Phillips Lytle LLP Attorney Anna Mercado Clark to Participate In CLE Event “This Land Is Our Land: Oyama V. California”

PHILLIPS LYTLE LLP ATTORNEY ANNA MERCADO CLARK TO PARTICIPATE IN CLE EVENT “THIS LAND IS OUR LAND: OYAMA V. CALIFORNIA”

New York, N.Y. – Anna Mercado Clark, an attorney with Phillips Lytle LLP, will participate in the CLE event “This Land Is Our Land: Oyama v. California.” The event will take place at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP in New York on Wednesday, May 31.

This presentation by members of the Asian American Bar Association of New York (AABANY), and the Honorable Denny Chin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, will tell the story of Kajiro and Fred Oyama and the State of California through narration, reenactment of court proceedings and historic photographs.

In 1934, Kajiro Oyama, a Japanese American farmer, purchased six acres of land in Chula Vista, California. In 1937, he bought two adjacent acres. At the time, California’s Alien Land Law prohibited “aliens ineligible for American citizenship” from owning land, and under federal law, Oyama was ineligible for naturalization, even though he had been living in this country for some twenty years. Oyama bought the land in the name of his son Fred, who was born in California.

The State of California brought an action to escheat the land to the State, on the grounds the land was purchased in Fred’s name as a “fraud upon the People of the State of California.” The case would eventually reach the United States Supreme Court.

Ms. Clark focuses her practice in the areas of business and commercial litigation including banking/ lender liability litigation, and contract and business disputes. As a former Assistant District Attorney, she also handles white collar criminal matters and investigations.