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In the matter of the application of Andrew J. Sawyer, United States District Attorney, for the District of Nebraska, Mee Lee Wah Village Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, Chin Tu Ling, Lee Shun and Look Fung, citizens of China, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus

June 18, 1898 - July 2, 1898

Petitioned on June 18, 1898

Filed before the US District Court for the Omaha Division of the District of Nebraska (Omaha, Nebraska)

Case ID: hc.case.ne.1500

Case Summary

On the morning of June 18, 1898, a Douglas County District Court judge discharged three Chinese teenagers from the custody of Lem You, an employee of a corporation responsible for developing a Chinese Village for that year's Trans-Mississippi and International Exhibition. The same day, a team consisting of U.S. district attorney, Andrew Sawyer, and lawyers representing the Mee Lee Wah Village Company petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus in federal court with the aim of re-establishing Company custody over the teenagers. The girls' names were disputed: state habeas proceedings referred to them as Lun Teu, Lun Kim, and Lun Yuk, whereas federal habeas proceedings, which established that these were the same individuals, referred to them as Chin Tu Ling, Lee Shun, and Look Fung. State Judge Cunningham Scott had ordered the three girls to be placed in county jail while Dr. Lydia J. Wyckoff, a missionary advocating their return to China, raised funds for their deportation. Sawyer and the Mee Lee Wah Village Company argued that the trio owed a contractual obligation to the corporation under federal law and that they could not be returned to China until after the the close of the Trans-Mississippi and International Exhibition. The girls were released from jail and placed in the temporary custody of the U.S. marshals while the court considered their case. After hearing the evidence, Federal Judge William Munger turned the girls over to the Mee Lee Wah Village Company so that they could complete their contracts.

Case Information

Petition type(s)

  • Carceral

Petition subtype(s)

  • Unlawful detention

Sites of significance

Outcome

Writ allowed

Fate of bound party

New custody arrangement reached

Case Citation

Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. District Court for the Omaha Division of the District of Nebraska, Series: Criminal Dockets, 1867-1959, Vol. M, p. 262; Record Group 21: Records of District Courts of the United States, 1685 - 2009, U.S. District Court for the Omaha Division of the District of Nebraska. (2/27/1907- ), Series: Criminal Case Files, 1867-1983, Box 4, No. M-262

Source material(s)

Docket | Case File

Length of case file

Between 41 and 50 pages

Related petitions

Repository(s)

State

  • Nebraska

Point(s) of law cited

U.S. Const. amend. XIV.|U.S. Congressional Joint Resolution No. 17, June 30, 1897

Tag(s)

  • Corporate petitioner
  • Coercive habeas
  • Children
  • 14th amendment

People

Citation

Katrina Jagodinsky, Cory Young, Andrew Varsanyi, Laura Weakly, Karin Dalziel, William Dewey, Erin Chambers, Greg Tunink. “In the matter of the application of Andrew J. Sawyer, United States District Attorney, for the District of Nebraska, Mee Lee Wah Village Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Illinois, Chin Tu Ling, Lee Shun and Look Fung, citizens of China, for a Writ of Habeas Corpus.” Petitioning for Freedom: Habeas Corpus in the American West, 1812-1924, University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Accessed November 21, 2024. https://petitioningforfreedom.unl.edu/cases/item/hc.case.ne.1500

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