88th Congress ) HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES ( D ocument

M Session j ( No. 336

CATALINA PROPERTIES, INC.

MESSAGE

FROM

THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

RETURNING

WITHOUT APPROVAL H.R. 2262, FOR THE RELIEF OF CATALINA

PROPERTIES, INC.

August 12, 1964.— Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to

be printed

To the House of Representatives:

I return herewith, without my approval, H.R. 2262, an act for the 

relief of Catalina Properties, Inc.

This bill is a substantial reenactment of H.R. 12701, 87th Congress, 

approval of which was withheld by President Kennedy in his memorandum of disapproval dated October 18, 1962, copy of which is set 

out on page 32 of House Report No. 224, 88th Congress. In view 

of the passage of this measure for the second time, I have carefully 

reviewed the reports of the House and Senate Committees on the 

Judiciary and the advisory opinion and findings of the Court of Claims 

upon which the committee reports are based. No additional facts or 

reasons in support of the measure have been presented which were 

not considered fully at the time the memorandum of disapproval was 

written. After thorough consideration of the underlying facts, I 

find myself in full agreement with President Kennedy.

The bill directs the Secretary of the Treasury to pay $29,425.01 

to Catalina Properties, Inc. This payment is based upon the assumption that the United States should have and could have collected 

a debt due Catalina Properties, upon which it served a notice of levy 

and warrant for distraint for nonpayment of taxes. Approval of this 

bill might imply that when the Internal Revenue Service makes a 

levy against the property of a delinquent taxpayer it must assume the

35-011
2 CATALINA PROPERTIES, INC.

obligation of instituting court proceedings to collect the debts due the 

taxpayer. I agree with President Kennedy that the Government 

should not be asked to assume this burden. In the absence of some 

showing of bad faith by Government officials, which is not raised 

here, no equity can be said to arise in favor of the taxpayer merely 

because the Government has not taken affirmative steps to collect 

his debt. Approval of this bill would create an unfortunate precedent 

which would weaken the effectiveness of necessary distraint procedures 

in the collection of revenues due the Government.

Accordingly, I am returning H.R. 2262 without my approval.

Lyndon B. Johnson.

The White House, August 11, 1964.

H.R. 2262

Eighty-eighth Congress of the United States of America, at the Second

Session, Begun and Held at the City of Washington on T uesday, the

Seventh Day of January, One T housand N ine H undred and Sixty-four

AN ACT For the relief of Catalina Properties, Incorporated

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States

of America in Congress assembled, That, in accordance with the findings of fact of

the United States Court of Claims in the case of Catalina Properties, Inc. v. The

United States, Congressional No. 12-60, decided July 18, 1962, the Secretary of

the Treasury is authorized and directed to pay, out of any money in the Treasury

not otherwise appropriated, to Catalina Properties, Incorporated, the sum of

$29,425.01, representing the amount determined by the Court of Claims pursuant

to H. Res. 235, Eighty-sixth Congress, to be the amount equitably due to said

Catalina Properties, Incorporated, from the United States. The payment of

such amount shall be in full settlement of all claims against the United States of

said Catalina Properties, Incorporated, arising from rental payments on the

Catalina Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida, which were lost during the period from

about December 15, 1952, to about March 15, 1953, because of inaction of certain

officers and employees of the United States: Provided, That no part of the amount

appropriated in this Act in excess of 10 per centum thereof shall be paid or delivered

to or received by any agent oi attorney on account of services rendered in connection with this claim, and the same shall be unlawful, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be

deemed guilty of a misdeameanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in

any sum not exceeding $1,000.

John W. McCormack,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Lee Metcalf,

Acting President pro tempore of the Senate.

[Endorsement on back of bill:]

I certify that this Act originated in the House of Representatives.

Ralph R. R oberts, Cleik.

By John A. Roberts.

o