G.R. No. L-11711; August 18, 1916

FACTS:
On January 28, 1916, Wat Ki Hing, a Chinese woman, arrived at the port of Manila on the steamship Taming. She was accompanied by her employer, Go E. Non, the Chinese wife of Choy Fu Say, a resident Chinese merchant in the Philippine Islands. It was admitted that Wat Ki Hing was a Chinese laborer and a domestic servant of the Choy Fu Say family, and that she had never been in the Philippine Islands before. She presented none of the certificates required by law for the admission of Chinese. The Board of Special Inquiry, after investigation, denied her entry, finding her to be a member of the prohibited class (Chinese laborer). The Insular Collector of Customs affirmed this decision and ordered her deportation. A petition for a writ of habeas corpus was subsequently filed in the Court of First Instance. The lower court, relying on the 1880 Treaty between the United States and China, which allowed Chinese merchants to bring their domestic servants, revoked the Collector’s order and admitted Wat Ki Hing into the Islands. The Insular Collector of Customs appealed to the Supreme Court.

ISSUE:
Whether a resident Chinese merchant in the Philippine Islands has the right, under the 1880 Treaty between the United States and China, to bring into the Islands from China a Chinese domestic servant who is a laborer belonging to the prohibited class and who has never been in the Islands before.

RULING:
No. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the lower court. The Court held that the privilege under the 1880 Treaty (or the Act of Congress implementing it) for Chinese merchants to bring their domestic servants applies only when the merchant is entering the United States (or its territory, like the Philippines) from China. It does not extend to Chinese merchants who are already residents within the territory and who return to China to bring back servants. To allow such an interpretation would undermine the fundamental purpose of the Chinese Exclusion Laws by potentially flooding the country with Chinese laborers under the guise of being domestic servants. The order of the Insular Collector of Customs for the deportation of Wat Ki Hing was affirmed. However, the Court noted that during the pendency of the appeal, Wat Ki Hing had already voluntarily returned to China at her own expense. Consequently, the Court ordered the return of the cash bond she had posted for her liberty.