Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/124/236/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 05:02:31+00:00

Document:
their allowance was procured by fraud or that they were incurred in violation of an act of Congress or of public policy.
The Joint Resolution of Congress of March 31, 1868, 15 Stat. 251, affords evidence that the practice of the Secretary of the Treasury prior to that date not to cover into the Treasury the sums received from the sale of captured and abandoned property, but to retain them in the hands of the Treasurer in order to pay them out from time to time on the order of the Secretary, was known to Congress and was acquiesced in by it as to what had been previously done, and all this brings the practice within the well settled rule that the contemporaneous construction of a statute by those charged with its execution, especially when it has long prevailed, is entitled to great weight and should not be disregarded or overturned except for cogent reasons and unless it be clear that such construction is erroneous.
Settled accounts in the Treasury Department, where the United States have acted on the settlement and paid the balance therein found due, cannot be opened or set aside years afterwards merely because some of the prescribed steps in the accounting which it was the duty of a head of a department to see had been taken had been in fact omitted, or on account of technical irregularities, when the remedy of the party against the United States is barred by the statute of limitation, and the remedies of the United States are intact owing to its not being subject to an act of limitation.
"sending forward with each lot an account of expenses (which will be paid by them), together with a full record of the cotton shipped, etc., as required by the fourth regulation concerning captured, abandoned, and confiscable personal property."
He was informed that his compensation would be thereafter fixed, and would depend in great measure upon the result of his efforts, but that it should be reasonable and liberal for the services performed. The defendant, in his answer, denied that he had omitted to account for any cotton received or collected by him as such agent. For further defense, he alleged that after the times mentioned in the complaint, and on or about March 15, 1866, a just, true, and full accounting of his acts as such agent was had with the United States, upon which he surrendered all papers, documents, and vouchers in his hands relating to his agency; that upon such accounting, the sum of $33,972.59 was awarded to him, of which $2,186.69 represented his per diem allowance and the balance his commissions; that said per diem allowance was paid on the fifteenth of May, 1866, and said commissions on the fifteenth of January, 1868, and that he was thereupon fully released, acquitted, and discharged from liability of every kind to the government. By agreement of the parties, the issues were heard and determined in the first instance by Hon. William G. Choate, as referee, who made a report of his special findings of fact and law, accompanied by an elaborate opinion in support of the conclusion that the defendant was entitled to a judgment dismissing the complaint on the merits. The case was subsequently tried by the court, the parties, by written stipulation filed, having waived a jury. The court adopted the special findings of fact made by the referee as its own findings and dismissed the complaint.
Cuny and Stewart, the latter received between October 17, 1865, and December 16, 1865, different lots of cotton, aggregating 483 bales, which is the cotton now in question, and gave credit therefor at its market value in his account with Cuny for advances. The total value of this cotton was $82,300.24. Stewart paid the internal revenue tax of two cents per pound -- $3,486.64 -- on all except the last 100 bales, leaving $79,813.60 as the net value of the cotton. The first of these transfers to Stewart was without the knowledge of the defendant, but he subsequently approved or acquiesced in what Cuny did. This disposition of the 483 bales was without authority from the plaintiff, except as to the part used in meeting Dexter's bill.
in the drafts upon Draper, and by him paid to Johnston, so that as to these 483 bales, the defendant had been a second time paid by the government to that extent, the expenses for the payment of which they had been transferred to Stewart."
" Sold by R. H. Cuny, to pay bills of Dexter and others, 483''"
"At the suggestion of the examining officer in the Commissioner's office, a new summary statement was made up by Dr. Vaughan, dividing this item into two, namely: "
"The only vouchers now remaining on file in the Treasury Department in support of this last item are two affidavits, one by the defendant and the other by Dr. Vaughan, the defendant's clerk and chief assistant, sworn to at Washington during the pendency of this examination, showing payments to military officers for extra vigilance in guarding the cotton, protecting it against thieves and raids, copies of which are hereto annexed, marked 'Schedules C and D.' The number of bales assigned to the item of Dexter's bill does not conform to any particular lot of cotton, part of the 483 bales transferred to Stewart, but is substantially correct, as representing, upon an average of the net proceeds of the cotton, the amount of Dexter's bill."
contractors. These military payments were all made in the bona fide belief that they were necessary to protect the interest of the United States in the cotton, to secure increased vigilance, or to prevent connivance with parties interfering with or attempting to interfere with the cotton."
"The result of the examination of the account in the Office of the Commissioner of Customs was that the Commissioner wrote to the defendant a letter dated the fifteenth March, 1866, as follows:"
" Your property accounts as assistant special agent of the Treasury at Columbus, Mississippi, from May 8, 1865, to March 15, 1866, have this day been examined in this office and passed, there being no difference."
"Upon the receipt of this letter, the defendant wrote to the Secretary, communicating to him the contents of the letter received from the Commissioner of Customs and stating that he had presented to Mr. Parker written answer to the military charges, and that Mr. Parker expressed himself entirely satisfied, and that he would so report to the Secretary, and requested an instruction to Mr. Draper at New York to pay him his commissions allowed under the regulations on the sales of such cotton as Mr. Draper had received of his collecting, when the Secretary should receive a report from Mr. Parker."
"To this the Secretary replied under the same date, March 15, 1866, as follows:"
percentage are made to any of the agents of the department, and I deem it inexpedient to make an exception to this rule in any case till sufficient time has elapsed to enable me to examine and understand the whole matter connected with the collection and forwarding of government cotton. Just now my time is too much occupied with other matters of vital importance to afford me an opportunity to give your case that consideration which justice to yourself, no less than to the Department, requires."
"On the same day the Secretary, by letter, instructed the Commissioner of Customs as follows:"
" The compensation of Harrison Johnston, assistant special agent to this department, whose appointment is dated May 8, 1865, has been fixed at $6 per day, with an allowance to cover traveling expenses of 10 cents per mile for all distances actually traveled by him, and commissions on the cotton collected by him at the same rate as is allowed to other assistant agents, in accordance with general letter of instructions dated August 18, 1865. You are accordingly hereby authorized to issue a requisition in the usual form for his per diem allowance at that rate to date and for such mileage as he may be entitled to. For the present, no payments on commissions or percentage account are made to any agents."
"On the sixteenth March, 1866, the defendant was directed by the Secretary to answer certain charges made in letters received by the department from General Agent Mellen, to which the defendant replied in a letter to the Secretary on the same day containing the following passage:"
" I had the honor on yesterday to request you to instruct Mr. Draper to pay me my commissions, basing that request on the assurance that my answers to all charges were satisfactory, and my property account correct, not knowing then of these letters from Mr. Mellen. I now beg leave to withdraw the request until you are fully satisfied of my every official act."
"No further direct action was taken by the Secretary with reference to these changes of General Agent Mellen, or the defendant's reply thereto."
" If there are no longer any reasons for withholding the commissions due me from the sale of cotton collected by me and forwarded to Mr. Draper, I will thank you for an order upon Mr. Draper to pay over to me commissions due me under regulations of August 18, 1865."
"To which the Secretary replied on the seventeenth September, 1866:"
" The numerous undecided claims upon the cotton collected by you make it inexpedient to award you at present the promised commissions on the net proceeds of sale of the amount of your collections."
"On the eighth January, 1867, the Secretary wrote the Commissioner of Customs as follows:"
" Hereafter, in the adjustment of accounts of agents of the Department who have been engaged in the collection of captured and abandoned property, you will make no requisition in favor of any of them for any balance that may be found due until the details of such account have been referred to me and you have received further instructions relative thereto."
"On the ninth March, 1867, the Secretary wrote to the Commissioner of Customs as follows:"
" As the various supervising and assistant special agents lately in office are claiming the amounts to which they deem themselves entitled as commissions on the proceeds of property collected by them under my general letter of instructions of August 18, 1865, you will please report to me the names of those whose property accounts, as well as money accounts, have been satisfactorily adjusted."
"To which the Commissioner replied on the twelfth March as follows:"
" In reply to your inquiry of the ninth inst., received this A.M., asking for the names of those agents whose property accounts have been examined and adjusted, I have to report that up to the present only money accounts have been adjusted."
"On the 13th March, 1867, the Secretary wrote to the Commissioner of Customs as follows:"
" Referring to your reply of yesterday to my inquiry of the ninth inst. relative to the property accounts of supervising and assistant special agents, I now request that you will transmit them to the First Auditor for immediate examination and adjustment. "
"On the 4th June, 1867, the defendant wrote the Secretary as follows:"
" I desire to be informed whether all claims for proceeds of cotton from my district have been adjusted, and whether there is any further objection to the payment of my commissions as assistant special agent of the Treasury Department."
"To which, on the 12th June, 1867, the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury replied:"
" The Secretary directs me to say that nothing can be done in the matter until the accounts of the New York agency and the various property accounts of the supervising special agents are collected and settled, which he has ordered to be done as speedily as practicable."
"On the 15th of January, 1868, the Secretary wrote to the Commissioner of Customs as follows:"
" You are hereby authorized and instructed to issue a requisition on F. E. Spinner, Treasurer, and U.S. Special Agent, in favor of Harrison Johnston, late assistant special agent, for the sum of $26,785.90, being the balance in full found due to him for commissions on the net proceeds of cotton collected by him, and sold in New York on government account, in accordance with my letter of August 18, 1865. The total amount earned by him under that letter is $31,785.90, on which he has had previously an advance of $5,000. The present requisition is for the balance. This requisition followed an adjustment of the balance at that sum communicated to the Secretary by the Commissioner of Customs in a letter dated January 15, 1868, and requesting a remittance to cover the same, and this amount was thereupon paid to Mr. Johnston."
"On the sixteenth of August, 1868, the First Auditor addressed to the Commissioner of Customs a letter containing a detailed statement of the defendant's property account, stating that he had examined and adjusted the same, charging him with 30,610 bales collected, and crediting him with the cotton shipped to Draper, paid to contractors in kind, and various other items of credit, as in the previous account rendered by the defendant, and passed by the Commissioner of Customs, and included the following credits: "
"At the foot of this account so stated the Commissioner added:"
" Admitted and certified.	N. SARGENT"
"On the twenty-seventh of February, 1869, the Commissioner of Customs wrote the defendant as follows:"
" Your account as Assistant Special Agent of the Treasury Department at Columbus, Mississippi, on account of captured and abandoned property, for cotton received and disposed of, has been adjusted and closed on the books of the department."
within the loyal states as the public interests may require, and all sales of such property shall be at auction to the highest bidder, and the proceeds thereof shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States."
"to receive the residue of such proceeds, after the deduction of any purchase money which may have been paid, together with the expenses of transportation and sale of said property, and any other lawful expenses attending the disposition thereof."
by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury."
"The Secretary of the Treasury, with the approval of the President, shall make such rules and regulations as are necessary to secure the proper and economical execution of the provisions of this act, and shall defray all expenses of such execution from the proceeds of fees imposed by said rules and regulations, of sales of captured and abandoned property, and of sales hereinbefore authorized."
and sale of any particular lot of captured and abandoned property should be deemed conclusive evidence that such expenses were proper and necessary unless it appeared that the allowance of such expenses was procured by fraud, or that the expenses were incurred in violation of some positive statute, or of public policy. It is impossible to suppose that Congress intended that every such account, after being approved by the Secretary, should be subject to review by some subordinate officer of the Treasury, or even by the courts, and to be disallowed merely because, in the judgment of that officer or of the courts, such expenses should not have been incurred.
It is, however, contended that the words in the third section of the act of 1864, "all accounts of moneys received or expended in connection therewith shall be audited by the proper accounting officers of the Treasury," negative the supposition that those officers cannot disallow expenses incurred in the collection and sale of captured and abandoned property which the Secretary may have approved as proper and necessary. By "proper accounting officers of the Treasury," in that statute, it is contended is meant the First Auditor and the First Comptroller. It is consequently argued that the settlement upon which the defendant relies constitutes no obstacle to the examination of the items of his accounts.
"All claims and demands whatever by the United States, or against them, and all accounts whatever in which the United States are concerned, either as debtors or creditors, shall be settled and adjusted in the Department of the Treasury."
"What took place in this case was this: the defendant, having finished the work of his agency, was called upon by the Secretary of the Treasury to settle his property accounts. The defendant presented himself at the Treasury Department, appeared before the officers designated by the Secretary for the purpose of adjusting accounts of that character, and put in a claim to be credited with the 483 bales in question. As to this, he claimed that he had expended on behalf of the government, and as necessary disbursements in the execution of the duties of his agency, a sum considerably exceeding the value of the 483 bales for which he acknowledged himself liable to account. It would have been competent and proper for the Secretary or the accounting officer to have treated this claim for disbursements as a money account, which would then, according to the routine of the office at that time, have gone to the First Auditor for examination. That this was not done is, however at most, an irregularity. The Secretary had authority and jurisdiction, however, to settle and adjust the defendant's property account, and this he did, making this offset or allowance. He thereby necessarily passed and approved the expenses in question, both as to their nature as necessary and proper and as to their amount, and by the statute this question was confided to his exclusive determination. Upon the basis of this adjustment of the property account, the defendant's account for commissions was duly adjusted and paid by order of the Secretary. In fact, the Department twice thus acted on the basis of the adjustment of the defendant's property account."
"The accounting officers of the Treasury have not the burden of responsibility cast upon them of revising the judgments, correcting the supposed mistakes, or annulling the orders of heads of departments."
See McKnight v. United States, 13 Ct.Cl. 298, 309.
§ 9, par. 6. More than two and a half millions of it was paid out by Secretaries Chase, Fessenden, and McCulloch (Hodges' Case, 18 Ct.Cl. 704) without any appropriations therefor, when Congress interposed, and passed the joint resolution of March 31, 1868. 15 Stat. 251."
"All moneys which have been received by any officer or employee of the government, or any department thereof, from sales of captured and abandoned property in the late insurrectionary districts, under or under color of the several acts of Congress providing for the collection and sale of such property, and which have not already been actually covered into the Treasury, shall immediately be paid into the Treasury of the United States, together with any interest which has been received or accrued thereon."
The language of this resolution affords some evidence that Congress was aware of the manner in which the several acts relating to captured and abandoned property had been executed, and did not intend to disturb what had been previously done under the practice prevailing in the Treasury Department.
In view of the foregoing facts, the case comes fairly within the rule, often announced by this Court that the contemporaneous construction of a statute by those charged with its execution, especially when it has long prevailed, is entitled to great weight and should not be disregarded or overturned except for cogent reasons and unless it be clear that such construction is erroneous. Edwards v. Darby, 12 Wheat. 206, 25 U. S. 210; United States v. Moore, 95 U. S. 760; Hahn v. United States, 107 U. S. 402; United States v. Philbrick, 120 U. S. 52, 120 U. S. 59.
"were made necessary by the unsettled state of the country, the great accumulation of the cotton which the railroad company was unable to transport, the danger of theft and robbery, and the interference of other agents or persons claiming to be agents of the Treasury Department, and of military officers,"
"were all made in the bona fide belief that they were necessary to protect the interests of the United States in the cotton, to secure increased vigilance, or to prevent connivance with parties interfering with, or attempting to interfere with, the cotton."
found due on the basis of that settlement, could be opened or set aside merely because some of the prescribed steps in the accounting which it was the duty of a head of a department to see had been taken had been in fact omitted, or if they could be so opened and set aside on account of technical irregularities in the allowance of expenses years afterwards, when the remedy of the party against the United States is barred by the statute of limitations and the remedies of the United States on the other side are intact, owing to its not being subject to any act of limitation."

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