Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/206/370.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 01:03:23+00:00

Document:
[206 U.S. 370, 374] Messrs. Frederic R. Code rt, Henry M. Ward, John G. Carlisle, and Paul Fuller for appellees.
Messrs. Hilary A. Herbert and Benjamin Micou for certain claimants having interests similar to those of appellees.
In an endeavor to clarify the consideration of this contro- [206 U.S. 370, 378] versy we invert somewhat the order in which the facts have been stated in the findings below, and refer to previous rulings of this court pertinent to the subject in hand, besides supplementing the same by a reference to relevant matters of public history, of which we take judicial notice.
In May, 1901, the cases of De Lima v. Bidwell and Dooley v. United States were by this court decided. 182 U.S. 1, 222 , 45 S. L. ed. 1041, 1074, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 743, 762. The first case involved the right to recover duties paid under protest to the collector of the port of New York upon sugar brought into the United States from the island of Porto Rico during the autumn of 1899, and subsequent to [206 U.S. 370, 379] the cession of the island. The second case involved the right to recover the amount of certain duties on goods carried into Porto Rico from the United States between July 6, 1898, and May 1, 1900, the duties in question having been levied by authority of the general in command of the army of occupation or subsequently by order of the President as commander in chief. In the first case (De Lima v. Bidwell) it was decided that, as the effect of the ratification of the treaty was to take the island of Porto Rico out of the category of foreign territory, within the meaning of that word as used in existing tariff laws of the United States, no right remained to enforce, against goods coming from Porto Rico into the United States, the previously enacted tariff of duties, although, considering the terms of the treaty and the relation of the island to the United States, Congress ahd power to impose a tariff on goods coming from that island into the United States. As a corollary of the doctrine announced in De Lima v. Bidwell, in the second case (Dooley v. United States) it was held that whilst the President, as commander in chief, had authority to impose tariff duties in Porto Rico on goods coming into that country from the United States prior to the ratification of the treaty, no such executive power existed after that ratification. It was consequently held that none of the duties paid prior to the ratification of the treaty could be recovered, whilst those paid subsequently could be.
In the following year (December 2, 1901) another case, entitled Dooley v. United States, was decided. 183 U.S. 151 , 46 L. ed. 128, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 62. That case involved the validity of tariff duties levied in Porto Rico on goods brought into that island from the United States, the duties in question having been imposed after the ratification of the treaty, and in and by virtue of the act of Congress known as the Foraker act. Applying the principles announced in the previous cases just referred to, it was held that the duties were lawful because, although collected after the ratification, they were imposed not simply by virtue of the authority of the President, acting under [206 U.S. 370, 380] the military power, but in conformity to a valid act of Congress.
And on the same day with the foregoing the case of Fourteen Diamond Rings v. United States (The Diamond Rings) was decided. 183 U.S. 176 , 46 L. ed. 138, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 59. That case involved the validity of tariff duties levied on diamond rings brought from the Philippine Islands into the United States. Adhering to the doctrines settled by the prior rulings, it was held that, as the Philippine Islands, by the ratification of the treaty, had ceased to be foreign within the meaning of the tariff laws, the imposition of the duties complained of was unlawful. In the course of the opinion the effect of the treaty as applied in the previous cases to Porto Rico was pointed out, and the status of the Philippine Islands in virtue of the treaty was, in effect, held to be controlled by the former decisions.
Now this case was commenced after the decision in the Fourteen Ciamond Rings, to recover the amount of tariff duties exacted in the Philippine Islands on merchandise brought from the United States, the duties having been collected under the authority of the order of the President after the ratification of the treaty, but before the time when Congress, by 1 of the act of March 8, 1902, had enacted tariff duties for the Philippine Islands. The case was pending in the court of claims when the Lincoln and Warner, B. & Co. Cases were decided by this court. It was found by the court below that the military officers of the United States collected the duties and paid over the amount thereof to the treasurer of the Philippine Islands, and that the money was disbursed for the expenses of that [206 U.S. 370, 382] government without going into the Treasury of the United States. Considering that the original illegality of the duties complained of was established by the previous decisions of this court, and that the act of Congress of June 30, 1906, ratifying the collection of duties, was beyond the power of Congress to enact, the court below rendered judgment against the United States for the amount of duties paid. Ct. Cl.
Applying the doctrine settled by this court in the cases to which we have referred, concerning the power to levy tariff duties under the authority of the President, on goods taken from the United States into Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands, or brought into the United States from either of such countries subsequent to the ratification of the treaty, and prior to the levy by Congress of tariff duties, it is obvious that the court below correctly held that such tariff exactions were illegal. It follows, therefore, that the only question open for consideration is whether the court below erred in refusing to give effect to the act of Congress of June 30, 1906, which ratified the collection of the duties levied under the order of the President.
As the text of the act of Congress is unambiguous, and manifests, as explicitly as can be done, the purpose of Congress to ratify, the case comes to the simple question whether Congress possessed the power to ratify which it assumed to exercise. When the controversy is thus reduced to its ultimate issue we think the error committed by the court below, both in reason and authority, is readily demonstrable.
It is then evident, speaking generally, both on principle and authority, that Congress had the power to pass the ratifying act of June 30, 1906, and that that act bars the plaintiff's right to recover, unless, by the application of some exception, this case is taken out of the operation of the general rule. And this brings us to consider the several propositions relied upon at bar to establish that such is the case.
First. Whilst it is admitted that Congress had the power to levy tariff duties on goods coming into the United States from the Philippine Islands or coming into such islands from the United States after the ratification of the treaty, it is yet urged that, as that body was without authority to delegate to the President the legislative power of prescribing a tariff of duties, it hence could not, by ratification, make valid the exercise by the President of a legislative authority which could not have [206 U.S. 370, 385] been delegated to him in the first instance. But the premise upon which this proposition rests presupposes that Congress, in dealing with the Philippine sl ands, may not, growing out of the relation of those islands to the United States, delegate legislative authority to such agencies as it may select,-a proposition which is not now open for discussion. Dorr v. United States, 195 U.S. 138 , 49 L. ed. 128, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 808.
Second. As to the duties collected were illegal, it is insisted that, for the purpose of testing the validity of the act of Congress, the fact of such collection must be put out of view, and the act ratifying the exaction must be treated as if it were solely an original exercise by Congress of the taxing power. This being done, it is said, reduces the case to the inquiry, had Congress power, years after goods which were entitled to free entry had been brought into the Philippine Islands, to retroactively impose tariff duties upon the consummated act of bringing the goods into that country? But the proposition begs the question for decision, by shutting out from view the potential fact that when the goods were brought into the Philippine Islands there was a tariff in existence under which duties were exacted in the name of the United States. Indeed, the contention goes further even than this, since it entirely disregards the important consideration that, although the duties were illegally exacted, the illegality was not the result of an inherent want of power in the United States to have authorized the imposition of the duties, but simply arose from the failure to delegate to the official the authority essential to give immediate validity to his conduct in enforcing the payment of the duties. And when these misconceptions are borne in mind it results that the unsoundness of the proposition relied upon is demonstrated by the application of the elementary principle of ratification to which we have previously referred. Moreover, the fallacy which the proposition involves becomes yet more obvious when it is observed that the contention cannot even be formulated without misstating the nature of the act of Congress; in other words, without treating that act as retrospective legislation [206 U.S. 370, 386] enacting a tariff, when, on its very face, the act is but an exercise of the conceded power dependent upon the law of agency to ratify an act done on behalf of the United States, which the United States could have originally authorized.
Third. It is urged that the ratifying statute cannot be given effect without violating the 5th Amendment to the Constitution, since to give efficacy to the act would deprive the claimants of their property without due process of law, or would appropriate the same for public use without just compensation. This rests upon these two contentions: It is said that the money paid to discharge the illegally exacted duties after payment, as before, 'justly and equitably belonged' to the claimants, and that the title thereto continued in them as a vested right of property. It is consequently insisted that the right to recover the money could not be taken away without violating the 5th Amendment, as stated. But here, again, the argument disregards the fact that when the duties were illegally exacted in the name of the United States Congress possessed the power to have authorized their imposition in the mode in which they were enforced, and hence, from the very moment of collection, a right in Congress to ratify the transaction, if it saw fit to do so, was engendered. In other words, as a necessary result of the power to ratify, it followed that the right to recover the duties in question was subject to the exercise by Congress of its undoubted power to ratify. To hold to the contrary would be to say that whilst the unauthorized act of an officer done on behalf of the United States was subject to ratification by the United States, yet, if the officer acted without authority, the act, when performed, annihilated the power to ratify; that is, that the very condition which engendered the power destroyed it.
Nor does the mere fact that, at the time the ratifying statute was enacted, this action was pending for the recovery of the sums paid, cause the statute to be repugnant to the Constitution. The mere commencement of the suit did not change the nature of the right. Hence again, if it be conceded that the capacity to prosecute the pending suit to judgment was, in a sense, a vested right, certainly also the power of the United States to ratify was, to say the least, a right of as high a character. To arrogate to themselves the authority to devest the right of the United States to ratify is, then, in reason, the assumption upon which the asserted right of the claimants to recover must rest.
'Nor is it important, in any of the cases to which we have referred, that the legislative act which cures the irregularity, defect, or want of original authority, was passed after suit brought, in which such irregularity or defect became matter of importance. The bringing of suit vests in a party no right to a particular decision (Bacon v. Callender, 6 Mass. 303; Butler v. Palmer, 1 Hill, 324; Cowgill v. Long, 15 Ill. 202; Miller v. Graham, 17 Ohio St. 1; State v. Squires, 26 Iowa, 340; Patterson v. Philbrook, 9 Mass. 151); and his case must be determined on the law as it stands, not when the suit was brought, but when the judgment is rendered (Watson v. Mercer, 8 Pet. 88, 8 L. ed. 876; Mather v. Chapman, 6 Conn. 54; People ex rel. Bristol v. Ingham County, 20 Mich. 95; Satterlee v. Matthewson, 16 [206 U.S. 370, 388] serg. & R. 169, and 2 Pet. 380, 7 L. ed. 458; Excelsior Mfg. Co. v. Keyser, 62 Miss. 155; Phenix Ins. Co. v. Pollard, 63 Miss. 641; McLane v. Bonn, 70 Iowa, 752, 30 N. W. 478; Johnson v. Richardson, 44 Ark. 365).' And the following cases, in various forms, illustrate the application of the principle: United States v. Morris, 10 Wheat. 246, 6 L. ed. 314; Grim v. Weissenberg school district, 57 Pa. 433, 438, 98 Am. Dec. 237; Chester v. Black, 132 Pa. 568, 6 L.R.A. 802, 19 Atl. 276; Price v. Huey, 22 Ind. 18; Welch v. Wadsworth, 30 Conn. 149, 158, 79 Am. Dec. 236; Rich v. Flanders, 39 N. H. 310, 311; Iowa R. Land Co. v. Soper, 39 Iowa, 112, 119; Ferry v. Campbell, 110 Iowa, 290, 50 L.R.A. 92, 81 N. W. 604; Mills v. Geer, 111 Ga. 275, 279, 287, 288, 52 L.R.A. 934, 36 S. E. 673.
Certainly, this language, particularly in view of the reference made to Hamilton v. Dillin, is wholly incompatible with the conception that the observation as to pending actions made in De Lima v. Bidwell was to be taken as having settled the proposition that a power to ratify which otherwise obtained could not be exerted after suit brought.
Be this as it may, however, as, after deliberate consideration, we are of opinion that the mere bringing of this action did not deprive Congress of its power to ratify the collections made by [206 U.S. 370, 391] its officers, in the name of the United States, of the moneys sought to be recovered in this action, we may not allow the remarks made in De Lima v. Bidwell, under the circumstances stated, to control our judgment.
There was much discussion at bar concerning whether the payments of the duties were voluntary. As it would seem that the circumstances surrounding these payments were substantially like unto those existing in the Lincoln and Warner, B. & Co. Cases, in which the opinions of the court made no reference to the question of voluntary payment, we have concluded to pass that question by, as our conclusion on the subject of ratification disposes of the controversy.
Mr. Justice Moody took no part in the decision of the cause.
By the act of 1906, 34 Stat. at L. 636, chap. 3912, Congress legalized, ratified, and confirmed, as fully, to all intents and purposes, as if the same had, by prior act, been specifically authorized and directed, the collection of all duties, both import and export, imposed by the authorities of the United States or of the provisional military government in the Philippine Islands, prior to March 8th, 1902, at all parts and places in said Islands, from the United States or from foreign countries. Interpreted in the light of previous and pending litigation, this act should be construed as denying the authority of any court to take cognizance of a suit brought against the United States to recover any claim arising out of such collections. The act should, therefore, be construed as withdrawing the consent of the United States to be sued on account of claims of that character. In this view, it was error to render judgment against the United States, whatever might be the liability of the collector, if his exaction of [206 U.S. 370, 392] the duties in question was without authority of law. Upon this ground alone, and without considering any of the questions discussed in the opinion of the court, I concur in the judgment of reversal.

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