Court Opinion

ID: 9450931
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 17:01:02.196762+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:29.956361
License: Public Domain

RIVES, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
The district court sustained the motion of the defendant Consul General, Dominion of Canada, to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, and succinctly stated its reasons as follows:
“Reasons.
“Plaintiff’s counsel in oral argument announced that the suit against Beeson, defendant, was not in the nature of a personal action against Beeson but one against Beeson in his representative capacity as Consul General of the Dominion of Canada, this being the only way plaintiff’s counsel believed he could obtain service of process against the Dominion of Canada. This Court is without jurisdiction to entertain a suit against a foreign nation or sovereign such as the Dominion of Canada or against its New Orleans Consul General as the representative of the sovereign, the Dominion of Canada. National City Bank of New York v. Republic of China, 348 U.S. 356, 75 S.Ct. 423 (1955), reh. den. 349 U.S. 913, 75 S.Ct. 598, 99 L.Ed. 389; Matthews v. Walton Rice Mill, 1949, 85 U.S.App.D.C. 197, 176 F.2d 69; United States ex rel. Cardashian v. Snyder, D.C., 1930, 44 F.2d 895, cert. den. 283 U.S. 827, 51 S.Ct. 351, 75 L.Ed. 1440. Since the Consul is being sued in his representative capacity as representative of the Dominion of Canada, the Consul enjoys the same immunity to suit. Arcaya v. Paez, S.D.N.Y., 1956, 145 F.Supp. 464, affirmed 10 Cir., 244 F.2d 958; Samad v. Etivebank, E.D. Va., 1955, 134 F.Supp. 530; Puente v. Spanish Nat. States, 2 Cir. 1940, 116 F.2d 43.
*612“This Court, through its chief judge, Honorable Herbert W. Chris-tenberry, in two matters heard before him involving plaintiff and his proposed extradition by the Dominion of Canada for alleged criminal offenses which occurred in Canada, has fully considered the rights of plaintiff and has completely reviewed all of the proceedings which occurred before the United States Commissioner in extensive hearings on January 13, 14, 15, 17 and 20, 1964. The proceedings referred to were habeas corpus proceedings, and in both instances Judge Christenberry denied plaintiff’s petition. See the following docket numbers of this Court: Miscellaneous Docket No. 1117, In the Matter of the Application of Joseph Samuel Wacker for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, writ denied by Judge Christenberry on April 22, 1963; and Miscellaneous Docket No. 1142, In the Matter of United States of America, ex rel. J. Samuel Wacker v. Dominion of Canada, Applying for a Writ of Habeas Corpus, writ denied by Judge Chris-tenberry on February 26, 1964.
“Now Petitioner Wacker is attempting by a third effort to frustrate the extradition processes which exist between the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada. Believing, as we do, that the defendant Consul General in his representative capacity is immune to this action, as well as is the Dominion of Canada itself, we have no alternative but to dismiss this suit. Wacker has been accorded careful scrutiny of all the proceedings brought in this jurisdiction in the two habeas corpus proceedings referred to. He should not be permitted further to frustrate the action of this Court.”
I agree with the learned district judge.
The analogy suggested by cases on exclusion and deportation hearings does not apply, because there is a real need. for the remedy by declaratory judgment in exclusion and deportation cases which need does not exist in extradition orders. In Shaughnessy v. Pedreiro, 1955, 349 U.S. 48, 51, 75 S.Ct. 591, 99 L.Ed. 868, the Court referred to the inadequacy of habeas corpus for the review of deportation orders by saying that it would not be in keeping with either the Immigration Act or the Administrative Procedure Act “to require a person ordered deported to go to jail in order to obtain review by a court.” Likewise, in holding that exclusion orders may be challenged either by habeas corpus or by declaratory judgment action, the Court noted in Brownell v. We Shung, 1956, 352 U.S. 180, 183, 77 S.Ct. 252, 255, 1 L.Ed.2d 225, that
“For a habeas corpus proceeding the alien must be detained or at the least be in technical custody, as the Government puts it. On the other hand, a declaratory judgment action requires no such basis and the odium of arrest and detention is not present.”
On the other hand, in criminal extradition proceedings the first writ to be issued is a “warrant for the apprehension of the person so charged.” 18 U.S.C. § 3184. The petitioner in this case is confined in the Parish Prison of New Orleans, Louisiana.
The majority holds that the scope of review in a declaratory judgment action is the same as in a habeas corpus proceeding. The point of holding that the Declaratory Judgment Act has opened a backdoor to review of an extradition order escapes me when the front door provided by the Great Writ grants access to the same court of justice and provides the same scope of relief.
When there is a treaty or convention for extradition the power is vested in the executive to surrender the person to a foreign government. See Valentine v. United States ex rel. Neidecker, 1936, 299 U.S. 5, 9, 57 S.Ct. 100, 81 L.Ed. 5; Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 1893, 149 U.S. 698, 13 S.Ct. 1016, 37 L.Ed. 905; United States ex rel. Knauff v. *613Shaughnessy, 1950, 338 U.S. 537, 542-543, 70 S.Ct. 309, 94 L.Ed. 317; see also, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3184; Jimenez v. Ariste-guieta, 5 Cir. 1961, 290 F.2d 106.
The Great Writ provides a very limited scope of judicial review but it has not heretofore been held that the Declaratory Judgment Act provides' an alternative, let alone an additional, mode of review.
It is significant that in Brownell v. We Shung, supra, the Supreme Court said that “ * * * exclusion orders may be challenged either by habeas corpus or by declaratory judgment action.” 352 U.S. at 184, 77 S.Ct. at 255. (Emphasis added.) It did not hold that even exclusion orders could be challenged by both habeas corpus and declaratory judgment. That is true also as to the holding of availability of declaratory judgment for the review of deportation orders in Shaughnessy v. Pedreiro, supra. There is, I submit, no indication that Congress intended successive judicial reviews of the same administrative action. I would agree with the Ninth Circuit that there is nothing in the statutes and nothing in the decisions which permits cumulative remedies by habeas corpus and declaratory petition against the same order of deportation or exclusion and a fortiori against the same extradition order. See Arellano-Flores v. Rosenberg, 9 Cir. 1962, 310 F.2d 118; Cruz-Sanchez v. Robinson, 9 Cir. 1957, 249 F.2d 771; Sigurdson v. Del Guercio, S.D.Calif., 1957, 154 F.Supp. 220.
It is important that the treaty obligations of the United States be honored without unnecessary delay, and this case well illustrates how permitting review by declaratory judgment in addition to ha-beas corpus may result in unreasonable, if not interminable delay, not consistent with the prompt performance of our treaty obligations.
I would affirm the judgment of the district court, and therefore respectfully dissent.