Opinion ID: 426379
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Statelessness

Text: 29 The district court cited four factors that led it to conclude that the RICARDO at the very least, ... when seized, was a vessel 'assimilated to a stateless vessel,' and at best, ... was a vessel without nationality. (9/30 Tr. at 30.) The first two factors--that when first sighted the RICARDO was flying no flag, and that after being sighted the RICARDO changed course and headed away from the United States mainland--are, by themselves, wholly inadequate to support a finding of statelessness. The third factor--that flags of several states were found aboard the RICARDO--also is inconclusive. The RICARDO was observed flying only the Venezuelan flag, and its crew claimed that it was of Venezuelan nationality. 8 There was no evidence that it at any time sail[ed] under any flag other than that of Venezuela, using those other flags according to convenience within the meaning of Article 6, paragraph 2 of the Convention on the High Seas. Further, Ensign Willis testified that he did not consider it unusual to find flags of several countries on the RICARDO because it is common practice for a ship of one nationality to fly the flag of another country, in addition to that of its own country, upon entering the foreign country's port. Thus, the finding of the flags of several states aboard the RICARDO did not provide a sound basis for concluding that the RICARDO was assimilated to a ship without nationality. 30 The propriety of the court's conclusion that the RICARDO was stateless thus depends upon whether the district court properly relied on its fourth factor, the Venezuelan Certificate showing that the vessel's Venezuelan registration had expired in 1980. Despite its claim at the suppression hearing that it relied only on Fed.R.Evid. 803(8) as the basis for admissibility of the Certificate, the government here invokes both Rule 803(8) and Rule 803(10). We conclude that neither of these exceptions to the hearsay rule authorized the district court's receipt of the document into evidence. 31 Fed.R.Evid. 803(10) provides that the following category of evidence is not excluded by the hearsay rule: 32 (10) Absence of public record or entry. To prove the absence of a record, report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, or the nonoccurrence or nonexistence of a matter of which a record, report, statement, or data compilation, in any form, was regularly made and preserved by a public office or agency, evidence in the form of a certification in accordance with rule 902, or testimony, that diligent search failed to disclose the record, report, statement, or data compilation, or entry. 33 At the hearing the district court ruled that the Venezuelan Certificate did not qualify as an absence of public record, and we believe this ruling was correct. What is envisioned by Rule 803(10) is a statement that, after a diligent search of the records regularly kept by a public office or agency, a certain record, entry, report, etc., has not been found. United States v. Yakobov, 712 F.2d 20, 26-27 (2d Cir.1983). From such a statement the factfinder may infer that an event that normally would be reflected in the public record did not occur. Instead of a certification of an absence of record, the Venezuelan Certificate is principally a potpourri of descriptions of existing records (e.g., confirming that the RICARDO had been registered in Venezuela), speculation (stating that the RICARDO evidently sailed clandestinely from Venequelan [sic] port), description of official action (the Maritime Authority has found grounds for the expiration of [the RICARDO's] registration), and statement of legal conclusion (in view of the expiration of its registration, as of May 21, 1980, [the RICARDO] could not invoke the Venezuelan nationality to protect its status under any circumstance, particularly in situations involving a crime or infraction). Only after the descriptions of existing records, speculation, past government actions, and legal conclusion does the Venezuelan Certificate make a statement that could possibly be construed, in part, as certifying the absence of a record: it states that [r]einstatement of the RICARDO's status as a Venezuelan vessel would have required the renewal of its documents, after justifying its absence and receiving a favorable decision from the Venezuelan authorities, something that did not ever take place. Assuming that this means that there is no record of a request for reinstatement, a statement that Venezuelan records reveal no application for reinstatement is virtually meaningless standing alone. Its significance depends on the Certificate's earlier statements, most particularly on that describing the Venezuelan authority's revocation of the RICARDO's registration: without knowing of the revocation, one cannot draw an inference of nonregistration from a failure to seek reinstatement. Hence we regard the Venezuelan Certificate as inappropriate for receipt in evidence under Rule 803(10), and we reject the government's attempt to invoke that rule on this appeal. 34 Nor do we find the Venezuelan Certificate admissible under Rule 803(8), the rule under which it was offered in the district court. Rule 803(8) provides that certain types of records and reports are not excluded by the hearsay rule: 35 (8) Public records and reports. Records, reports, statements, or data compilations, in any form, of public offices or agencies, setting forth (A) the activities of the office or agency, or (B) matters observed pursuant to duty imposed by law as to which matters there was a duty to report, excluding, however, in criminal cases matters observed by police officers and other law enforcement personnel, or (C) in civil actions and proceedings and against the Government in criminal cases, factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law, unless the sources of information or other circumstances indicate lack of trustworthiness. 36 An examination of the Certificate reveals that both as a whole and in pertinent part the Certificate runs afoul of Rule 803(8)(C)'s exclusion of factual findings resulting from an investigation made pursuant to authority granted by law against defendants in criminal cases. 37 First, we note that the Certificate, made by the District Director General of Water Transportation, does not fit within either part (A) or part (B) of Rule 803(8), as it sets forth neither the activities of an office or agency nor matters observed by the District Director General. Rather, the Certificate purports to report the factual findings of the District Director General as a result of his investigation into the RICARDO's status in his exercis[e of] the attributes conferred upon him by law. Further, the very part of the Certificate on which the court focused for its finding that the RICARDO's Venezuelan registration had expired, i.e., the statement that the Maritime Authority has found grounds for the expiration of its registration as of May 21, 1980, indicates that the Maritime Authority made an investigation resulting in its finding that grounds existed for the revocation of the registration. We thus conclude that neither the Certificate as a whole nor the part of the Certificate disclosing the revocation of registration was admissible against the defendants under Rule 803(8)(C). Further, since the reason for Rule 803(8)'s nonauthorization of the use of investigative findings against defendants in criminal cases is to avoid abridgment of a defendant's Sixth Amendment right of confrontation, see Fed.R.Evid. 803(8)(C) advisory committee note; United States v. Oates, 560 F.2d 45, 69-84 (2d Cir.1977), admission of such investigative findings against defendants in criminal cases is also not authorized by Rule 803(24), the catchall exception for trustworthy hearsay. Id. at 78. 38 Nor do we see that the contents or circumstances of the Certificate should inspire any particular confidence in its trustworthiness. The Certificate contains obvious speculation as to the RICARDO's evident[ ] clandestine[ ] movement, and has an aura of eagerness to deny the RICARDO the ability to invoke the Venezuelan nationality to protect its status ... in situations involving a crime or infraction. Most importantly, the Certificate, which does not identify the Maritime Authority that apparently revoked the RICARDO's registration, also does not state when that Authority took its action, and there is nothing to indicate that the finding of grounds for expiration was not made after the Coast Guard intercepted the RICARDO and inquired as to its registration. If the Maritime Authority's action did precede the Coast Guard's involvement with the RICARDO, one might expect the Certificate to contain a plain statement that the RICARDO was unregistered in Venezuela on June 27 when it was boarded by the Coast Guard. The absence of such a straightforward statement and the silence of the Certificate as to the date of the Authority's action are circumstances suggesting that the Certificate lacks the trustworthiness necessary to support its admission as proof that the RICARDO was stateless on June 27. 39 In sum, we conclude that the Certificate was improperly received by the district court to show the RICARDO's statelessness. As none of the other evidence presented by the government established that fact, there was no substantial basis for the court's ruling that the RICARDO was subject to the jurisdiction of the United States within the meaning of Sec. 955a(a). We therefore remand to the district court for such further proceedings on defendants' jurisdictional challenges as may be appropriate. If the government adduces no new evidence sufficient to show that the RICARDO was stateless, the indictment must be dismissed.