United States v. Gillis

by William Strong

United States Supreme Court

95 U.S. 407

United States  v.  Gillis

APPEAL from the Court of Claims.

This suit was brought June 11, 1867, in the court below, by Thomas H. Gillis, in his own name, to recover the proceeds of one hundred and eight bales of cotton seized under the Abandoned and Captured Property Act of March 12, 1863, as the property of John H. Ryan, at Charleston, S.C.., in March, 1865, by the military forces of the United States.

The Court of Claims found the following facts:--

1. In March, 1865, one John H. Ryan, of Charleston, S.C.., was the owner of one hundred and three bales of upland cotton and five bales of sea-island cotton, which were during that month seized at said Charleston by military officers of the United States, turned over to the agents of the Treasury Department, transported to New York, and there sold, and the net proceeds thereof covered into the United States treasury, amounting to the sum of $130.33 per bale for the upland cotton, and $231.61 per bale for the sea-island cotton.

2. Some time in October or November, 1866, said Ryan transferred the legal title to his claim against the United States for the proceeds of said cotton so covered into the treasury to Thomas H. Gillis, of New York, and assented to the bringing this action thereon in the name of said Gillis.

3. After the institution of this action, said Thomas H. died; and Catherine I. Gillis was duly appointed administratrix of his estate by the surrogate Court of the county and State of New York, on the sixteenth day of July, 1868, and has since been admitted by the court to prosecute this suit as such administratrix.

4. The transfer of the claim, as set forth in the second finding, was made through one Van Ness, at New York, under a power of attorney from said Ryan, and contract, the full terms of which have not been proved. But it appears that said Ryan (since deceased) assented to and affirmed said transfer. Subsequently a controversy arose between the present claimant and the administrator of said Ryan as to an equitable interest set up by said administrator in some portion of the money which might be recovered. Since this action was instituted, a compromise has been made between said claimant and said Ryan's administrator, by which it is agreed that a certain part (but how much it does not appear) of the amount recovered shall be paid over to said administrator by the claimant's attorneys of record.

The court thereupon found as a conclusion of law that the claimant was entitled to recover $13,423.99, as the proceeds of one hundred and three bales of upland cotton, and $1,158.05, as the proceeds of five bales of sea-island cotton, in all, the sum of $14,582.04, and rendered judgment accordingly. The United States brought the case here.

Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Smith for the appellant.

The Court of Claims possesses no equity powers, and cannot pass upon equitable claims. Alire's Case, 6 Ct. of Cl. 575; Ha vey's Case, 8 id. 512. If it could, an assignee of an unliquidated claim against the United States would have no standing in that court, as the act of Feb. 26, 1853, 10 Stat. 170, renders void the assignment of such a claim. Sine's Case, 1 Ct. of Cl. 12; Cooper's Case, id. 87; Pierce's Case, id. 288; Cote's Case, 3 id. 65; Adam's Case, id. 332; Stowe's Case, 5 id. 371 Atocha's Case, 6 id. 69; Becker v. Sweetzer, 15 Minn. 427.

Such a claim was not assignable at common law; and this court, in United States v. Robeson, 9 Pet. 319, held that there was no act of Congress establishing a different rule.

A claim to personal property, or to its proceeds, in the adverse possession of another, cannot be sold as as to invest the purchaser with a right of action in his own name. Gardner v. Adams, 12 Wend. (N. Y.) 297; Stogdell v. Fugate, 2 A. K. Mar. (Ky.) 61; Young v. Ferguson, 1 Litt. (Ky.) 298; Com. v. Fuqua, 3 id. 41; Brown v. Lipscomb, 9 Port. (Ala.) 472; Goodwyn v. Lloyd, 8 id. 237; McGoon v. Aukeny, 11 Ill. 558; Davis v. Herdon, 39 Miss. 484.

Nor has an assignment of a part of a claim ever been recognized as operative to give such a right. Mandeville v. Welch, 5 Wheat. 277; Robbins v. Bacon, 3 Me. 346; Gibson v. Cooke, 20 Pick. (Mass.) 5; Fairgrieves v. Lehigh Navigation Co., 2 Phil. (Pa.) 182; Boyd v. Rumsey, 2 Mar. J. J. (Ky.) 42; White v. Buck, 7 B. Mon. (Ky.) 547; Raines v. United States, 11 Ct. of Cl. 648.

The prohibition in the act of 1853 against the assignment of claims was not repealed, so far as the Court of Claims is concerned, by the act of Feb. 24, 1855, 10 Stat. 612, nor by that of March 3, 1863, 12 id. 820, giving it jurisdiction over such a claim as this case involves.

Congress expressly re-enacted the act of 1853 by sect. 3477 Rev. Stat. The Revised Statutes are entitled 'An Act to revise and consolidate the statutes of the United States in force on the first day of December, A.D. 1873,' and do not purport to embrace any new legislation. The act having been thus regarded as in force at that date, this court will not declare that it was repealed by implication. Dwarris on Stat. 154; Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 362; McCoal v. Smith, 1 Black, 470; Beals v. Hale, 4 How. 53; Pratt v. Atlantic & St. Lawrence Railroad Co., 42 Me. 587; Ingalls v. Cole, 47 id. 540; Bowen v. Lease, 5 Hill (N. Y.), 225; Wallace v. Bassett, 41 Barb. (N. Y.) 96; Bank v. Commonwealth, 10 Pa. St. 448; Attorney-General v. Brown, 1 Wis. 525; Lee v. Forman, 3 Metc. (Ky.) 116.

But even if the act of 1853 is not in force, the judgment must be reversed. The act of March 3, 1863, supra, limits a recovery to the owner of the property, at the time of its abandonment or capture. The privilege of invoking the jurisdiction of the court below, in cases for which that act provides, is a personal one, and attaches upon the concurrence of the loyalty of the claimant, his former ownership of the property, and his present right to the proceeds. Carroll v. United States, 13 Wall. 151; Haycraft v. United States, 22 id. 81.

Mr. Halbert E. Paine and Mr. Benjamin F. Grafton, contra.

The rule of construction applicable to this case was laid down in United States v. Palmer, 3 Wheat. 610. The act of 1853 was designed only to meet the necessities of the Treasury Department. If its first section could have been construed to apply to cases in the Court of Claims, when it was subsequently organized, the acts establishing and regulating that court are so repugnant to that section, that they would have worked its repeal as to such cases. They entirely satisfy the rule in Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 342, that there must be a positive repugnancy between the provisions of the new and those of the old statute and even then the latter is repealed only pro tanto, to the extent of the repugnancy; and they unmistakably recognize that claims of which that court has jurisdiction may be assigned. 10 Stat. 612, sect. 1; 12 id. 767, sect. 12; 15 id. 75, 78, sects. 4, 8.

The cases are in harmony with this view. Lawrence v. United States, 8 Ct. of Cl. 254; Cavender v. United States, id. 285; The Floyd Acceptances, 7 Wall. 666; United States v. Anderson, 9 id. 67; United States v. Burns, 12 id. 253.

The question whether an assignee of a chose in action can sue in his own name does not, however, arise. The legal effect of the transfer was to pass the title to the property, or its proceeds held by the United States as trustees.

The United States insists that Congress used the word 'owner' in the act of 1863 as designating the original owner, but not his assignee. The scope, intent, and reason of the act justify the construction that executors, administrators, or assignees, as well as owners, are embraced by its provisions.

The entire legal title to the whole of the property having been transferred (and it only can be set up in the Court of Claims), we submit that the findings of fact conclusively establish the right of the defendant in error to recover.

MR. JUSTICE STRONG delivered the opinion of the court.

Notes