Justia Federal District Court Opinions

This is an alien property case. Plaintiff-appellee, a German national, applied to the Attorney General for relief under Section 32 of the Trading With the Enemy Act,¹ claiming to be a persecuted person within the scope of the first proviso of Section 32(a) (2) (D).² The Attorney General, after hearing, found that plaintiff was not within the class intended to be benefited by that proviso, and refused to return plaintiff's vested property. Plaintiff then brought suit in the District Court, praying an adjudication of eligibility under the proviso. The Government moved to dismiss, and the District Court denied the motion. An interlocutory appeal was allowed under the provisions of 28 U.S.C.A. § 1292(b) (Supp. 1958).

Though this is not a direct attempt to compel the return of vested alien property, it is an effort to obtain judicial determination of a preliminary issue of a sort committed by Congress to agency discretion. As such, it is forbidden by Section 7(c) of the Act, and reliance cannot be placed on other legislation having no specific application to alien property, such as the Declaratory Judgment Act³ and the Administrative Procedure Act.⁴ See McGrath v. Zander, 1949, 85 U.S. App.D.C. 334, 177 F.2d 649; Legerlotz v. Rogers, 1959, ___ U.S.App.D.C. ___, 266 F.2d 457, and cases there cited. The complaint must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

Remanded.