Hackfeld Company v. United States

This case is here on writ of certiorari to the circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit, to review a judgment of that court affirming a judgment of the district court for the district of Hawaii, in which the petitioner, Hackfeld & Company, was adjudged guilty of a violation of § 10 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. at L. 1084, chap. 551, U.S.C.omp. Stat. 1901, p. 1299), and to pay a fine of $600, for neglecting to return to the port from whence they came, Yokohama, Japan, two certain Japanese immigrants unlawfully in the United States, in violation of the act of Congress. The conviction was upon information filed and trial had to the court, a jury having been waived, and upon a stipulated finding of facts, agreed upon by the attorney for the United States and the petitioner. After statements as to the corporate character of the defendant company, and that it was the agent of the steamship Korea, a vessel plying between the state of California and the Empire of Japan, it is stipulated that the vessel brought into the port of San Francisco, in the United States, two certain Japanese immigrants from Yokohama, Japan, on October 28, 1902; that on the following day, October 29, 1902, the said Japanese were denied admission into the United States by the board of special inquiry at the port of San Francisco, and the said board, being duly appointed and authorized in the premises, ordered the deportation of the said Japanese immigrants. That on the 7th day of November, 1902, the said Japanese were received on board the vessel Korea for transportation to Japan. The stipulation then recites the following facts:

'That on the 12th day of November, A. D. 1902, the said steamship Korea did arrive at the port of Honolulu, in the district and territory of Hawaii; that at the time of the arrival of said steamship Korea at said port of Honolulu the said immigrants were still on board of said vessel; that said Japanese immigrants, together with certain deported Chinese, were placed in a room on board said vessel and locked up by the steerage steward of said vessel; at 12 o'clock midnight of said 12th day of November, A. D. 1902, said Japanese were still on board said vessel in said room; that between that time and 5 o'clock on the morning of the 13th day of November, A. D. 1902, said Japanese had effected their escape; that the only method of egress was through portholes, which were nearly 25 feet above the water; that this method of escape could not have been reasonably anticipated by the master, or officers, or agents of said steamship Korea; that said escape did not occur by vis major, or inevitable accident; and that said escape did not occur by reason of any negligence or lack of proper care on the part of the officers of the vessel or said defendant.

'That the said defendant made search for said escaped immigrants, but up to the present time have not apprehended the said immigrants, and said immigrants have not been returned to Japan.'

From the conviction in the lower court upon these stipulated facts a writ of error was taken to the circuit court of appeals for the ninth circuit. In that court, without passing upon the question whether the statute justified conviction without proof of negligence, it was held that the judgment of conviction should be affirmed because the facts recited left room for the inference that the petitioner was found guilty of negligence in putting the Japanese in the room without taking the necessary precautions against escape through the portholes. The stipulation that the escape did not occur by reason of negligence or lack of proper care on the part of the officers of the vessel it was held did not bind the court, nor prevent it from placing upon the facts stipulated the construction which, in its judgment, they should properly receive. 60 C. C. A. 428, 125 Fed. 596.

Mr. Maxwell Evarts for petitioner

[Argument of Counsel from pages 444-445 intentionally omitted].

Assistant Attorney General Robb for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 445-446 intentionally omitted]

Mr. Justice Day, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court: