Crain v. Government of Guam
Decision Date | 21 March 1952 |
Docket Number | No. 13025.,13025. |
Parties | CRAIN et al. v. GOVERNMENT OF GUAM. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit |
Crain & Phelan, Agana, Guam (Schofield, Hanson & Jenkins, San Francisco, Cal., Associate Counsel), for appellants.
Russell L. Stevens, Atty. General of Guam, Agana, Guam, for Knight G. Aulsbrook.
Thomas E. Haven, San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.
Before DENMAN, Chief Judge, and BONE and POPE, Circuit Judges.
This is an appeal from a judgment dismissing an action by appellants Crain and Phelan against the Government of Guam, the sole defendant, for a declaratory judgment of their rights, and those of other Guamanians similarly situated, under Section 31 of the Organic Act of Guam, 48 U. S.C.A. § 1421i, providing that: "The income-tax laws in force in the United States of America and those which may hereafter be enacted shall be held to be likewise in force in Guam."
The district court's grounds for the dismissal are that Guam has sovereign immunity from such a suit against it which immunity it has not waived and that the suit is with respect to federal taxes and thus expressly barred by the Declaratory Judgments Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2201.
Appellants' complaint alleges that the government of Guam has asserted "the right to collect an income tax" and has published notices and claims with respect to alleged income tax procedures and payments due to the government of Guam. The complaint sought a declaration that, among other things, the statute means: (1) That the income tax laws of the United States are not repealed or suspended by the provisions of the Organic Act of Guam; and (2) That Section 31 of the Organic Act of Guam, 48 U.S.C.A. § 1421i, does not create a territorial income tax. It prayed that the government of Guam, its officers, agents and servants, be restrained from attempting to collect such a territorial income tax.
Since we agree that Guam has sovereign immunity from such a suit as this one, which it has not waived, we cannot consider the other contentions of appellants. At the hearing we were advised that litigation is now pending in Guam, brought against a Guamanian tax collector, with the United States joined as intervenor-defendant, involving such other questions.
The nature of the Guamanian government is established by the Organic Act of Guam, 64 Stat. 384 et seq., 48 U.S.C.A. § 1421 et seq. Section 3 of the Act provides that:
Of this section the Senate Report on the Organic Act states: Senate Report 2109, 81st Cong., 2d Sess. This identity of Guam with Puerto Rico is apparent from the similarities in governmental structure of the two territories.
The head of the Executive Branch of the government of Guam is provided for in Section 6 of its Organic Act: "The executive authority of the government of Guam shall be vested in an executive officer, whose title shall be `Governor of Guam', * *".1
The Legislative Branch of the government of Guam is provided for in Section 10:
* * *"
"The legislative power of Guam shall extend to all subjects of legislation of local application not inconsistent with the provisions of this chapter and the laws of the United States applicable to Guam." § 11.2
Lastly, a judicial Branch for the Guamanian government is provided for in Section 22: 3
Conceivably then, the district court expressly established could have a complete original jurisdiction in all causes cognizable in a court of law, to the same extent as in courts of the states of the United States.
Is such an aggregation of governmental powers as set out above possessed with the immunity from suit without consent? The classic statement of the doctrine for noncontiguous territories of the United States, those where the probabilities of statehood are less than were those of the North American territories and where the people were largely not immigrants from the United States, is found in Kawananakoa v. Polyblank, 205 U.S. 349, 27 S.Ct. 526, 527, 51 L.Ed. 834, which held that Hawaii had sovereign immunity:
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