United States v. Quan Wah
Opinion of the Court
The defendant is a Chinese person, who was found by the inspector in a laundry, in Marion street, Brooklyn; he was cooking in the back part of the laundry. He was examin-. ed by the inspector, through the government interpreter, the examination being reported by the stenographer, and told the following story;
He was 26 years old; born in China; married there at 23, his wife and a child born after he left China being still there. He came to this country about 2% years before his arrest on April 22, 1913. He was farming in China just before he left there; was a farmer when he was a boy, but when old enough went into- business in Sum Woey. His father came here before he did, and when Quan Wah reached New York his father was a laundryman on Mott street, where defendant saw him working on his arrival. This statement he made in response to several questions; said he was positive about it. His father did not live long after defendant came here; he died in New York but defendant did not know where he was buried. Quan Wah came here via Vancouver. Asked how he entered, he said he had a “merchant paper
The story he told before the commissioner was in some material respects quite different. In substance it was this:
When arrested he was on a visit to the Marion street laundry; had been there two days only, and was cooking a meal; had never done any laundry work. He had lived in Hartford for three years, where he was a merchant, connected with the firm of “Wing Lee Company,” in which he had an interest of $1,000. He had been a merchant in Sun Woey, in the grocery business, having an interest of $1,500, which he sold for $1,400 before starting for the United States. His father was a merchant in Hartford, 124 State street, a member of the Wing Lee Company. After defendant arrived, his father turned over his interest in the firm to defendant, went back to China, and died there. He had a “merchant’s paper” when he came to Vancouver, which his father had sent to him; when he received this paper his father was in Hartford. Upon receiving the paper, defendant went to Canton, when the United States consul examined him and indorsed the paper, defendant also putting his signature on it. There was no Chinese writing on the paper, but it had a photograph attached. This paper which the consul indorsed was lost in a fire at No. 12 Pell street, a short time after he arrived here.
No other witness was examined, except the inspector and the interpreter. Upon this testimony the commissioner ordered deportation. Manifestly this testimony was conflicting in several essential particulars. Moreover, important parts of it, if true, could have been readily corroborated; but no witness was called to show that his father as recently as three or four years before had been a merchant in Plartford, or that defendant himself had been a merchant there for three years.
The order of the District Court is reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES v. QUAN WAH
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published