Case Name: Miguel PONS, Appellant v. REPUBLIC OF CUBA, Appellee
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1961-07-27
Citations: 294 F.2d 925
Docket Number: No. 16274
Parties: Miguel PONS, Appellant v. REPUBLIC OF CUBA, Appellee.
Judges: Before Edgerton, Bazelon and Burger, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: Federal Reporter 2d Series
Volume: 294
Pages: 925–927

Head Matter:
Miguel PONS, Appellant v. REPUBLIC OF CUBA, Appellee.
No. 16274.
United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.
Submitted April 6, 1961.
Decided July 27, 1961.
Messrs. Nathan M. Lubar and Harold J. Nussbaum, Washington, D. C., by leave of court, submitted for appellant on the record, briefs and argument for appellant in No. 15861.
Messrs. David Rein, Washington, D. C. , and Leonard B. Boudin, New York City, by leave of court, submitted for appellee on the record, briefs and argument for appellee in No. 15861.
Mr. Isadore G. Aik, Washington, D. C., filed a brief on behalf of the First National Bank of New York, as amicus curise.
Before Edgerton, Bazelon and Burger, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
EDGERTON, Circuit Judge.
On a former appeal we remanded this case for the reason and on the terms stated in our opinion of March 9, 1961. Pons v. Republic of Cuba, 110 U.S.App. D. C. 67, 288 F.2d 879. The District Court vacated its former order, again dismissed appellant Pons's counterclaim as not stating a claim on which relief could be granted, again directed the Clerk to pay to appellee Republic of Cuba $56,474.72 on deposit in the court's registry, and again left undecided Cuba's claim to an additional amount. We have jurisdiction of this appeal because, on the remand, the court found there was no just reason for delay and directed entry of a final judgment. The parties have submitted this appeal on the record, briefs and oral argument of the former appeal.
Cuba brought this suit against Pons, a Cuban national. Aside from his counterclaim, Pons does not dispute Cuba's claim to the money in the court's registry. The counterclaim is for the value of property in Cuba which Pons says the Cuban government took from him without compensation.
"Every sovereign State is bound to respect the independence of every other sovereign State, and the courts of one country will not sit in judgment on the acts of the government of another done within its own territory." Underhill v. Hernandez, 1897, 168 U.S. 250, 252, 18 S.Ct. 83, 42 L.Ed. 456; Oetjen v. Central Leather Co., 1918, 246 U. S. 297, 303, 38 S.Ct. 309, 62 L.Ed. 726; Ricaud v. American Metal Co., 1918, 246 U.S. 304, 309, 38 S.Ct. 312, 62 L.Ed. 733. Specifically, "What another country has done in the way of taking over property of its nationals is not a matter for judicial consideration here." United States v. Belmont, 1937, 301 U.S. 324, 332, 57 S.Ct. 758, 81 L.Ed. 1134.
Pons says his property was seized "Without any legal justification and without due process of law We cannot consider this question. "It should make no difference whether the foreign act is, under local law, partially or wholly, technically or fundamentally, illegal. No such distinction may be gleaned from the cases. So long as the act is the act of the foreign sovereign, it matters not how grossly the sovereign has transgressed its own laws." Banco de España v. Federal Reserve Bank, 2 Cir., 1940, 114 F.2d 438, 444. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Learned Hand, has applied the principle to an act that was outrageous. The Nazis had seized the plaintiff's property because he was a Jew. Judge Hand found it "consistent with the record' that they may have forced the plaintiff to transfer the shares before December 1938, and it was only in that month that any laws were passed, legalizing the confiscation of the property of Jews because of their race or religion. However, even though we assume that a German court would have held the transfer unlawful at the time it was made, that would be irrelevant. We have repeatedly declared, for over a period of at least thirty years, that a court of the forum will not undertake to pass upon. the validity under the municipal law of another state of the acts of officials of that state, purporting to act as such. We have held that this was a necessary corollary of decisions of the Supreme Court, and if we have been mistaken, the Supreme Court must correct it." Bernstein v. Van Heyghen Freres Societe Anonyme, 2 Cir., 1947, 163 F.2d 246, 249, certiorari denied 332 U.S. 772, 68 S.Ct. 88, 92 L.Ed. 357.
We think we cannot refuse to apply the Supreme Court's rule to a counterclaim. National City Bank of New York v. Republic of China, 1955, 348 U.S. 356, 75 S.Ct. 423, 99 L.Ed. 389, on which Pons relies, does not support his position. The Supreme Court there allowed the defendant Bank to set off, against China, claims based on defaulted notes of China. The Court said a "chilly feeling against sovereign immunity began to reflect itself in federal legislation in 1797. At that early day Congress decided that when the United States sues an individual, the individual can set off all debts properly due him from the sovereign." 348 U.S. at page 359, 75 S.Ct. at page 426. All the Court did in that case was limit a foreign sovereign's immunity as the domestic sovereign's immunity had been limited for ISO years. In our opinion this does not affect the rule that a foreign sovereign's seizure of its own national's property in its own territory cannot be reviewed in our courts.
On April 13, 1961, we invited the Department of Justice and the Department of State to file briefs, if they should see fit, expressing their views on any issues or questions of interest to them in this case. No briefs have been filed.
Affirmed.