Volume 12 — Court of Claims Reports

The Reporters’ statement of the case: There being evidence that the owners in this case yielded to superior force,'the court below found as a fact the impressment of the vessel; and the defendants asked for no additional findings. Nevertheless, as will be seen, the Supreme Court speaks of the findings as defective, and refers to the opinion of the court below and to the brief of the appellant for additional facts.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The court below found the following facts : The claimants seek by their petition to recover $17,356, which they aver was expended in the fulfillment of the following contract: “ Camden, Abe., Nov. 10,1865. “ This contract, made and entered into by and between A. B. Miller, assistant special agent Treasury Department, and W. H. Whiteside & Co., that said Whiteside & Co. agree to proceed to La Fayette County, Ark., (distant sixty-five…

The Reporter if statement of the case : The court below found the following facts: The claimant, before the war, had his domicile in the city of New Orleans, La., where he resided, and was a partner with one Laforest, under the style of Laforest & Desmare, commission-merchants, and he was residing there also on the 19th of January, 1866.

The Reporters’ statement of tlie case: The evidence as to the amount of the loss in this case being entirely circumstantial, and the court below being divided upon and having doubts as to its sufficiency in law to entitle the officer to relief, the circumstances tending tp fix the amount were found, but not the ultimate fact, in order that the Supreme Court might pass upon the sufficiency of these circumstantial facts to sustain the decree.

The Reporters' statement, of the case: The, court below found the following facts: That the petitioner, as trustee of Mrs. Louisa Fletcher, was, on the 17th day of August, 1861, seized in fee of said premises, containing about ninety-one acres; a dwelling-house with wings, measuring in all 150 by 40 feet; a large stable, and a frame building; with a garden, lawns and walks, a fence all around the premises, and a substantial wall, about a quarter of a mile long, from Rook…

The Reporters' statement of the ease: The court below found the foliowiug facts: 1. In the year 1806 or 1807 the claimaut was employed by the foreman of the steam-heating- and gas works at the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, to work for the defendants at $2.50 a day, with the understanding that during the season of steaming, which was from the 1st of October to the 1st of June, his time of labor was to be twelve hours a day.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: This case with several others was submitted in order to present a number of disputed points relating to officers’ pay and allowances to the Supreme Court. No opinion was delivered in the court below. Ghilson’s Gcise (11 C. Ols.

The Reporters’ statement of the case : This cáse was heard in the court below upon the defendants’ demurrer to the claimant’s petition, and the petition was dismissed. I argue that these claims were referred to the Postmaster-G-eneral to be finally and conclusively adjusted and settled. This conclusion is drawn from the express words of the act of 1857, and the resolution of 1870.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The court below found the following facts : I. In May, 1873, the chief quartermaster of the Department of the Platte advertised for proposals for constructing certain buildings at the military post of Beaver, in the Territory of Utah. On the 24th June, 1873, the claimant sent in proposals, which were accepted by the order of the Secretary of War on the 23d August, 1873.

The ’Reporters' statement of the ease: The following was the petition of the claimant to the Supreme Court of the United States for a writ of certiorari to be directed to the Court of Claims: To the honorable the Supreme Gourt of the United States: The petition of John Young, assignee and trustee in bankruptcy of Alexander Collie, respectfully shows: That your petitioner is such assignee aud trustee, and is a subject of her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, aud resides in…

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The petition in this suit recited at length the petition in the former suit, and then alleged as follows : “ The defendant having joined issue upon the allegations in said petition, and the testimony having been closed on both sides, the cause was regularly brought on for hearing.

The Reporters’ statement of the case : The court found the following facts: 1. By the Aet Congress August 4, 1854, section 4, (10 Stat.

The Reporters’ statement of the ease : A question of estoppel by record was also involved in tlie suit, but bad been previously considered by the court. (See 10 C. Cls. B., 412.) The following are the facts found by the court: 1.

The Reporters’ statement of the case The following facts found by the court fully set forth the transactions out of which the claimant acquired title to the property in suit: 1. On the 24th of March, 1864, the claimant bought of E. P. Daves 150 bales of cotton. The transaction took place at Holly Springs, in the State of Mississippi; but the cotton at the time was at Daves’s plantation, in Noxubee County, in that State.

The Reporters7 statement of the cáse: The court found the following facts: 1.

The Reporters' statement of the case: The court found the following facts: I. In December, 1867, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue published a notice or offer of reward in the following terms : tl $300 Reward. “ Tee a suit y Department, “ Oefioe oe Internal Revenue, Washington, December Wi, 1861. “ The share of informers in the property ordinarily liable to forfeiture upon seizure of illicit distilleries is found to be iuade-; quate to insure that interest and vigilance…

The Reporters' statement of the case: The court found the following facts: 1. Held: that such absence must be voluntary, and consequently the act does not apply to a case where the absence was compulsory, and in consequence of a sentence of court-martial which was illegal and void. {Ibid., 268, § 19.) ■ This claim is not barred in whole or in part by the statute of limitation's. (Act-3d March, 1863,12 Stat.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The clause of the contract designating the supplies to be transported by the claimants was as follows: “First.

The Reporters’ statement of the case : The following are the facts found by the court: I. The claimant was duly appointed and commissioned deputy postmaster at Danville, Ill., for four years from January 17,1871, and he entered upon and discharged the duties of the said office from that date until after July 1, 1874. The salary assigned to said office when the claimant obtained it was $2,000 per annum for the biennial period from June 30, 1870, to July 1,1872. II.

The Reporters' statement of the case : The following is a statement of the statutory provisions and the fabts involved in the demurrer to the claimant’s petition : I. By the Act July 1, 1862, (12 Stat. L., 489,) incorporating the Union Pacific Eailroad Company, that company was authorized to construct a railroad from a point in the Territory of Nebraska, on the one hundredth meridian of longitude, to the western boundary of the Territory of Nevada. II.

The Reporters’ statement of the case : The court found the following facts: 1.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The only allegations in the claimant’s petition concerning her title or ownership to the captured property in suit are the following: “ That in the month of July, 1863, she was the owner and in possession of 112 bales of cotton at her residence on her plantation on Toketa Lake, seven miles from Yazoo City, in said county.

The Reporters' statement of the case : The court found the following facts : 1. FovembervA.

The Reporters' statement of the case: The following are the principal averments of the claimant’s petition: The petitioner, on and prior to the 1st day of July, 1868, to and since the 1st day of July, 1870, was and is the owner of two certain tracts or parcels of land lying and being in the •county of Wise, State of Texas, containing in all 1,280 acres.

<p> On the defendants’ Motion. </p> <p>Two of the land-grant railroads bring suits in this court for their services as carriers. Judgment being for the defendants, the claimants appeal. The Supreme Court * reverses the judgments and directs judgment to be entered for the claimants for their services as carriers “ subject to a fair deduction for the use of their respective railroads.” {Seep. 35, ante.) In this case the claimants allege in their petition a contract arising out of an order of the War Department fixing one-third of ordinary ia/riff rates as a fair deduction, and the claimants’ acquiescence therein, and the Government’s promise to pay the balance. The court found the same facts substantially. The claimants move on ihemandate of the Supreme Court for j udgment accordingly. The defendants insist that they may shoiv that a larger reduction should be made, but stipulate thatjudgment be entered with leave to them to move to vacate it. They noiv move on the ground that this judgment is not required by the mandate of the Supreme Court, and that a larger reduction should be made. Affidavits and reports of railroad experts are read by both parties.</p> <p>I. The decision of the Supreme Court in the Land-grant Railroad Cases (ante, p. 35) does not discuss or determine what is “ a fair deduction for the use of the respective railroads,” and is not confined to any one case, but lays down a comprehensive rule equally applicable to all land-grant railroads, defining their legal relations with the Government.</p> <p>II. A fair deduction for the Government’s right to the free use of a laud-grant railroad may he the subject of voluntary agreement.</p> <p>III. Where the War Department by a general order settled what was a fair deduction for the use of all land-grant railroads, it did not bind the roads; but where one voluntarily rendered service accordingly and acquiesced in that rate of reduction and seeks only that compensation, the acts of the parties may be taken as the best evidence of what was a fair deduction for the use of that road.</p> <p>I'Y. A land-grant railroad in a suit against the Government for freight-earnings can recover for its services as a carrier, but not for the use of its road. Its ordinary tariff-rates embrace compensation for both. Therefore, if they be taken as a basis of computation, there should be such deduction made as would reduce the rate to what another carrier would charge for carrying the freight on the Goverumeut’s railroad free of rent.</p> <p>V. No theoretical formula can be adopted in the land-grant railroad oases as a rule for the measure of damages which disregards the legal rights of the parties and seeks to make them, on equitable considerations, participators in each other’s gains and loss'es. The practical question must always be, what is the market value of the Government’s right to the free use of the road ?</p>

The Reporters' statement of the case: The petition in this case set up that on the 8th day of July, A. D. 1873, the petitioner was legally appointed and sworn by the supreme court of the District of Columbia administrator of the personal estate of Peter Lammond, deceased, who at the time of his death was a citizen and resident of the District aforesaid.

So much of section 3, Act March 3,1863, as purports to give this court power to render judgment in favor of the United States against a claimant, is in violation of the seventh amendment of the Constitution, which provides that in suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved. “ Suit at law” refers to the cause of action, the remedy, and the mode of enforcing it, not to the forum to which the…

<p>The Reporters' statement of the case :</p> <p>The facts are fully set forth in the opinion of the court.</p>

For the defendants it is contended that this money reached the Treasury of the United States as part of its internal revenue, and therefore the court is without jurisdiction to inquire into the alleged illegality of its application to the assessment. By May, 1871, claimant knew that his offer had been rejected and his money used in payment of the tax assessed against him, yet failed within the time fixed by law to avail himself of his remedy.

The Reporters' statement of the case: The court found the following facts: I. In November, 1836, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, a religious and charitable corporation, established and existing under the laws of the State of Massachusetts, b,y their missionary and agent, the Rev. H. H. Spauld-ing, entered upon and occupied the premises described in the' petition as a permanent missionary station among the Indian tribes in the Territory of Oregon.

The Reporters' statement of the ease : The charter-party in this case was in the usual form of quartermaster’s charter-parties. The following facts were found by the court: I. Charles F. Field, on the 4th day of May, 1863, as owner of the steam-vessel called the M. S. Allison, entered into a charter-party of that vessel with a quartermaster of the United States Army, a copy of which is appended to and made part of the petition filed in this behalf. II.

. The Reporters statement of tbe case: The following facts were found by the court: 1. In the years 1868 and 1869, and thereafter, the claimants were distillers, and had distilleries in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the then twenty-second internal revenue collection-district, designated Nos. 1 and 4. 2.

The Reporters’ statement of tbe case: The following facts were found by the court: I. Before the year 1805 John Scott, who was chief agent of produce-loan for Alabama and East Mississippi of the Oonfed-erate States of America, so called, purchased 3,405 bales of cotton. for the Confederate government, in lots, at different times and of different planters, (among other purchases by him,) in the States of Alabama and Mississippi, and in each purchase took a receipt,…

The Reporters’ statement of the case : The petition was as follows: “Your petitioner says he was in the employ of the Senate of the United States prior to and on the 3d day of March, 1873; that he continued in the employ of the said Senate up to and including the 20th day of January, 1874; that the amount of money actually payable to him before and up to the 3d day of March, 1873, was at the rate of $3.25 per day; and that after the date last named up to the 20th da,y of…

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The following facts were found by the court: I. In 1803 the claimants were partners in trade, doing busi ness in the city of New York, under the firm-style of Silliman, Matthews & Go.

The Reporters’ statement) of the case: The following axe the facts as found by the court: I. On the 20th of April, 1867, the claimant was appointed by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, deputy postmaster at Nashville, in the State of Tennessee, for the term of four years from that day, and the commission issued to him was in the following words: “Andrew Johnson, President'of the United States of Amér-ica, to all who shall…

The Reporters' statement .of the case: In the month of December, 1870, the claimants purchased, at the city of New York, from importers, a large quantity of linseed which had been imported in that… Held: constituted# system provided by Congress for the benefit of those persons who complain of such mistakes, and gives them a complete remedy. Here, however, is no case of mistake, nor a claim for which any remedy is provided under the tariff acts.

The Reporters' statement of the case: The court found the following facts: • I. On the 1st day of May, 1871, the claimants, Charles F. Sampson, Daniel Day, John F. Chapin, Stephen D. Andrews, Earl P. Mason, John A. Taft, administrator of Tully D. Bowen ; Colin 0.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The court found the following facts: I. Under the provisions of the Aet July 20,1868, (15 Stat. L., 157, § 73,) the Commissioner of Internal Revenue designated and established at different ports of entry bonded warehouses for the storage of manufactured tobacco and snuff in bond intended for exportation, under the control of the collector of internal revenue in charge of exports at the port and in the district where located. II.

The Reporters’ statement Of the'ease: The following are the facts found by the court upon which the final argument in the case was heard : I; In the year 1864, Brigadier-General John M. Thayer was in command of the District of the Frontier, Department of Arkansas, with headquarters at Fort Smith, and Greene Durbin, captain and assistant quartermaster, was chief quartermaster of said district; which district was in the Indian Territory, south of Kansas and west of Arkansas.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The following are the facts as found by the court: I. The moneys in the Treasury of the United States derived from the sales of captured cotton in Northern Georgia, which came to the custody of the agents of the Treasury through the city of Nashville, have been separated by this court into distinct funds, representing, so far as possible, distinct captures.

The Reporters' statement of tlie case: The following are the facts as found by the court: , I. August Couturie & Co. were importers and commission-merchants in Hew Orleans, La., aud during the spring of 1809 and up to Juue of that year imported iuto the port of New Orleans several cargoes of sugar, by different vessels, including amoDg them the Dexter Washburn. II.

• The Reporters statement of the case: The claimants’ right to bring in cotton rested on the following permit of the President and argreement of the Secretary of the Treasury.

The Reporters' statement of the case: The terms of the contract are quoted in the opinion of the court. The following are the facts as found by the conrt: I. On the 22d day of January, 1863, at Washington, D. C., Henry Johnson, medical storekeeper United States Army, representing the Surgeon-General’s Department, issued the following advertisement: “ Proposals for ice. “Medical Pukveyok’s Oeeice, “ Washington, I).

The Reporters’ statement of the case : The allegations of the petition, demurred to by the defendants, sufficiently appear in the opinion of the court. It will be observed that upou the first and principal question in the case, the price of stones exceeding twenty cubic feet in ■dimensions, a majority of the court were not agreed.

The Reporters'’ statement of the ease: These cases came to a hearing on the reports of Commissioner Eveleth, and on various exceptions filed by different parties, and on a motion to confirm the reports. The court also took up the evidence incases where the commissioner’s findings of facb-were excepted to and the parties requested it.

The Reporters’ statement of the case: The facts connected with these applications appear in the opinion of the court, and in the Arkansas Cotton Cases, (ante.)

The Reporters’ statement of the case: This is the same case reported in 9 C. Gis. R., 431. Judgment was then rendered for the claimant. An appeal was taken by the defendants. While it was pending in the Supreme Court, they moved in this court for a new trial under the statute, (Rev. Stat., § 1088,) on the ground of newly-discovered evidence. The motion was granted, hut, no opinions having been delivered, it is not reported.