Source: https://www.legalcrystal.com/case/94021/mellon-vs-orinoco-iron-co
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 17:10:25+00:00

Document:
The Act of February 27, 1896, c. 34, 29 Stat. 32, directs that moneys received by the Secretary of State from foreign governments in trust for citizens of the United States or others shall be deposited in the Treasury, and that the Secretary of State shall determine the amounts due claimants from such funds and certify the same to the Secretary of the Treasury who, upon presentation of such certificates, shall pay the amounts so found to be due, the act appropriating such funds in the Treasury "for the payment to the ascertained beneficiaries thereof of the certificates herein provided for."
Held, that the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury in paying such certificates is ministerial, and that, where the claimant named in a certificate held as trustee ex maleficio for another whose equity the Secretary of State had remitted to the courts, the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia had jurisdiction of a suit brought by such beneficial owner against the other in which the Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the United States might be impleaded, be required to pay over the money to a receiver, and be enjoined from making other disposition of it. Houston v. Ormes, 252 U. S. 469 . P. 266 U. S. 125 .
54 App.D.C. 218, 296 F. 965, affirmed.
decree of the Supreme Court of the District directing payment of a fund to a receiver and granting an injunction against other disposition of it.
The subject of this suit is $56,250, now in the Treasury of the United States, which is the undistributed balance of an indemnity of $385,000 received by the Secretary of State from Venezuela. This was in satisfaction of the claim of the Orinoco Company, Limited, hereafter known as the Limited Company, against Venezuela because of her illegal annulment of the so-called Fitzgerald concession, which, by mesne transfers from the original concessionaire, had vested in the Limited Company, and of her ouster of that company. The appellee, the Orinoco Iron Company, was the lessee of the Limited Company of mining rights in the concession covering the remainder of the term of the concession, and was in possession of them at the time of the ouster. The Iron Company had engaged actively in mining operations, and had expended $175,000 in exploiting and operating the mines when its property and rights were thus confiscated.
At the instance of the Limited Company, our Department of State made the claim against Venezuela for the injuries sustained, and finally a protocol was signed between the two countries whereby Venezuela agreed to pay and did pay $385,000 to the United States.
"Hereafter all moneys received by the Secretary of State from foreign governments and other sources, in trust for citizens of the United States or others, shall be deposited and covered into the Treasury."
"The Secretary of State shall determine the amounts due claimants, respectively, from each of such trust funds, and certify the same to the Secretary of the Treasury, who shall, upon the presentation of the certificates of the Secretary of State, pay the amounts so found to be due."
"Each of the trust funds covered into the Treasury as aforesaid is hereby appropriated for the payment to the ascertained beneficiaries thereof of the certificates herein provided for."
"I desire to say that the Department of State, in making its determination as to the distribution of awards or settlements of international claims, is always guided by certain fundamental rules, which may be roughly stated as follows:"
reason of such relationship to such claimants, all parties who allege claims against the fund itself, as also all creditors of such claimants, or of their heirs, devisees, representatives, or legal assignees, are in accordance with the uniform rule and practice of the department remitted to the courts for the enforcement of the rights of which they consider themselves possessed, or to private agreement with the parties in interest -- as they may be advised."
The Secretary of State accordingly directed the payment of the money to the Limited Company and to other persons designated by it, and sent proper certificates to the Secretary of the Treasury for such distribution.
was appointed, and the Secretary of the Treasury was directed to pay the $56,250 to that receiver, who was authorized to execute a full acquittance of the United States as from the parties to the suit.
This is an appeal by the Secretary of the Treasury and the Treasurer of the United States to which the Orinoco Company, Limited, and its receiver are not parties. They took a separate appeal which was dismissed last term. Orinoco Co. v. Orinoco Iron Co., 265 U.S. 598. The question raised on this appeal therefore does not involve the merits of the controversy between the Orinoco Iron Company, the appellee, and the Orinoco Company, Limited, and its receiver. We must assume here, therefore, that, in attempting to take over and deny to the Orinoco Iron Company the equitable interest of that company, the Orinoco Company, Limited, and its receiver are, as to the Iron Company, in the position of a trustee ex maleficio.
It is contended, on behalf of the Secretary of the Treasury, that his duty in this regard is entirely ministerial, that he must carry out the behest of the Secretary of State, who is charged by law with determining who the proper claimants are, and therefore that, after the decision of the Secretary of State, no court may interfere between the payment by the Secretary of the Treasury to the claimant found to be entitled. We consider this question to be already settled by the decision of this Court against the government contention.
"In the present case, it is conceded, and properly conceded, that payment of the fund in question to the defendant Sanders is a ministerial duty, the performance of which could be compelled by mandamus. But from this it is a necessary consequence that one who has an equitable right in the fund as against Sanders may have relief against the officials of the Treasury through a mandatory writ of injunction, or a receivership, which is its equivalent, making Sanders a party so as to bind her and so that the decree may afford a proper acquittance to the government. The practice of bringing suits in equity for this purpose is well established in the courts of the District ( Sanborn v. Maxwell, 18 App.D.C. 245; Rovers v. Consaul, 24 App.D.C. 551, 563; Jones v. Rutherford, 26 App.D.C. 114; Parish v. McGowan, 39 App.D.C. 184; s.c. on appeal, McGowan v. Parish, 237 U. S. 285 , 237 U. S. 295 ). Confined, as it necessarily must be, to cases where the officials of the government have only a ministerial duty to perform, and one in which the party complainant has a particular interest, the practice is a convenient one, well supported by both principle and precedent."

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