Sanders v. Clark

• Decision Date: 10 March 1948
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 7744.
• Parties: SANDERS v. CLARK et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Pennsylvania

76 F. Supp. 489

SANDERS v. CLARK et al.

Civ. A. No. 7744.

District Court, E. D. Pennsylvania.

March 10, 1948.

T. Henry Walnut, of Philadelphia, Pa., for plaintiff.

Gerald A. Gleeson, U. S. Atty., of Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants.

McGRANERY, District Judge.

This case is before the court on a motion to dismiss the complaint. Plaintiff is seeking a declaratory judgment as to his nationality status, in pursuance of Section 503 of the Nationality Act of 1940, 8 U.S.C.A. § 903. He alleges that he is a citizen of the United States and prays for a judgment which, inter alia, will so declare. The controversy is an outgrowth of a previous denaturalization proceeding, involving plaintiff's father. Briefly, the facts are these.

Plaintiff was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1913, of German parents. In 1921, plaintiff's father filed a petition for naturalization in the Federal District Court for Puerto Rico and was admitted as a citizen of the United States on July 29, 1922. Plaintiff remained in Germany until he was seventeen, at which time he joined his father in Puerto Rico. He was admitted for permanent residence as a nonquota immigrant. By virtue of 8 U.S.C.A. § 714, plaintiff thus became a citizen. In 1942, the government commenced a denaturalization proceeding in Puerto Rico against plaintiff's father. The complaint alleged that the father had secured his certificate of naturalization illegally and fraudulently in that he was not attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States and well disposed to the good order thereof at the time the certificate was issued, and in that he did not then intend to support and bear true faith and allegiance to the same. A bill of particulars was filed and plaintiff's father then filed his answer, denying that he had been guilty of fraud in securing his naturalization, and averring that his oath of allegiance was taken in good faith. On the day fixed for the hearing, plaintiff's father filed an instrument in writing signed by his attorneys and approved by him which stated the following: "Now, comes George Sanders, respondent herein by his undersigned attorneys and consents that judgment be entered against him in accordance with the prayer of the Bill of Complaint." The court thereupon entered a decree against the defendant, stating, inter alia, "The allegations of the bill of complaint and of the bill of particulars are, without a doubt, sufficient. The respondent consents that judgment be entered against him as prayed for. Nothing remains for the Court to do but to enter judgment."

On December 3, 1946, plaintiff filed with the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization an application for a certificate of derivative citizenship under 8 U.S.C.A. § 739. This application was denied on the ground that the revocation of plaintiff's father's naturalization for actual fraud resulted in plaintiff's loss of American citizenship. Section 338(d) of the Nationality Act of 1940, which was in effect when plaintiff's father's citizenship was revoked, provided, 8 U.S.C.A. § 738(d): "The revocation and setting aside of the order admitting any person to citizenship and canceling his certificate of naturalization under the provisions of subsection (a) of section 738 shall not, where such action takes place after the effective date of this chapter, result in the loss of citizenship or any right or privilege of citizenship which would have been derived by or available to a wife or minor child of the naturalized person had such naturalization not been revoked, but the citizenship and any such right or privilege of such wife or minor child shall be deemed valid to the extent that it shall not be affected by such revocation: Provided, That this subsection shall not apply in any case where the revocation and setting aside of the order was the result of actual fraud." (Emphasis supplied.)

In the meantime, deportation proceedings had been instituted against plaintiff, charging that he was an alien unlawfully in the United States. These proceedings culminated in an order of deportation, entered by the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization on September 2, 1947. The plaintiff has not yet been taken into custody under this order.

In his complaint, plaintiff seeks a declaration of his citizenship and an injunction against the pending deportation proceedings. The government has moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that it fails to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, alleging that the plaintiff cannot collaterally attack the denaturalization decree, that it rested upon "actual fraud", and that in any event no injunctive relief can be granted.

The issue as to the effect of the prior judgment against plaintiff's father is a difficult one because it poses the legality of a harsh result. Judicial interpretation of the denaturalization statute has provided, in effect, that plaintiff can be divested of his citizenship without ever having a chance at an effective day in court. The first statute providing for the revocation of naturalization contained no provision as to the effect of cancellation upon the derivative citizenship of a defendant's wife or child. 34 Stat. 601, 8 U.S.C.A. § 405. However, some of the earlier cancellation cases based upon the ground of fraud intimated that a cancellation proceeding simply deprived the naturalized person of a privilege that was never rightfully his. Johannessen v. United States, 225 U.S. 227, 32 S.Ct. 613, 56 L. Ed. 1066; Luria v. United States, 231 U.S. 9, 34 S.Ct. 10, 58 L.Ed. 101. Subsequent cases reasoned that since no rights were conferred on the denaturalized person by the fraudulent naturalization, no rights could be derived by his wife or child. Cf. Rosenberg v. United States, 3 Cir., 60 F.2d 475; see In re Findan, D.C., 4 F.Supp. 189, 190. This derivative reasoning received Congressional sanction in the Nationality Act of 1940, 8 U.S.C.A. § 501 et seq. Cf. United States v. Orth, D.C., 51 F.Supp. 682. However, it was also held that in the denaturalization proceeding, these derivative citizens need not be parties. Thus, in Rosenberg v. United States, 3 Cir., 60 F.2d 475, certiorari denied 287 U.S. 645, 53 S.Ct. 91, 77 L.Ed. 558, a wife who claimed derivative citizenship petitioned to intervene in a...