Court Opinion

ID: 9442356
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 18:44:58.538527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:04.255621
License: Public Domain

FRANK, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
My colleagues reason that appellant’s consent to the denaturalization judgment was the equivalent of proof of the allegations of the complaint that, in and following the year after the appellant’s naturalization, he acted as a German agent and collaborated with German agents. I think that, in the light of Baumgartner v. United States, 322 U.S. 665, 64 S.Ct. 1240, 88 L.Ed. 1525, those allegations, had they been established, by evidence, beyond possible doubt, would not have sustained the judgment. I also incline to think that, under Rule 60(b), as it stood when appellant moved for vacation of the judgment, the motion was not barred by the expiration of six months. See Wallace v. United States, 2 Cir., 142 F.2d 240 at page 244; Moore, Federal Practice, p. 3260. Accordingly, I incline to think we should reverse.
But if I am in error, I think it desirable to call the following to the parties’ attention : I do not understand my colleagues to say that, under their decision, appellant is precluded from now seeking, by a new motion in the district court, the vacation of the judgment on grounds not alleged in his motion papers, filed in January 1946, and which were not good grounds under Rule 60(b), as it then read, but which now are good grounds under Rule 60(b) as subsequently amended in March 1948. In appellant’s brief he asserts these facts which were not alleged in his motion papers: He had such a limited knowledge of the English language that he did not understand the meaning of the written consent he gave to the denaturalization judgment. It may well be that, if those facts should be proved, the judgment should be vacated. See United States v. Olden, D.C., 84 F.Supp. 522. To be sure, in the Olden case, defendant had given his consent without the advice of a lawyer, whereas appellant here had such advice. However, if, because of his inadequate understanding of the language, he did not comprehend what his lawyer was telling him, the consent may well not be binding upon him, especially as the court seems to have entered the judgment out of appellant’s presence, solely upon his written consent and without seeing appellant or ascertaining that he was aware of the significance of the consent. See L. Hand, J., in Ricketts v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 2 Cir., 153 F.2d 757, 760, 164 A.L.R. 387; Williston, Contracts, § 95A and cases cited; Thoroughgood’s Case, 2 Coke 9a; Swift & Co. v. United States, 276 U.S. 311, 324, 48 S.Ct. 311, 314, 72 L.Ed. 587.3 Those authorities would seem to have peculiar force in denaturalization proceedings; see Klapprott v. United States, 335 U.S. 601, 336 U.S. 942, 69 S.Ct. 384. The problem is, I think, not unlike that arising when, in a *318criminal action, the defendant, not exercising an intelligent, informed judgment, pleads guilty or waives trial 'by jury. Cf. Adams v. United States ex rel. McCann, 317 U.S. 269, 278-279, 63 S.Ct. 236, 87 L.Ed. 268, 143 A.L.R., 435; Walker v. Johnston, 312 U.S. 275, 61 S.Ct. 574, 85 L.Ed. 830; Waley v. Johnston, 316 U.S. 101, 103-104, 62 S.Ct. 964, 86 L.Ed. 1302; United States v. Denniston, 2 Cir., 89 F.2d 696, 698, 110 A.L.R. 1296; Accardi v. United States, 8 Cir., 15 F.2d 619, 621.

. There the Court said: “Decrees entered by consent have been reviewed upon appeal or bill of review where there was a claim of lack of actual consent to the decree as entered. * * * ’’