In re Fordiani's Naturalization

• Decision Date: 27 July 1923
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: IN RE FORDIANI NATURALIZATION.

121 A. 796

99 Conn. 551

IN RE FORDIANI NATURALIZATION.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 27, 1923

Appeal from City Court of Meriden, New Haven County; Thomas P Dunne, Judge.

Petition by Ostilio Fordiani for naturalization, brought to the city court of Meriden and tried to the court. Order (which is a judgment) entered denying the petition, and petitioner appeals. Error and new trial ordered.

See also, 98 Conn. 435, 120 A. 338.

Conduct of the court in naturalization proceedings in persistently and arbitrarily denying to petitioner the right of legitimate cross-examination of a witness appearing against him held reversible error.

Lewis J. Somers, of Meriden, for appellant.

George H. Cohen, Asst. U.S. Atty., of Hartford, for appellee.

WHEELER, C.J.

The court heard the petition for naturalization and denied it because it appeared that the petitioner " has not been attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States nor disposed to the good order and happiness of the same." The court has found that the petitioner has resided in the United States continuously for a period of five years and in Meriden for one year preceding the date of his petition, and that during this period he has not behaved as a man of good moral character, nor as a man attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, nor as a person well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States.

In his appeal the petitioner seeks to have these findings stricken out and has attached all of the evidence in the case in support of his motion to correct and exceptions. The government insists that these are findings of fact which this court cannot review, while the petitioner insists that the findings are reviewable. The record shows that the petitioner has not only been unfairly deprived of his right to naturalization, but also throughout the hearing in the city court been denied the rights which the law guarantees to every litigant, and which are vitally essential in order to secure justice to a petitioner for naturalization. Since the order is a judgment, these ultimate findings cannot stand for the reason that the subordinate facts which are found in the draft finding and marked proven are wholly inconsistent with these conclusions of fact. The subordinate facts fail logically to support these conclusions, and hence are reviewable by us. Lawler, Adm., v. Hartford St. Ry Co., 72 Conn. 74, 81, 43 A. 545; Levy v. Metropolis Mfg. Co., 73 Conn. 559, 564, 48 A. 429; Metcalf v. Central Vt. Ry. Co., 78 Conn. 614, 619, 63 A. 633.

The subordinate facts tell us that Ostilio Fordiani was born at Bologna, Italy, October 10, 1883, spent his boyhood there and was married May 3, 1905, to Mancius Adelusia with whom he has continued in marital relations ever since, and from this union eight children were born and are now living and in age between 16 and one-half years. For about one and a half years prior to his emigration to the United States the petitioner was employed in one factory. In 1907 he, at the age of 24, with his family emigrated to the United States. While in Italy he was never arrested. On arrival at New York he came immediately to New Haven where he remained from 1907 to 1913, being employed by Sargent & Co. from his arrival in New Haven until he moved in 1913 to Meriden. While in New Haven he organized a school for the teaching of Italian grammar and literature gratuitously to Italians, and among the witnesses at the hearing was one of such students. He was never arrested in New Haven, and while there had not been an anarchist, nor a disbeliever in nor opposed to organized government. Neither had he been a member of nor affiliated with any organization entertaining and teaching such belief in or opposition to organized government. Upon his removal to Meriden he entered the employ of the M. B. Schenck Company by whom he has been employed ever since, except for a few months during the war first as an ordinary laborer, and then by perseverance and industry he worked up to the position of one of the four division superintendents of the company, and during all of this period he has been a sober, steady, and industrious worker. Soon after his arrival in Meriden, the petitioner and his family had become associated with an Italian Catholic church of which the Reverend Father Ricci was pastor. At various times he had been elected president of the Catholic Society and a director in the Catholic Dramatic Society, which societies were connected with this church. In the year 1917 the petitioner joined the Home Guard of Meriden, a part of the state militia, and remained therein until his removal towards the end of the year 1917 to Newark, N. J., when he received an honorable discharge. When the United States entered the war in 1917, the petitioner received a letter from his father suggesting that he either enter the army or engage in some war activity. Thereupon he decided to enter the employ of the Submarine Boat Corporation, a government enterprise in said Newark. The petitioner corresponded with his wife while at Newark, and she and their children joined him there in the spring of 1918, and remained with him until their return to Meriden. Shortly after the petitioner left Meriden for Newark, Father Ricci called upon his wife and learned that the petitioner was out of town, and he thereupon went to the selectman, the Organized Charities Department, and a grocer, and reported that the Fordiani family were in want and suffering. Mrs. Fordiani had not gone to any of these persons or this charities department or any other person for aid. On account of the coal famine the selectmen left one-half ton of coal with Mrs. Fordiani, but this was done without the knowledge or consent of the petitioner. During the petitioner's absence from his family, they lived rent free in one of the houses of the Schenck Company. In August, 1918, the Schenck Company sent for the petitioner and offered him his former position, and he and his family returned to Meriden and resumed his former employment. At no time was the petitioner arrested in New York, Philadelphia, Newark, or elsewhere, and brought back to Meriden. During the war the petitioner was one of the so-called " Four Minute" speakers, and spoke during the war in its behalf. In the spring of 1919, a school for the teaching of Italian grammar, etc., was organized by Father Ricci and conducted in the basement of his church, and the petitioner was appointed director of the school and having one assistant. The sessions were held every night except Sunday, with an average attendance of 50, one half being children and the other half young men under 21 years, including two nephews of Father Ricci. At almost every session of the school Father Ricci was present. The supplies for the school were paid for by a society of the church of which the petitioner was the president.

In the year 1920, a conflict arose among the members of the church over the question of the erection of a new church and school. The petitioner was appointed vice chairman and treasurer of that one of the two factions which was desirous of building a new church and school, and began to solicit funds for the same. Thereafter the petitioner and his family joined the Italian Baptist Church of Meriden. About this time Father Ricci was assaulted, but he did not know who did it. The petitioner was not present when the assault occurred, knew nothing of it, and was in no way concerned in it. At various times, both at New Haven and Meriden, the petitioner had conducted schools gratuitously for the teaching of the Italian language and grammar. While in Meriden the petitioner had been a member of and had held various offices in the Societa Catholics Educative, the Catholic Dramatic Society, Diaz Society, Sons of Italy, and Victor Emmanuel Society; and all of these are patriotic organizations devoted to the happiness and welfare of the United States.

The petitioner's application herein was filed February 18, 1921.

These facts demonstrate conclusively that the findings made by the court, and which the petitioner seeks to have stricken out, were wholly inconsistent with these subordinate facts and cannot be logically supported as conclusions of fact.

Upon another ground these conclusions of fact made by the court cannot stand. The petitioner introduced 24 witnesses and an equal number of exhibits; the United States, 5 witnesses; of these, four do not support the court's findings, while one, Father Ricci, did testify on direct that the petitioner was an anarchist and had taught anarchy in his school and made remarks derogatory to the United States. On cross-examination it appeared that all of this was mere hearsay and not legal evidence, except the statement that the petitioner had made remarks derogatory to the United States. When twice asked when and where the petitioner had criticized the government of the United States, the witness replied with irrelevant matter. Under these circumstances this statement cannot be held to create a conflict of evidence with that offered by the petitioner. The motion to strike these paragraphs of the finding out should have been granted.

We have examined the other paragraphs of the motion to correct which the court failed to find, or to mark proven, and in the main find them supported by the evidence. Their incorporation in the finding would do no more than to accentuate the positions already taken.

Some of the rulings complained of were these: The petitioner appeared at the hearing without counsel and testified in his own behalf and was then cross-examined by the naturalization examiner, who appeared in behalf of the United States, as follows:

" Q. Have you ever been arrested for

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