Shikoh v. Murff

• Decision Date: 27 June 1958
• Docket Number: Docket 25013.,No. 377,377
• Citation: 257 F.2d 306
• Parties: Matter of the Petition for Review of Mirza M. SHIKOH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. John L. MURFF, as District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the District of New York, Respondent-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Second Circuit

257 F.2d 306 (1958)

Matter of the Petition for Review of Mirza M. SHIKOH, Petitioner-Appellant, v. John L. MURFF, as District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for the District of New York, Respondent-Appellee.

No. 377, Docket 25013.

United States Court of Appeals Second Circuit.

Argued May 9, 1958.

Decided June 27, 1958.

Marchetti & Ehrlich, New York City (Joseph A. Marchetti, New York City, of counsel; Ira Ehrlich, New York City, on the brief), for petitioner-appellant.

Paul W. Williams, U. S. Atty. for Southern District of New York, New York City (Roy Babitt, Sp. Asst. U. S. Atty., New York City, of counsel), for respondent-appellee.

Before WATERMAN and MOORE, Circuit Judges, and GALSTON, District Judge.

GALSTON, District Judge.

Petitioner appeals from two final orders of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. The first of these orders denied petitioner's motion for an injunction pendente lite and vacated a temporary restraining order contained in the order to show cause by which the motion was brought on. The second order granted respondent's cross-motion for summary judgment dismissing petitioner's complaint. The petition sought to review the action of the Immigration and Naturalization Service in ruling against petitioner's application for adjustment of his status from that of a non-immigrant student temporarily in the United States to that of an alien lawfully admitted to permanent residence by reason of his marriage to an American citizen. (§ 101(a) (27) (A) and § 245 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C.A. § 1101(a) (27) (A) and § 1255.)

Appellant, a native of India, came to the United States as a non-immigrant student in 1947. Subsequently that part of India wherein he lived became Pakistan, and consequently appellant is now considered as a citizen and national of Pakistan. Prior to arrival in the United States appellant married one Izzat Jahan Begum, a native of India now residing in Pakistan, and there were three children of said marriage. Since the appellant has been in the United States he has obtained extensions of his temporary stay in the United States in order that he might complete his studies. His present stay expires August 15, 1958.

On August 22, 1955, appellant appeared before the Reverend Sheikh Daoud Ahmed Faisal, Spiritual Head and National Director of the Islamic Mission of America, Inc., for the propagation of Islam, at his office in Brooklyn, New York, and declared that he wished to be divorced from his wife. The appellant thereupon signed his name to a writing declaring that his marriage was dissolved, which writing was witnessed by two persons and which contained at the end thereof a declaration by the Reverend Sheikh that in exercise of the authority vested in him in accordance with the laws of Islam and "in conformity of the laws of the Government of the United States of America," he declared the appellant and his wife to be divorced. The said writing signed by appellant and by the Reverend Sheikh was entitled "Certificate of Divorce" and said certificate was registered at the Consulate General of Pakistan in New York, and copies thereof sent to appellant's wife by the Consulate General.

Thereafter, on November 14, 1956, appellant applied for and received a marriage license from the Clerk of the City of New York and thereupon married a native of the United States of America on January 11, 1957. In August 1957 appellant filed an application for adjustment of his status from that of a non-immigrant student to that of an alien lawfully admitted to permanent residence predicated upon his marriage to an American citizen. The Immigration and Naturalization Service required appellant to prove such relationship and he thereupon produced the marriage record and the Certificate of Divorce granted by the Reverend Sheikh Daoud Ahmed Faisal in Brooklyn on August 22, 1955. The District Director of the Immigration and Naturalization Service denied the application under date of August 22, 1957 upon the ground that the alleged divorce was invalid and that therefore the subsequent marriage to an American citizen was null and void.

Appellant appealed from the decision of the District Director to the Regional Commissioner, who affirmed the order of the District Director in October 1957. Thereafter appellant commenced this action to review the rulings of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

Article 1, § 9, of the Constitution of the State of New York provides in part: "* * * nor shall any divorce be granted otherwise than by due judicial proceedings; * * *." The nature of the judicial proceedings required for a divorce in New York are set forth in § 1147 of the Civil Practice Act of the State of New York indicating that a divorce will be granted by reason of the defendant's adultery where both parties were residents of the state when the offense was committed, or where the parties were married within the state, or where the plaintiff was a resident of the state when the offense was committed and is a resident when the action is commenced, or where the offense was committed within the state and the injured party, when the action is commenced, is a resident of the state.

There can be no doubt that the actions of the appellant before the Reverend Sheikh Faisal in Brooklyn failed to constitute a judicial proceeding within the meaning of the laws of the state, nor were the conditions of the Civil Practice Act complied with.

The divorce which appellant seeks to sustain is similar to religious divorces upon which there have been rulings by New York courts.

In Chertok v. Chertok, 208 App.Div. 161, 203 N.Y.S. 163, a rabbinical divorce was obtained in New York by one of the parties to the marriage who was then residing in New York. Thereafter that divorce was effected in Russia, the original matrimonial domicile of the parties. The Court held that the rabbinical divorce obtained in New York by a resident of New York was wholly invalid. This case differs from the case at bar in that one of the parties was resident of New York when the divorce was obtained.

In Matter of Goldman's Estate, 156 Misc. 817, 282 N.Y.S. 787, a similar situation, one of the parties to the marriage entered the United States and became a permanent resident, and while in this state as a permanent resident obtained a rabbinical divorce in New York. Here again the divorce was held a nullity.

Other cases to the same effect are In re Cherney's Estate, 162 Misc. 764, 295 N.Y.S. 567; In re Spiegel, D.C., 24 F.2d 605.

Conversely it has been frequently held that a religious divorce, valid in the jurisdiction where granted, is valid here, provided that both parties to the marriage were properly subject to the jurisdiction of the tribunal granting the decree. In these circumstances comity requires recognition of foreign...