Yu Cong Eng v. Trinidad

Background

A Philippine law passed in 1921 (effective 1923) forbade business account books in any language except English, Spanish, or local dialects. Two Chinese merchants charged under the law asked the Philippine Supreme Court to block its criminal enforcement. They said most Chinese merchants could only read and write Chinese and that the ban would leave them ignorant of their own business records and drive many out of business.

Reasoning

The high court here reviewed how the Philippine court had narrowed the law to avoid striking it down. The United States Court said a criminal statute must be read as written and that courts cannot rewrite a penal law to save it. Construed literally, the bookkeeping law plainly forbade Chinese-language books. The Court found that this ban was arbitrary and oppressive because it would deprive Chinese merchants of the means to run and protect their businesses and thus deprived them of property and fair legal protections.

Real world impact

The decision invalidates the bookkeeping law as written and prevents criminal punishment for keeping Chinese-language accounts. It protects roughly 12,000 Chinese merchants who handled a large share of trade from being forced into unfamiliar recordkeeping or from losing their businesses. The ruling also makes clear the government may still require reasonable tax records, but it may not impose a blanket prohibition that would be arbitrary and destructive.

Dissents or concurrances

Two justices below disagreed with the majority’s interpretation and warned the court had gone beyond its power by materially changing the statute rather than enforcing the Legislature’s language.