Case ID: us-ct-cl_57/html/0602-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Holmes", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MORRISDALE COAL COMPANY v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [55 C. Cls. 310; 259 U. S. 188.]
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the defendant in the court below. On plaintiff’s appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
    Where a mining company has outstanding contracts with private parties calling for more coal than the actual production of its mines at an agreed price per ton, and certain consignments of its coal are diverted from the consignees by the Government to other private parties from whom the company receives therefor a smaller price per ton fixed by the Fuel Administration, there is no taking of private property for public use within the purview of the fifth amendment from which a promise by the Government to pay such company just compensation can be implied.
    The remedy, if any, for the diversion of private property from the use of one person to that of another by the Government, and the fixing by the Fuel Administration of a price at which it shall be sold, is under section 145, Judicial Code, giving the Court of Claims jurisdiction of claims upon any contract, express or implied, with the Government.
   Mr. Justice Holmes

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court May 29, 1922.