McGrath Attorney General v. Chung Young

In the United States District Court for the Territory of Hawaii, appellee instituted a proceeding under § 503 of the Nationality Act of 1940, asking a judgment declaring him to be a United States national.

Appellee had previously endeavored to obtain a “Certificate of Citizenship—Hawaiian Islands” (see 8 Code Fed.Regs. § 128.5 (1949 Ed.), 12 F.R. 5107 ). The application was denied on the ground that appellee was not a citizen.

This action was tried by the court sitting without a jury. The trial court found that appellee was born in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, on April 26, 1901, and is a citizen of the United States by virtue of his said birth, and entered judgment declaring appellee to be a national of the United States.

Appellant assigns as error the refusal of the trial court to permit answers to certain questions propounded to witness Robert E. Lee, an investigator of the Immigration and Naturalization service in Honolulu, and, in addition, argues that appellee failed to meet the burden of proof required in a proceeding of this character.

The evidence upon which the trial court relied was the testimony of appellee and a finding of a Board of Special Inquiry of the United…