Case ID: us-ct-cl_26/html/0623-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Bradley", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE CENTRAL PACIFIC RAILROAD COMPANY v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [24 C. Cls. R.,145; 138 U. S. R., 84.]
    
      On the defendants’ Appeal.'
    
    The Thurman Act requires one-fourth of the net earnings of the Pacific railroads to be paid into the Treasury as a sinking fund. Between 1878 and 1885 the Secretary of the Treasury annually withholds from moneys due to the claimant an amount in excess of that required to be withheld. In 1886 the Commissioner of Railroads states an account by which this annual excess appears. On the 31st October, 1887, the claimant brings suit.
    The court below decides:
    (1) The right of one of the Pacific railroads to bring suit for money improperly withheld by the Secretary of the Treasury as net earnings under the Thurman Act (20 Stat. L., 56) accrues at the time the money is so applied.
    (2) Where the action of the Secretary of the Treasury was taken on the 31st December, 1881, for the year then ending, and the suit was brought on the 31st October, 1887, the demand for earnings between July 1 and October 31, 1881, is not barred by the statute of limitations.
    (3) It is a general rule that the statute begins to run from the time the right of action accrues.
    (4) Though the law abhors a multiplicity of actions, a party can not so consolidate as to prevent the operation of the statute on any one cause of action.
    (5) A statement of indebtedness of a railroad by the Commissioner of Railroads and the accounting officers of the Treasury is neither an account stated nor an award. The officers are not arbitrators, nor have they power to make admissions against the Government.
    The judgment of the court below is modified by reducing it from $1,002,517.14 to $804,094.31, on the ground that the sums expended by the company for betterments and improvements are not to be considered as current expenses or deducted in fixing amount of net earnings upon which a percentage is to be paid to the United States.
   Mr. Justice Bradley

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court January 26, 1891.