Oyama Et Al. v. California

332 U.S. 633 (1948)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

One of the petitioners is P, a minor American citizen in whose name title was taken. The other is his father and guardian, Kajiro Oyama, a Japanese citizen not eligible for naturalization who paid the purchase price. The Alien Land Law forbids aliens ineligible for American citizenship to acquire, own, occupy, lease, or transfer agricultural land. It also provides that any property acquired in violation of the statute shall escheat as of the date of acquisition and that the same result shall follow any transfer made with 'intent to prevent, evade or avoid' escheat. Intent is presumed whenever an ineligible alien pays the consideration for a transfer to a citizen or eligible alien. Six acres of agricultural land in southern California were purchased in 1934 when P was six years old. Kajiro Oyama paid the $4,000 consideration, and the seller executed a deed to P. The deed was duly recorded. Six months later, the father petitioned the Superior Court to be appointed P's guardian, stating that P owned the six acres. After a hearing, the court found the allegations of the petition true and Kajiro Oyama was 'a competent and proper person' to be appointed P's guardian. The appointment was then ordered, and the father posted the necessary bond. In 1936 and again in 1937, the father as guardian sought permission to borrow $4,000, payable in six months, for the purpose of financing the next season's crops and to mortgage the six-acre parcel as security. In each case, notice of the petition and date for the hearing was published in a newspaper, and the court then approved the borrowing. A second parcel, an adjoining two acres, was acquired in 1937 when P was nine years old. It was sold by the guardian of another minor, and the court supervising that guardianship confirmed the sale 'to P' as the highest bidder at a publicly advertised sale. A copy of the court's order was recorded. P's father again paid the purchase price, $ 1,500. From that point on, Kajiro Oyama did not file the annual reports that the Alien Land Law requires of all guardians of agricultural land belonging to minor children of ineligible aliens. In 1942, P and his family were evacuated from the Pacific Coast along with all other persons of Japanese descent. And in 1944, when P was sixteen and still forbidden to return home, the State filed a petition to declare an escheat of the two parcels on the ground that the conveyances in 1934 and 1937 had been with intent to violate and evade the Alien Land Law. The trial court found as facts that the father had had the beneficial use of the land and that the transfers were subterfuges effected with intent to prevent, evade or avoid escheat. The court indicated orally that its findings were based primarily on nothing but inferences. The Supreme Court of California affirmed. P appealed.