United States v. Gronich

• Decision Date: 24 February 1914
• Docket Number: 7.
• Citation: 211 F. 548
• Court: U.S. District Court — Western District of Washington
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. GRONICH.

211 F. 548

UNITED STATES v. GRONICH.

No. 7.

United States District Court, W.D. Washington, Southern Division.

February 24, 1914

Clay Allen, U.S. Atty., of Seattle, Wash., and George P Fishburne, Asst. U.S. Atty., of Tacoma, Wash.

B. W Coiner and Grant A. Dentler, both of Tacoma, Wash., for respondent.

CUSHMAN District Judge.

The United States petitions that the order of the probate court of the state of Ohio, for Mahoning county, made October 29 1904, admitting respondent to citizenship, be vacated and the certificate of citizenship issued therefrom be canceled. The petitioner alleges, as a ground therefor, that said order and certificates were secured by respondent through fraud. The respondent appears specially and objects to the court's exercising jurisdiction on the ground that he is not a resident or citizen of the Western district of Washington. The petitioner demurs generally to the plea to the jurisdiction. No question is made, upon either side, concerning the procedure, but both seek a determination upon the merits of the objection.

Respondent's plea discloses that, prior to July 15, 1912, he became domiciled in, and a permanent resident of, the city of Portland, in the state and district of Oregon, which domicile and residence he has never voluntarily relinquished or abandoned; that since said date has been forcibly, and against his will, confined in the United States penitentiary in the Western district of Washington. While so confined, the process in this suit was served upon him in such prison. Upon the hearing it was admitted that respondent was sentenced to be imprisoned for the term of five years.

Section 51 of the Judicial Code provides:

'Except as provided in the five succeeding sections, no person shall be arrested in one district for trial in another, in any civil action before a district court; and, except as provided in the six succeeding sections, no civil suit shall be brought in any district court against any person by any original process or proceeding in any other district than that whereof he is an inhabitant; but where the jurisdiction is founded only on the fact that the action is between citizens of different states, suit shall be brought only in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant.'

Section 52 in part provides:

'When a state contains more than one district, every suit not of a local nature, in the district court thereof, against a single defendant, inhabitant of such state, must be brought in the district where he resides. * * *'

Section 15 of the act of June 29, 1906 (1909 Supp.Fed.Stat.Ann.p. 373), in part, provides:

'That it shall be the duty of the United States district attorneys for the respective districts, upon affidavit showing good cause therefor, to institute proceedings in any court having jurisdiction to naturalize aliens in the judicial district in which the naturalized citizen may reside at the time of bringing the suit, for the purpose of setting aside and canceling the certificate of citizenship on the ground of fraud or on the ground that such certificate of citizenship was illegally procured. In any such proceedings the party holding the certificate of citizenship alleged to have been fraudulently or illegally procured shall have sixty days personal notice in which to make answer to the petition of the United States; and if the holder of such certificate be absent from the United States or from the district in which he last had his residence, such notice shall be given by publication in the manner provided for the service of summons by publication or upon absentees by the laws of the state or the place where such suit is brought. If any alien who shall have secured a certificate of citizenship under the provisions of this act shall, within five years after the issuance of such certificate, return to the country of his nativity, or go to any other foreign country, and take permanent residence therein, it shall be considered prima facie evidence of a lack of intention on the part of such alien to become a permanent citizen of the United States at the time of filing his application for citizenship, and, in the absence of countervailing evidence, it shall be sufficient in the proper proceeding to authorize the cancellation of his certificate of citizenship as fraudulent, and the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries shall from time to time, through the Department of State, furnish the Department of Justice with the names of those within their respective jurisdictions who have such certificates of citizenship and who have

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