Cleveland v. McClung/Opinion of the Court

by Morrison Waite

United States Supreme Court

119 U.S. 454

Cleveland  v.  McClung

The removal was under section 643 of the Revised Statutes, which provides, among other things, for the removal of 'a civil suit * * * commenced in any court of a state against an officer appointed under or acting by authority of any revenue law of the United States, * * * on account of any act done under color of his office.' This is a suit against a collector of customs, an officer appointed under the revenue laws of the United States, for an act alleged to have been done by him in the delivery of dutiable goods placed in his hands by birtue of his office subject to a carrier's lien. His liability, if any there is, grows out of his official duty to keep the goods, and deliver them to the consignees thereof when the import duties are paid and the carrier's lien discharged. The allegation is that the collector, instead of notifying the carrier, as the law required, delivered the goods to the consignees on receiving himself the moneys due for the carrier's charges. This suit is for the money so received. Clearly, then, according to the allegations of the petition, the suit is for an act done by the collector under color of his office. This is not seriously denied, but the claim is that, as the defendant insists, and the court below has decided, that it was not the official duty of the collector to collect the carrier's money, and therefore that he is not liable for the acts of his deputy in that behalf, the suit is really one that could not be removed. But the petition alleges an act done by the collector under color of his office, and seeks a recovery on that account. Such a suit is removable, and certainly the right to a removal is not taken away because the collector says in his defense that the act charged was not in fact done. If done by him, it was done under color of his office. The thing to be tried is whether it was done.

We agree entirely with the court below in the view it took of the character of the suit which has been brought. It is not for damages for delivering the goods without notice to the carrier, but for the charges collected on the delivery. This is the case made, both by the petition and upon the trial. The whole effort on the part of the company, so far as the record discloses, was to show that it was, and had been for years, the general usage in Cincinnati for consignees to pay the carrier's charges upon dutiable goods carried, and held in the custom-house for the payment of duties, to the cashier deputy of the collector, and that such payments were exacted and required by the deputy as a condition precedent to the delivery; he accounting to the carriers for the money received on this account. The claim was that these payments had been made pursuant to this custom, and that the collector was bound by the acts of the deputy, and liable for his defaults. If the suit had been to recover damages for the delivery without notice, this proof might, perhaps, have come from the other side, to show that the carriers had, by long usage, made the deputy their agent to collect their charges, and that, as the payment had in this case been made to the deputy in accordance with that custom, no notice was required. We are clear, therefore, that the whole case turns upon the question whether the collector is liable for these collections of the deputy.

Section 2630 of the Revised Statutes gives authority to every collector of customs to employ, with the approval of the secretary of the treasury, 'such number of persons as deputy collectors as he shall deem necessary, and such deputies are declared to be officers of the customs.' There can be no doubt that the collector is answerable for all the acts of his deputies in the performance of their official duties under him. The real question here is, therefore, whether the collection of the carrier's charges was a part of the official duty of the collector. If it was, the collection by the deputy was an official act, and the principal officer is liable accordingly. What, then, was the duty of the collector under this statute? Clearly, to take the goods from the carrier when brought, and not to deliver them to the consignees without first giving seasonable notice to the person or persons wLo had notified him in writing of the existence of a lien in their favor thereon for freight. The statute neither made it his duty to collect the freight, nor authorized him to receive it for the lienholder. Payment to him would not have been a payment to the carrier, so as to discharge the consignee from liability for the freight, unless the carrier had made him his personal agent for that purpose, in which case he would receive the money, not as collector, but in his private capacity as the representative of the person to whom the money was due. The money in his hands on this account would not be in any sense public moneys, for which he was officially liable to the government, but private moneys, collected in a private capacity, for which he was accountable only to the person from whom he received his authority. So, too, if he had received the freight without authority, and the carrier had sued him for it, he would be liable, because the carrier, by suing, would have ratified his act, and accepted his agency in the premises. But his liability in that case would not be official as collector, but private as the agent of the carrier.

It follows that the payment of the freight to the deputy was not in law a payment to McClung, unless the deputy, in making the collection, was acting under authority from him, not in his official, but in his private, capacity. For this purpose it is not sufficient that Wartman, to whom the payments were made, was the official deputy of McClung as collector. It must appear that he was his private agent in this behalf. That question was fairly submitted to the jury under proper instructions, and the verdict was against the company, and to the effect that McClung had not authorized Wartman to receive the freight moneys on his account. That concludes this point.

As the alleged exactions of the deputy were not within the scope, either actual or apparent, under the law, of the authority of the collector's office, the case is not within the principle which, under some circumstances, makes the officer liable for the illegal and wrongful acts of his deputy, of which Ogden v. Maxwell, 3 Blatchf. 319, and McIntyre v. Trumbull, 7 Johns. 35, cited in the brief of counsel for the company, are examples. And, besides, here the exactions, if any, were not from the company, but from the consignees, who alone can complain. If they were made without the authority of the company to whom the freight belonged, the company is under no obligation to accept the payment thus exacted in discharge of its debt for the freight, and may still proceed against the consignees for its recovery.

If this were a suit for delivering the goods without notice to the company, a different rule would apply. As it was the duty of the collector, as collector, to notify the company before delivery, and not to deliver until proof to his satisfaction had been produced that the freight had been paid or secured, it would have been a breach of official duty for the deputy to make the delivery before the notice, and the act of the deputy would have been in law the act of his principal. Such a case would be within Ogden v. Maxwell and McIntyre v. Trumbull, and others of like import, which are very numerous. But, as has already been shown, this suit is not of that character. It is for the money paid, and not for delivery without payment.

It follows that there is no error in the record, and the judgment is consequently affirmed.

Notes