borders all who do not come within the quotas or exceptions thereto provided for in the acts of Congress. The respondent's unlawful presence in the country is bound to be attended with restrictions, and among them is deprivation of the right to sue for wages in the courts of the land he has secretly invaded against the express command of the government thereof.

“We are of the opinion that our courts cannot properly assist one who, while unlawfully here, engages in...