Case ID: us-ct-cl_13/html/0518-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Steong", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

G-ILLIS’S CASE.
    (12 C. Cls. R., 704; 95 U. S. R., 407.)
    Catherine I. Gillis, appellee, v. The United States, appellants.
    
      On the defendants1 Appeal.
    
    
      After captured property has been sold and the proceeds paid into the Treasury, the oivner transfers the claim, and assents to the bringing of this actioxi, under the Abandoned or capturedpropex'ty Act, by and in the name of the assignee.
    
    Tlie court below decides in favor of the assignee without opinion, the point having been determined in Lawrences Case (8 C. Cls. R., 254). Judgment for the claimant. The defendants apxieal.
    
      Tie judgment of the court below is reversed, on the grounds, (1) That the Act 28th February, 1853 (10 Stat. L., 170, Eev. Stat., § 3477), embraces every claim against the Government and extends to actions, prosecuted in the Court of Claims; (2) That in captured property cases the ownership required to he proved is that which existed when the property was captured.
   Mr. Justice Steong

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, December 10, 1877.

Mr. Justice Beadley (with whom concurred Mr. Justice Field) dissented from so much of the opinion of the court as adopts the common-law rule in regard to the assignment of choses in action.