Source: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/261/719/160120/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 08:13:40+00:00

Document:
N. W. Y. Char, Honolulu, Hawaii, for appellant.
Lee Hon Lung brought this action against the Secretary of State for a judgment declaring plaintiff to be a citizen of this country.1 After a trial without a jury, judgment was entered for defendant. On appeal, plaintiff raises questions pertaining to the burden and standard of proof, findings of fact, admissibility of evidence, and the denial of a motion for a new trial.
The case appellant sought to prove may be briefly summarized. He was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, on April 4, 1899. When about seven months old, he left Honolulu for China with his father, mother, and brother. He returned to Honolulu in 1923. On January 7, 1924, a board of special inquiry of the immigration service rendered a decision admitting appellant as a Hawaiian-born citizen of the United States. Since then he has resided continuously in Honolulu. In April 1957, the Department of State denied his application for a passport on the ground that he was not a national of the United States.
The Government conceded that appellant arrived in Honolulu in 1923, and was admitted by a board of special inquiry as a citizen of the United States. It also conceded that appellant has resided in Honolulu continuously since that time. It denied that appellant was in fact born in the Hawaiian Islands, thus challenging the 1924 board decision to that effect. The trial court adopted the Government's view of the evidence.
As the plaintiff in this declaratory judgment action, appellant had the burden of proving that he is an American citizen. The burden of proof which rested upon him was the ordinary burden of proof resting on plaintiffs in civil actions. He was thus required to establish his citizenship by a fair preponderance of the evidence. Lau Ah Yew v. Dulles, 9 Cir., 257 F.2d 744.
Appellant contends that the trial court erred in not holding the Government to a higher standard of proof in rebutting appellant's prima facie case. He argues that the Government's rebutting evidence tending to show fraud or error could not overcome this kind of a prima facie case unless it was "clear and convincing."
In Delmore, the court stated that a different rule might be in effect in the Ninth Circuit, citing Mah Toi v. Brownell, supra. The Third Circuit opinion states that the ruling in Mah Toi was clouded by a concession referred to in the Mah Toi opinion.6 It was made clear, however, that the Third Circuit would adhere to the rule announced in Delmore even though Mah Toi be regarded as stating a contrary rule.
It may or may not be that the rule announced in Mah Toi is clouded by a concession. In any event, that decision is not in point because the prima facie case there established did not consist of a favorable decision by a board of special inquiry. Instead, it consisted of proof of a California superior court judgment reciting that the plaintiff had been born in the United States. We held that, under California law, such a judgment should be accorded the same evidentiary value as an ordinary birth certificate. The standard of proof necessary to overcome that kind of a prima facie case is not necessarily the same standard which is to be applied here.
In arguing that the Government is chargeable with only the ordinary standard of proof in rebutting a prima facie case of the kind which appellant established, appellee cites Louie Hoy Gay v. Dulles, 9 Cir., 248 F.2d 421; Mah Toi v. Brownell, supra; and Ly Shew v. Dulles, 9 Cir., 219 F.2d 413.
As noted previously, Mah Toi is not in point. Likewise and for the same reason, Louie Hoy Gay is not in point. The document there thought to establish, or to assist in establishing, a prima facie case was a "Decree for Registration of Birth," issued by the circuit court of Multnomah county, Oregon.7 Ly Shew v. Dulles, supra, is not in point since the claimants involved in that case had never been in the United States, and had never been the subjects of a favorable determination by any agency of the United States.
Neither party has cited, nor has our research disclosed, a decision of this court squarely in point on the question of whether the Government is charged with a special standard of proof in rebutting a prima facie case consisting of a board decision admitting one to citizenship. It is true that there is language in some of our past decisions tending to support the Government's view that no special standard of proof is required to rebut such a prima facie case.8 On the other hand, there is language in some other past decisions which tends to support appellant's contrary view.9 In none of these cases, however, was the court presented with the specific question that is now posed, and none of them represents a clear-cut holding one way or the other.
In other respects, however, a denaturalization proceeding of the kind involved in the Schneiderman and Baumgartner cases seems to be closely akin to the effort which the Government here made to overcome the plaintiff's prima facie case consisting of a favorable board decision.
In the Schneiderman and Baumgartner cases, the pertinent statute authorized the setting aside of a certificate of citizenship on the ground of fraud or by showing that it was "illegally procured." Section 15 of the act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 596.* In Schneiderman, it was assumed (320 U.S. at page 124, 63 S. Ct. at page 1336) that a certificate is "illegally procured" within the meaning of the statute if it is later determined that an essential finding of fact in the naturalization proceeding was erroneous.
In cases of the kind now before us, a decision of a board of special inquiry admitting a person as a citizen of the United States may be rebutted by showing that the decision was obtained by fraud or "error."13 While our decisions have not defined "error," as used in this context, the word unquestionably embraces both errors of law and of fact. It therefore appears that the grounds available to the Government in this case closely approximate those which were available to it in Schneiderman and Baumgartner.
More important than the similarities pointed out above is the fact that the practical effect of a decision favorable to the Government in this case is the same as that which results from a decision favorable to the Government in a denaturalization case. In either case, the individual is stripped of what in Schneiderman, 320 U.S. at page 122, 63 S. Ct. at page 1335 was termed the "priceless benefits" which derive from the status of citizenship. In either case, the Government "seeks to turn the clock back,"14 with possible grievous consequences.
"* * * New relations and new interests flow, once citizenship has been granted. All that should not be undone unless the proof is compelling that that which was granted was obtained in defiance of Congressional authority. * * *"
It appears to be the Government's present view that board proceedings during the 1920's were too informal and summary to be trustworthy. But it was the Government, and not appellant, which prescribed the kind of proceedings which are now questioned. Appellant acted in reliance on the board decision which resulted, as he was expected to do. The consequences for him are as grave as if that decision had been rendered by a court of law.
In Baumgartner, supra, 322 U.S. at page 675, 64 S. Ct. at page 1245 it was said that relaxation in the vigor of prior proceedings in which it was determined that an applicant for citizenship held allegiance to this country "is not to be corrected by meagre standards for disproving such allegiance retrospectively. * * *" So here, the fact that past board proceedings may have been informal and summary does not warrant corrective procedures which fail to take acount of the human values which have attached. If the Government is to turn the clock back after all these years, it should meet a standard of proof which is not meagre.
The trial court did not hold the Government to such a standard of proof in this case, and therefore erred. Ordinarily the appropriate remedy would be to reverse and remand with directions to the same trial judge to make new findings in the light of what it said in the opinion. However, the judge who tried this case is now deceased. It will therefore be necessary to reverse and remand for a new trial.
The trial court did not err in the admission and exclusion of tendered evidence. In view of the fact that there must be a new trial, it is not necessary to notice the remaining specifications of error.
Reversed and remanded with directions to grant appellant a new trial.
"Appellant concedes that if the superior court order was not conclusive evidence of the fact of appellant's native birth as a matter of law, its admission in evidence did not shift the burden of proving the fact, but merely required that substantial evidence rebutting the presumption be presented to the court. The final question then is whether there is sufficient evidence in the record to sustain the trial court's finding of fact, it appearing therefrom that the trial court found the presumption rebutted — at least to the extent of evenly balancing the weight of all the credible evidence with no preponderance thereof in favor of appellant." 219 F.2d 644.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.