Fontanals v Herrera

• Jurisdiction: Cuba
• Date: 17 February 1942
• Docket Number: Case No. 79
• Court: Supreme Court (Cuba)

Cuba, Supreme Court.

Case No. 79

Fontanals

and

Herrera.

Naturalization — Effect of — In Country of Origin — Fraudulent Naturalization.

The Facts.—The plaintiff was the recognized natural son of a testator who, born in Cuba, lived in Habana from 1904, and was until July 1913 a commercial notary there, for which office only Cuban citizens were eligible by law. He, with his wife and a lawful son, the defendants in the present case, were naturalized as United States citizens in New York, April 15, 1911. Subsequently they resided in Habana until August 8, 1928. The testator died in Paris where he was on a journey. He left a will declaring himself to be a citizen of the United States and New York. The will was executed in Habana, May 12, 1928. It purported to distribute the estate according to United States law, and gave the plaintiff much less than his minimum lawful share according to Cuban law. The plaintiff sought to have the will set aside, and a declaration of intestacy, on the ground of fraud in the naturalization. He maintained that Fontanals had not lived five years in the United States, nor one year in New York. The Audiencia held that the United States naturalization was ineffective in Cuba. The plaintiff appealed.

Held: that the United States naturalization is ineffective in Cuba. “It is not a question in the present case of obtaining a declaration of nullity of the naturalization obtained by Fontanals in the United States, as an American citizen, but of its ineffectiveness in Cuba. … It is for the Cuban courts to decide this matter in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 of the Civil Code.1 It is not permissible for those born in Cuba to frustrate...