Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/93/605/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 14:40:25+00:00

Document:
1. A domicile once existing continues until another is acquired, and, where a change thereof is alleged, the burden of proof rests upon the party making the allegation.
2. A., whose domicile was, and continued during the war to be, at New Orleans, went into or remained within the territory embraced by the rebel lines, engaged actively in the service of the rebel government, and, while so engaged, purchased certain cotton, which, upon the subsequent occupation of that territory by the military forces of the United States, was seized, sold, and the proceeds paid into the Treasury. Held that his purchase of the cotton was illegal and void, and gave him no title thereto.
3. Mitchell v. United States, 21 Wall. 350, reaffirmed and applied to this case.
On the 26th of June, 1867, Alphonse Desmare, of New Orleans, La., filed his petition in the Court of Claims to recover the value of five hundred and fifty-six bales of cotton, alleging that, in the year 1863, he was the owner of that number of bales, then at Opelousas, in the Parish of St. Landry, La.; that, in April, 1863, said cotton was taken and captured by officers of the United States Army, by whom, under the orders of General N. P. Banks, commanding the Department of the Gulf, it was shipped to New Orleans, sold, and the proceeds placed in the Treasury of the United States.
afterward, until October, 1862, when it is proved he was in the Parish of St. Landry, La., purchasing the cotton, which is the subject of this action, and acting as agent of the rebel government for the exchange of Confederate bonds for Confederate notes, for which latter purpose he had an office at Opelousas in said parish. Said parish was within the rebel lines until April, 1863, when it was taken possession of by United States forces under General Banks.
2. Between the 1st of October, 1862, and the month of April, 1863, the claimant, in person, purchased within said parish, of different persons, two hundred and sixty-eight bales of cotton, and paid for the same in Confederate money. All of said cotton was seized by officers of the United States upon the entry of their military forces into said parish was turned over to agents of the Treasury Department, sold, and the net proceeds, to the aggregate amount of $51,456, are now in the United States Treasury.
3. Said claimant and one Dupre, jointly and personally, purchased within said parish, March 3, 1863, eighty-four bales of cotton, for which they gave their notes, with security. These notes were paid after the war, one-half by the claimant and one-half by said Dupre. This cotton was seized by officers of the United States in April, 1863, was turned over to Treasury agent and sold, and the net proceeds thereof, to the amount of $16,128, are in the United States Treasury.
4. The claimant has failed to prove that any other cotton owned by him was seized by officers or agents of the defendants.
1. The claimant's domicile, found to have been in the City of New Orleans before the war and not proved to have been changed, is presumed to have continued and been in that city when the purchases of cotton were made by him within the rebel lines, as set forth in the findings.
and subsequently crossed the federal lines about the time he is proved to be in the Parish of St. Landry.
3. The purchases of cotton by the claimant, under the circumstances set forth in the findings, were void as against the law and public policy of the United States, and he acquired no title to the cotton thereby.
The plaintiff's petition having been dismissed, he appealed to this Court.
aspects was carefully considered. We shall avail ourselves of its rulings without again specially referring to it. The findings of the Court of Claims furnish the facts we are to consider, and we cannot look beyond them. For the purposes of this case they import absolute verity and conclude both parties.
Before the breaking out of the late civil war, the appellant was domiciled in the City of New Orleans. He was a member of a commercial partnership there. There is no proof of any change of domicile subsequently. A domicile once existing continues until another is acquired. A person cannot be without a legal domicile somewhere. Where a change of domicile is alleged, the burden of proof rests upon the party making the allegation.
The cotton covered by the claim in the present case was all purchased by the appellant in the Parish of St. Landry, in the State of Louisiana, between the 1st of October, 1862, and the 1st of April, 1863. That territory was then within the rebel lines. The appellant was there acting as the agent of the rebel government in exchanging its bonds for Confederate notes. His office, as such agent, was at Opelousas, in that parish.
was also subjugated by the arms of the United States in April, 1863. The cotton in question was thereupon seized, and subsequently sold, and the proceeds paid into the Treasury of the United States, where they remain. Those proceeds are the subject of this litigation.
Upon the issuing of General Butler's proclamation, the legal status of New Orleans and its inhabitants, with respect to the United States, became changed. Before that time the former was enemies' territory and the latter were enemies, in all respects as if the pending strife had been a public war between the United States and a foreign belligerent, and the city had been a part of the country of the enemy, although he conflict was in fact only a domestic insurrection of large proportions. The city was blockaded, and the property of its inhabitants, wherever found at sea, was seized, condemned, and confiscated as prize of war. General Butler's proclamation was proof of the subjugation of the city and the reestablishment of the national authority. The hostile character of the territory thereupon ceased, and the process of rehabilitation began. The inhabitants were at once permitted to resume, under the regulations prescribed, their wonted commerce with other places, as if the state had not belonged to the rebel organization. The Venice, 2 Wall. 258. But they were clothed with new duties as well as new rights. It was a corollary from the new condition of things, that they should obey the inhibition of trade with the localities still under the ban of the President's proclamation of the 16th of August, 1861. In this respect, they were on the same footing with the inhabitants of the loyal states, abiding in such states and with the citizens of such states and foreigners then sojourning in New Orleans. It was not a penal infliction, but was intended for the benefit of the nation in the prosecution of the war. It was a burden incident to the effort the government was making to put down the insurrection. It was the plain duty of the appellant to obey the injunction. Instead of doing so, while his domicile, in the view of the law, was and continued to be at New Orleans, he went or remained within the rebel lines, engaged actively in the service of the rebel government, and was so engaged when and where, as he alleges, he acquired the ownership of the cotton in question.
His contracts for the cotton were clearly illegal and void, and gave him no title. Such has been the ruling of this Court in an unbroken series of adjudications. Coppel v. Hall, 7 Wall. 548; United States v. Lane, 8 id. 185; United States v. Grossmeyer, 9 Wall. 72; United States v. Montgomery, 15 Wall. 395; United States v. Lapine, 17 Wall. 602; Mitchell v. United States, 21 Wall. 350.
The result is the same as if the purchases had been made by an agent of the appellant, sent by him from New Orleans, instead of having been made by himself in person.
To hold otherwise would give a premium to a law-breaker, and involve the anomaly of conceding to the offender rights and immunities denied to all the citizens to the loyal states.

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