Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/269/71/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 18:21:43+00:00

Document:
1. In an action under the Trading with the Enemy Act to recover on the debt of a German to an American citizen which was due and payable here in German marks before this country entered the late war, the damages are to be measured by the value of marks in dollar as of the time when default occurred. P. 269 U. S. 80.
2. The liability to damage having become absolute before he war began, interest should include the time covered by the war. P. 269 U. S. 81.
299 F. 538 affirmed in part, reversed in part.
Certiorari allowed on cross-petitions to review a judgment of the circuit court of appeals which affirmed a decree of the district court (291 F. 768, 769) allowing a recovery, without interest during the war, in a suit under the Trading with the Enemy Act.
These are cross-petitions based upon a suit brought against the Alien Property Custodian by Guinness and others, doing business under the firm name of Ladenburg, Thalmann & Co. in New York. The facts are not in dispute. A German firm, Joerger and others doing business under the name of Delbruck, Schickler & Co., was indebted to the American firm under an account stated on December 31, 1916, for 1,079.35 marks, subject to a set-off of $35.35. The debt was not paid when the war between Germany and the United States began April 6, 1917. The Alien Property Custodian had taken property of the German firm of a value greater than the debt, and the American firm brought this suit in equity to recover what was due to it, as provided by the Trading with the Enemy Act of October 6, 1917, c. 106, § 9, 40 Stat. 411, 419, amended by the Act of June 5, 1920, c. 241, 41 Stat. 977. The only questions raised and argued here are whether interest is to be allowed for the time covered by the war, from April 6, 1917, to July 14, 1919, and at what date the value of the mark is to be estimated in dollars in order to fix the amount of the decree. The district court held that interest was suspended during the war, 291 F. 768, and that the value of the mark at the time when the debt should have been paid was the proper measure. (This value is fixed as 17 1/2 cents.) 291 F. 769. The decree was affirmed by the circuit court of appeals. 299 F. 538. The Alien Property Custodian, in the interest of the German debtors, seeks to reverse the latter ruling in No. 80, and the American firm seeks to reverse the former ruling in No. 81.
and circuit courts of appeal, as well as of the English House of Lords. Hoppe v. Russo-Asiatic Bank, 235 N.Y. 37; Katcher v. American Express Co., 94 N.J.Law 165, 171; Simonoff v. Granite City National Bank, 279 Ill. 248, 255; Wichita Mill & Elevator Co. v. Naamlooze, etc., Industrie, 3 F.2d 931; S.S. Celia v. S.S. Volturno,  2 A.C. 544.
the Treaty with Germany and the Trading with the Enemy Act.

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