Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/137/636/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 20:32:26+00:00

Document:
Cases cited in which it has been decided that a person holding public office may be compelled by writ of mandamus to perform the duties imposed upon him by law.
When the duty which the court is asked to enforce by mandamus is plainly ministerial, and the right of the party applying for the writ is clear, and he is without other adequate remedy, the writ may issue; but where the effect of the writ is to discharge or control the head of an Executive Department in the discharge of a duty involving the exercise of judgment or discretion, it should not issue.
Cases cited and referred to in which a writ of mandamus will not be issued to compel the performance of even a purely ministerial act.
M. furnished material and performed labor for the United States under a contract, and when the work was done and the materials furnished, he presented his account to the proper officer for adjustment and settlement. The balance was found to be correct so far as the labor and material were concerned, but it was also found that, through penalties and forfeitures, that balance was liable to be materially reduced. It also appeared that M. was indebted to mechanics, subcontractors, laborers, and materialmen in a large amount for work done and materials furnished under the contract. The Treasury officials agreed with M. that this account should be adjusted without enforcing the penalties and forfeitures if he would consent that his said indebtedness should be paid out of the sum so allowed, and that the control of the money should not be given up until those claims were satisfied. He assented, and a draft was prepared accordingly. He did not comply with those conditions, but instead thereof applied to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia for leave to file an application for a writ of mandamus to compel the Secretary of the Treasury to deliver the draft to him, without first making the agreed payments. That officer made a return to the petition, setting forth the foregoing facts.
(1) That the return showed disputed questions of law and fact which ought not to be tried in a proceeding for a mandamus, and that this was sufficient cause for the discharge of the rule and the refusal to issue the writ.
(2) That the agreement between M. and the accounting officers was lawful, and, if carried out, would have been proper.
paid to him; that the respondent does not deny the correctness of the account, the amount found to be due to Mitchell, but bases his refusal to deliver the draft simply upon the ground that Mitchell has not paid the sums demanded of him by the persons who presented their claims at the Treasury Department; that about the 27th day of February, 1888, Mitchell, under certain proceedings under the laws of New York, set forth the indebtedness of the United States to him, and the detention of the draft as herein stated; that the Supreme Court of the City and County of New York, in the course of those proceedings, appointed the relator receiver of all of Mitchell's property, debts, equitable rights, interests, and effects, real and personal; that he, the relator, was duly qualified, and, by virtue of said order, was entitled to demand and to receive the said draft for $12,536, and that Mitchell, for the purpose of enabling the relator to demand and receive said draft, and to apply the proceeds thereof according to the order appointing him receiver, assigned said draft to relator, giving him thereby full power to demand and receive it or the amount expressed in it.
"a general appropriation was made by act of Congress to provide for the payment of work to be done in the building and repairing of life-saving stations prior to the performance of the work done under the said contract of September 3, 1886, and that there is sufficient money now in the Treasury of the United States applicable to the payment of the said work so done under said contract."
The prayer is for a writ of mandamus against Hon. William Windom, Secretary of the Treasury, commanding him to deliver or cause to be delivered to the relator the said draft, or show cause at an early date, and that such further order may be made in the premises as law and justice may require, or show cause, etc.
designed to reply to what was expected to be set forth in the return.
forfeitures to the government as the laws and regulations of the Treasury Department may require. He further averred that to leave the relator to his remedy at law would enable the government to avail itself of the said forfeitures, or other just damages in the premises.
On the hearing, the court discharged the rule, and denied the writ.
The main assignment of error is that the court erred in not deciding that the duty of the Secretary to deliver the draft was purely a ministerial duty of which the court should enforce the performance by a writ of mandamus. In order to determine whether the case presented by the record is a proper one for a mandamus, it is necessary to recur to certain statutory provisions bearing upon the powers and duties of the Secretary of the Treasury respecting the accounts to be settled in that department, and especially upon his relations to the accounting officers thereof.
"The First Auditor shall receive and examine all accounts accruing in the Treasury Department relating to the receipts from customs, including accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs . . . and after examination of such accounts relating to the receipts from customs, including the accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs, he shall certify the balances, and transmit the same, with the vouchers and certificates, to the Commissioner of Customs for his decision thereon, and he shall certify the balances of all other accounts, and transmit the same in like manner to the First Comptroller for his decision thereon."
settled by the first Auditor relating to the receipts from customs, including accounts of collectors and other officers of the customs, and certify the balances arising thereon to the register, [and shall perform all the acts and exercise all the powers relating to the receipts from customs and the amounts of collectors, and the other officers of the customs as connected therewith, devolved by section two hundred and sixty-nine, upon the First Comptroller, in regard to other receipts and other accounts.]"
"SEC. 191. The balances which may from time to time be stated by the Auditor, and certified to the heads of departments by the Commissioner of Customs, or the Comptrollers of the Treasury, upon the settlement of public accounts, shall not be subject to be changed or modified by the heads of departments, but shall be conclusive upon the executive branch of the government, and be subject to revision only by Congress or the proper courts. The head of the proper department, before signing a warrant for any balance certified to him by a Comptroller, may, however, submit to such Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balance, but the decision of the Comptroller thereon shall be final and conclusive, as hereinbefore provided."
the writ of mandamus should issue to compel the performance of that duty.
This argument would be conclusive as to the right of the relator to the remedy prayed for if the facts which it assumes comprised all the facts presented by the record. The statutes which we have quoted are very explicit in designating the officers to whom the right and duty belong of examining and auditing the accounts therein referred to, and of certifying and transmitting the balances of the same to the Commissioner of Customs for his decision thereon, and they expressly provide that when those accounts are examined by those accounting officers in successive grades, the balances stated by the Auditor and certified to the heads of department by the commissioner shall be conclusive upon the executive branch of the government. There is nothing in the language of these provisions which expressly or by implication vests in the Secretary the power to revise or disallow any part of these accounts. On the contrary, it is clearly his duty to issue a warrant for the payment of any balance without any change or modification, except that, before issuing a warrant for any balance certified to by a Comptroller, he may submit to such Comptroller any facts in his judgment affecting the correctness of such balance; but the decision of the Comptroller thereon shall be final and conclusive.
The principle upon which persons holding public office may be compelled by a writ of mandamus to perform duties imposed by law have been distinctly defined and strictly adhered to in a great number and variety of cases before this Court. Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137; Kendall v. United States, 12 Pet. 524; Decatur v. Paulding, 14 Pet. 497; Brashear v. Mason, 6 How. 92, 47 U. S. 101; United States v. Guthrie, 17 How. 284; Ex Parte De Groot, 6 Wall. 497; Georgia v. Stanton, 6 Wall. 50; Gaines v. Thompson, 7 Wall. 347; United States v. Seaman, 17 How. 225, 58 U. S. 230; Ex Parte Bradstreet, 7 Pet. 634; Harrington v. Haller, 111 U. S. 796; Reeside v. Walker, 11 How. 272, 52 U. S. 290; United States v. Schurz, 102 U. S. 378, 102 U. S. 394-395; Butterworth v. United States, 112 U. S. 50; United States v. Black, 128 U. S. 40.
That principle is that the writ of mandamus may issue where the duty which the court is asked to enforce is plainly ministerial and the right of the party applying for it is clear and he is without any other adequate remedy, and it cannot issue in a case where its effect is to direct or control the head of an executive department in the discharge of an executive duty involving the exercise of judgment or discretion. The doctrine to be gathered from these cases , as well those in which mandamus was granted as those in which it was refused, especially from the two leading cases, Kendall v. United States, supra, and Decatur v. Paulding, supra, is thus enunciated in United States v. Black supra, by MR. JUSTICE BRADLEY, who delivered the opinion of the Court.
"The court will not interfere by mandamus with the executive officers of the government in the exercise of their ordinary official duties even where those duties require an interpretation of the law, the court having no appellate power for that purpose; but when they refuse to act in a case at all, or when, by special statute or otherwise, a mere ministerial duty is imposed upon them -- that is, a service which they are bound to perform without further question -- then if they refuse, a mandamus may be issued to compel them."
"If, as has been suggested, it should on any occasion be unsafe, with reference to the public service, to make a payment of this kind, the fact may be stated on return to the mandamus. There might perhaps be occasions on which the Lords Commissioners would be bound to apply the money to particular purposes of a more pressing nature."
"In the opinion of the respondent, said forfeitures and penalties may legally be insisted upon by the government, and the amount thereof deducted from said draft, and it is the legal right of the respondent, in his opinion, to secure a restatement of said account, or to cancel said draft, or to take such other course to secure said penalties and forfeitures to the government as the laws and the regulations of the Treasury Department may require, and he avers that to leave the relator to his remedy at law would, in the respondent's opinion, enable the government to avail itself of the said forfeitures or other just damages in the premises."
We think that this return showed sufficient cause for a discharge of the rule, and a refusal to issue the writ. It certainly raises disputed questions of law and fact as to the amount of the actual indebtedness of the United States to Mitchell; as to his agreement that the draft should not be delivered until the claims of the subcontractors, mechanics, and materialmen should be satisfied out of the proceeds of said draft; as to whether the remission of the forfeiture was absolute or conditional; as to the validity of such agreement, and as to the legal effect of Mitchell's nonfulfillment of the contract. We concur with the court below that these disputed questions of law and fact should not be tried in this proceeding, and that this is not a case in which the power of the court should be exercised.

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