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39 Cal. 2d 883

Masaoka v. People

California Supreme Court

Decided July 9, 1952

California Supreme Court · decided 1952-07-09

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently December 1982

1 state decisions

Relies on 38 Cal. 2d 718 - Sei Fujii v. State of California

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1952-07-09

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THE COURT.

¶1Five brothers, American citizens of Japanese ancestry, agreed among themselves to build a home for their widowed mother, a Japanese alien ineligible to citizenship, who had no property or income other than a small pension. One brother and his wife purchased a residential lot in Pasadena and executed a deed giving the mother a life estate in the property with remainder to the five brothers. The mother, together with her sons and daughter-in-law, then brought this action to determine whether the property had escheated to the state by operation of the Alien Land Law. (I Deering’s Gen. Laws, Act 261.) The trial court quieted title in the mother and sons, holding that the Alien Land Law is unconstitutional because it violates the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal Constitution.

¶2Our decision in Sei Fujii v. State of California, 38 Cal.2d 718 [242 P.2d 617], is controlling and for the reasons there stated the judgment must be affirmed.

¶3Judgment affirmed.

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