Clark, Attorney General, As Successor to the Alien Property Custodian, v. Uebersee Finanz-korporation, A. G. (332 U.S. 480)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided December 8, 1947 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 332 U.S. 480 · 68 S. Ct. 174
- Docket
- No. 35
- Argued
- May 1, 1947; reargued November 12, 1947
- Decided
- December 8, 1947
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 8–0
- Majority author
- Justice Douglas
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Justice Burton, Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Douglas (wrote), Justice Frankfurter, Justice Reed, Justice Black, Justice Rutledge, Justice Murphy
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Douglas delivered the opinion of the Court. Respondent brought this suit to reclaim property which the Alien Property Custodian, acting under § 5 (b) of the Trading With the Enemy Act, 40 Stat. 411, 50 U. S. C. App. § 1, as amended by the First War Powers Act of 1941, 55 Stat. 839, 50 U. S. C. App. (Supp. V, 1946), § 5 (b), had vested in himself. Respondent is a corporation organized under the laws of Switzerland and having its principal place of business in that country. The property seized consisted of shares of stock in corporations organized under the laws of various States of this nation and of an interest in a contract between two such corporations. The complaint alleges that respondent is not an enemy or ally of an enemy and that at no time at or since the vesting has the property in question been owned or controlled, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part, by an enemy, ally of an enemy, or a national of a designated enemy country. It also alleges that none of the property has been owing or belonging to or held on account of or for the benefit of any such person or interest. We construe these allegations to mean that the property is free of all enemy taint and particularly that the corporations whose shares have been seized, the corporations which have a contract in which respondent has an interest, and respondent itself, are companies in which no…
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