Daniel Gonzales Dupree, Consul of Mexico, Applicant for Intervention, Antonio Garcia Orozco v. United States

I.

FACTS.

This present appeal derives from a suit filed on January 31, 1973 brought by three Mexican nationals in which they alleged that they were alien material witnesses who were being held in prison and being paid only $1 per day for each day of their detention, including days spent in court. They claimed that they and the putative class of others similarly situated were entitled to $20 per day for each day of court attendance; they sought a mandatory injunction compelling the United States to pay that sum as provided in § 28 U.S.C. § 1821 and to reimburse plaintiffs’ attorneys’ fees.

After considerable legal maneuvering in which the plaintiffs sought to establish a default judgment and the defendants a dismissal of the action, on October 15, 1974, Daniel Gonzales DuPree, Consul of Mexico at San Diego, filed notice of inter- vention under Rule 24(a), F.R.C.P. on behalf of the three named plaintiffs and all other Mexican nationals “similarly detained by the United States authorities in prison for want of security for their appearance” from January 1969. to October 1974.

The district court dismissed the complaint for want of prosecution and denied the Consul’s motion for…