Louie Lung Gooey v. Nagle

• Decision Date: 18 May 1931
• Docket Number: No. 6367.,6367.
• Citation: 49 F.2d 1016
• Parties: LOUIE LUNG GOOEY v. NAGLE, Commissioner of Immigration.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

49 F.2d 1016 (1931)

LOUIE LUNG GOOEY v. NAGLE, Commissioner of Immigration.

No. 6367.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

May 18, 1931.

Joseph E. Isaacs and Alan H. Critcher, both of San Francisco, Cal., for appellant.

George J. Hatfield, U. S. Atty., and William A. O'Brien, Asst. U. S. Atty., both of San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before RUDKIN, WILBUR, and SAWTELLE, Circuit Judges.

SAWTELLE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the District Court for the Southern Division of the Northern District of California denying appellant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Louie Shaw Gim claimed admission to the United States on the ground that he was the son of Louie Lung Gooey, whose citizenship was established in 1909. Admission was denied by a Board of Special Inquiry, and the excluding decision was affirmed by the Secretary of Labor on appeal. To review that decision habeas corpus proceedings were instituted in the court below.

Appellant contends that Louie Shaw Gim was denied a fair hearing in that the personnel of the Board of Special Inquiry was changed during the course of the hearing. The Board is an administrative board and not a judicial tribunal, and such changes are within its powers and do not affect the validity of its decisions. Unfairness and arbitrariness do not necessarily follow from the fact that the membership was changed during the time the hearing of the applicant was in progress. "There is nothing in the petition in the present case to indicate that at the final hearing all the testimony taken in prior hearings was not considered by three members of the board in disposing of the question of the appellant's right to enter the United States." Hom Moon Ong v. Nagle, 32 F.(2d) 470, 472 (C. C. A. 9). See, also, Dong Ying Fun v. Nagle, 5 F.(2d) 310 (C. C. A. 9).

Appellant contends that applicant was further denied a fair hearing in that the members of the Board, after examining the applicant and his alleged father together, asserted that there was some resemblance in the physical appearance of the two, but refused to make that a basis of admission. "Clearly resemblance does not necessarily establish the relationship here asserted, for not infrequently there is a strong resemblance between more distant relatives." Wong Som Yin v. Nagle, 37 F.(2d) 893, 894 (C. C. A. 9).

Appellant maintains also that the Board of Special Inquiry acted arbitrarily in reaching its conclusions, but we find nothing in the record to support this contention. We cannot too often repeat that, in immigration cases of this character brought before us for review, the question is not whether we, with the same facts before us originally, might have found differently from the Board; rather is it a question of determining simply whether or not the hearing was conducted with due regard to those rights of the applicant that are embraced in the phrase "due process of law." Tang Tun v. Edsell, 223 U. S. 673, 32 S. Ct. 359, 363, 56 L. Ed. 606. Even if we were firmly convinced that the Board's decision was wrong, if it were shown that they had not acted arbitrarily, but had reached their conclusions after a fair consideration of all the facts presented, we should have no recourse. "The denial of a fair hearing cannot be established by proving that the decision was wrong." Chin Yow v. United States, 208 U. S. 8, ...