Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/150/588.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 22:47:43+00:00

Document:
Harvey Spalding and George A. King, for appellant.
The history of this case is as follows: In 1882 the appellant filed his petition in the court of claims, alleging that as a duly appointed and commissioned United States Indian agent, for a series of years, he was entitled to a salary of $1,800 per annum; that he had only received a certain portion of that amount; and praying judgment for the balance. A trial was had before the court, which, on March 19, 1883, filed its findings of fact, and rendered judgment in his favor for the sum of $3,400. At the same time was tried the case of Mitchell v. U. S., and they were both argued as presenting the same question of law, to wit, whether a public officer could 'recover the difference between the salary established by law for the office which he held, and the amount paid to him in accordance with the appropriations made by congress.' An appeal was taken in each case by the United States. That in the Mitchell Case was duly entered in this court, and was submitted on briefs on March 30, 1883. On November 5th of that year this court rendered its decision in favor of the United States, reversing the judgment of the court below. 109 U.S. 146 , 3 Sup. Ct. 151.
'And whereas, in the present term of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-three, the said cause came on to be heard before the supreme court; and it appearing that the appellant has failed to have its appeal filed and docketed in conformity with the rules of this court, it is now here ordered and adjudged by this court that his appeal from the court of claims be, and the same is hereby, docketed and dismissed.
On the 13th of May the United States, by the attorney general, filed a motion in the court of claims for a new trial on the ground that wrong and injustice in the premises had been done to the United States. The reasons therefor, as stated, were that the two cases were heard together; that in both the judgment was for the plaintiff, and both cases were appealed to the supreme court; that the same questions of law were involved in each case, and that the defendants understood that the appeal in this case was to abide the decision in the case of Mitchell; that, relying upon this understanding, they took no further action in this case, and it was only in consequence of such reliance that the transcript was not filed by them in the supreme court, and the opportunity thus given to the appellant to have the case docketed and dismissed; that by the Mitchell Case the law has been decided adversely to the claim of petitioner, and, therefore, that wrong and injustice would under the circumstances be done by permitting the judgment to stand.
In order to give full effect to this statute the court of claims must have power to grant a new trial at a term subsequent to that at which the judgment was rendered, for it explicitly provides that it may be exercised at any time within two years. This section has been before this court in several cases, and in them its scope and effect considered and determined. U. S. v. Ayres, 9 Wall. 608; U. S. v. Crusell, 12 Wall. 175; Ex parte Russell, 13 Wall. 664; Ex parte United States, 16 Wall. 699; U. S. v. Young, 94 U.S. 258 ; Young v. U. S., 95 U.S. 642 , 643. That a mandate from this court does not prevent the operation of this statute, or take away the power or interfere with the discretion of the court of claims to grant a new trial, was settled in Ex parte Russell, supra.
The testimony presented to the court in support of this motion is not preserved. We must therefore assume it to have been sufficient to establish the facts stated in the motion, and the only question for us to consider is as to the power of the court, upon those facts, to order a new trial. Counsel for appellant contend that they disclose nothing but a mere mistake of law, or ignorance of the rules and practice of this court, on the part of the officers of the government, and that under Green v. Elbert, 137 U.S. 615 , 11 Sup. Ct. 188, such matters are insufficient. But we do not so understand the record. No case abides the decision of another case, except by agreement of the parties; and so, when it is stated that the defendants understood that the appeal in this was to abide the decision in the Mitchell Case, what is meant is that they understood that an agreement to that effect had been made. If such an agreement had actually been made by the parties, and then, in willful disregard thereof, one party had taken the steps disclosed here of docketing and dismissing the appeal, a court would properly interfere to prevent the successful consummation of such attempted wrong. Instead of charg- [150 U.S. 588, 592] ing such an agreement, and a deliberate breach thereof by the appellant, all that is claimed by the United States is that there was on their part an understanding that there was such an agreement, and that they acted in reliance upon such an understanding. We are to assume that the testimony showed that there were reasonable grounds for believing in the existence of such an agreement, and for acting in reliance thereupon. The defendants were guilty of no laches or omissions, and the effect upon them is the same as if there had been in fact an agreement, and a willful breach. That being so, it would evidently be a wrong, an injustice to the government, not to relieve it from the consequences of such a mistake of fact, and to continue in force a judgment which ought not to have been rendered. We think that the court of claims was authorized, upon the facts stated in this motion, to grant a new trial.
Of these 10 appropriation acts, the first 4 made appropriations for only 3 agencies in California, (Hoopa Valley, Round Valley, and Tule River ,) the fifth made an appropriation for only 2 of these agencies, (Round Valley, and Tule River,) while the last 5 made appropriations for 4 agencies, that of Hoopa Valley being restored and the Mission agency being added; but the salary of the agent at this last point was at first fixed at $3,000, and by the act of June 14, 1878, (20 Stat. 115, 119,) reduced to $1,300, at which figure it remained under the other acts.
In all these 10 acts, the appropriations for the pay of the other California agents, as well as the one at Tule River, differ from the figure named in section 2052; in the first 5 acts the other appropriations being at the same rate as that allowed for Tule River, while in the last 5 the Round Valley agent is paid $1,500, the Mission agent $1,300, and the other 2 $1,000.
While not questioning at all the Langston Case, we think that it expresses the limit in that direction.
This act was passed August 15, 1876, and apparently there was not sufficient time before the passage of the appropriation act of 1877 (March 3, 1877) to satisfactorily prepare the estimates, and so the form of the legislation of congress was not changed until 1878. But, when changed, it was a change indicating that each particular agency was called to the attention of congress, and the amount which should be paid to the agent at that agency specifically determined. In this connection it is well to note the language used in the appropriation acts to denote the purpose of the appropriation. Thus, in the act of 1878,-and subsequent statutes are similar,-it is that the 'following sums be, and they are hereby, appropriated ... for the purpose of paying the current and contingent expenses of the Indian department;' and immediately thereafter follows the language which we have heretofore quoted, 'for pay of seventy-four agents ... at the rates respectively indicated, namely.' This language carries a strong implication that congress was intending to pay the current expenses in full, and intended that the sums named for these Indian agents should be the total amount they should be entitled to receive. When to these facts is added that the plaintiff with his first commission received notice that the salary was to be $1,500, as had been for years theretofore appropriated by congress, and on reappointment that it was [150 U.S. 588, 597] $1,000, and that during the years of his service he received the appropriations and receipted for them as in full payment for his services, we think it must be adjudged that he has received all that of right any by law he is entitled to receive, and that the judgment of the court of claims should therefore be affirmed, and it is so ordered.

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