Case Digest (G.R. No. 1898)
Facts:
The United States v. William & Ballentine, G.R. No. 1898, November 15, 1905, the Supreme Court, Willard, J., writing for the Court.
The plaintiff-appellant was The United States and the defendants-appellees were William & Ballentine. The case arose under section 11 of the Chinese exclusion statute reenacted for the Philippine Islands by the Act of Congress of April 29, 1902 (32 Stat. L. 176), which reproduced section 11 of the Act of September 13, 1888 (25 Stat. L. 476) and made it a misdemeanor to alter, forge, utter, or present forged or fraudulent certificates required by the statute.
The complaint alleged that in September 1903 the defendants obtained from the imperial customs superintendent at Canton and from the United States vice-consul-general there a certificate stating that one Tan See Yiu was a merchant when in truth he was a laborer; that the defendants knew the certificate was false; and that they caused the certificate to be presented to the customs authorities at Manila to procure his admission into the Philippine Islands, with intent to deceive those authorities. The indictment charged the defendants with violating the quoted provision by procuring and presenting a false certificate.
In the trial court the defendants demurred to the complaint; the demurrer was sustained and the complaint dismissed. The United States prosecuted an appeal to this Court. In this Court the defendants moved to dismiss the appeal; that motion was denied by a decision filed August 17, 1903, and ...(Subscriber-Only)
Issues:
- Did the alleged obtaining and presentation of the false certificate by the defendants constitute "uttering" within the meaning of section 11 of the reenacted Chinese exclusion statute?
- Do the words "any forged or fraudulent certificate" in section 11 refer only to the particular kinds of certificates previously described in the same section (altered or substituted names, or forged certificates), or do they reach other certificates that are fraudulent in substance?
- Could Congress criminally punish the presentation to immigration/customs authorities in the Philippine Islands of a certificate containing fal...(Subscriber-Only)
Ruling:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Ratio:
- (Subscriber-Only)
Doctrine:
- (Subscriber-Only)