Case ID: us-ct-cl_60/html/1021-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice ButleR", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE FERRIES CO. v. THE UNITED STATES
    [57 C. Cls. 616; 266 U. S. 260]
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
    A ten-year lease of ferry property provided that at its termination the property leased, including any additions and betterments that might be made by the lessee, should be valued by appraisers, and that if such valuation were less than the value of the property as similarly appraised when the lease was made, the lessee should pay the difference, but if more the lessors should pay it. During- the war, when the - term had nearly run, the United States, by agreement with the parties, took over the operation of the ferries under stipulations that the lease should then terminate, that appraisal should be made as of that time as if the lease had then regularly terminated, and that any money thus found due the lessee or lessors, as the case might be, should be paid to the one so entitled and charged agains'. the other by the United States. Held, that an award for the lessee, based largely on conditions and values existing before the advent of war prices, correctly interpreted the lease and agreement, and that the lessee was not entitled to set the award aside, or to any relief in a court of equity.
   Mr. Justice ButleR

delivered, the opinion of the Supreme Court November 17,1924.