Court Opinion

ID: 9638779
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:53:51.668949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:09.750292
License: Public Domain

CLARK, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
Conceding the validity of the abstract legal principles stated in the opinion, I nevertheless think that the District Court’s finding of Cerutti’s “actual” residence in Italy was not “clearly erroneous” and justified the defendant’s judgment, which it arrived at after a most carefully reasoned opinion. Indeed, I cannot avoid the feeling that the present result seems rather absurd as a practical matter. For it views as still a resident of New York for war-defense purposes a man who returned to his old homeland (lately an enemy country) a decade and a half ago, of his own volition and by himself, and stayed there, trying to purchase a villa, paying taxes, contributing to local charities, being “a sympathizer with the Fascist regime,” voting there “in the general election of 1934 after having previously ascertained that he was properly enrolled as an Italian citizen and subject,” and being “only occasionally, and then voluntarily,” an inmate of a sanitarium. Not until six years after his return was he adjudged an incompetent, and then only as to his property. This holding opens distinct possibilities as to means of retaining not merely American citizenship, but American residence for many years after actual" residence in a country now our enemy. For example, consider a person caught abroad by the depression without means to return; does he not come within the ruling? I do not think this case is like that of “transients,” such as prisoners of war or other quite temporary visitors. Stadtmuller v. Miller, 2 Cir., 11 F.2d 732, 45 A.L.R. 895.
The result here appears to flow from two premises, neither of which should be accepted in my judgment. The first is the effectiveness of the adjudication of incompetency (not of commitment) in the New York courts. Had this adjudication not existed, I doubt if Cerutti’s Italian actual residence would have been questioned. But as properly pointed out, this adjudication is not legally binding. It should not be made so practically, having in mind the obvious different setting and purpose of the state proceeding. The second is that under the circumstances Cerutti’s New York property could not be subjected to enemy uses or enhance the ability of this country to prosecute the war. *650Passing the point that we cannot know this by any direct evidence of record, I think the whole purpose of the legislation may be frustrated if courts attempt to decide the validity of seizure upon the equities of individual cases. If we are unwilling to declare the invalidity of this war statute as a whole, we are not at liberty to set it aside in particular cases. This is a stern measure, so much so that probably Congress, as before, will be induced to take action for a return in part, if not in whole, of the seized property. But we should not try to anticipate such general legislation by special action in particular instances. I would affirm.