Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/127/51/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 00:16:53+00:00

Document:
In order to make a claim against the United States one arising out of a treaty within the meaning of Rev.Stat. § 1066, excluding it from the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, the right itself, which the petition makes to be the foundation of the claim, must derive its life and existence from some treaty stipulation.
A claim against the United States made under the provisions of the Act of June 5, 1882, 22 Stat. 98, c.195, "reestablishing the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims and for the distribution of unappropriated moneys of the Geneva Award," is not a claim growing out of the treaty of Washington within the sense of the word "treaty" as used in Rev.Stat. § 1066.
The payment of the expenses of the Geneva Arbitration has not been charged by Congress upon the fund received under the award made there.
This is an appeal from the Court of Claims. The suit was brought in that court by the appellees, who were plaintiffs below, to recover from the United States the sum of $5,306.71, which sum they alleged was an unsatisfied part of a judgment recovered by them in the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims that had been improperly and illegally withheld from them by the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States and the accounting officers of that department.
"An act to make appropriations for expenses that may be incurred under articles 1 to 9, inclusive, of the said treaty between the United States and Great Britain, concluded at Washington, May 8, 1871,"
creditors the sum of $5,739,495.41; that by reason of such deduction, the said claimants have been deprived of their proportionate share of the said sum of $249,168.41, to-wit, the sum of $5,306.71, and that no assignment or transfer of said claim, or any part thereof, or interest therein, has been made by claimants, and that they are justly entitled to the said sum of $5,306.71, after allowing all just credits and set-offs, for which said sum they demand judgment.
"An act reestablishing the Court of Commissioners of Alabama claims, and for the distribution of the unappropriated moneys of the Geneva award, approved June 5, 1882,"
22 Stat. 98, and duly certified and transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury, as provided by said act.
(2) The aggregate amount of judgments of the second class rendered by said court, reestablished by said act, including interest, was $16,292,607.26, and the aggregate amount of judgments of the first class, including interest, was $3,350,947.51.
(3) The Secretary of State, in pursuance of the provisions of the fourth section of the Act of June 2, 1886, entitled "An act to provide for closing up the business and paying the expenses of the Court of Commissioners of Alabama claims, and for other purposes," 24 Stat. 77, found and estimated the value of the furniture named in said section to be $800, and the same was credited to the fund to be distributed under said act, and the Secretary of State, with the assistance of the clerk of said court, under the provisions of said section 4 of said act, estimated the cost and expenses therein mentioned at $15,000, and the same was charged to said fund.
(4) Under the provisions of section 4 of said act of 1886, the accounting officers of the Treasury, for the purpose of making distribution of the balance of the Geneva award fund to the judgment creditors as therein required, stated the account, allowing the proper credits and charging the fund with the amounts directed and specified therein, including therein as chargeable to said fund and deducting therefrom the "expenses of the tribunal of arbitration at Geneva," ($249,168.41).
(5) The claimants were paid their proportion of said balance as so stated by the accounting officers, being 35.22760549 percent of their said judgment, but have received no part of that portion of said fund which was so retained to reimburse the expenses of the tribunal of arbitration at Geneva, $249,168.40. If said last-named sum is not legally chargeable to said fund, the claimants' proportion thereof would be $5,306.53, which the defendants have not paid and which they refuse to pay. The court thereupon decided as a conclusion of law that the claimants were entitled to recover the sum of $5,306.53, and rendered judgment accordingly.
The main question in this case is a jurisdictional one. On behalf of the United States, it is claimed that this is a case growing out of, and dependent upon, the Treaty of Washington, concluded May 8, 1871, between the United States and Great Britain, and proclaimed July 4, 1871, 17 Stat. 863, and that therefore, by the express provisions of § 1066, Revised Statutes of the United States, the Court of Claims was prohibited from taking jurisdiction of it. On behalf of the appellees, it is contended that this case is not embraced within the class of cases of which the Court of Claims is prohibited by § 1066, Rev.Stat., from taking jurisdiction; but if that contention cannot be sustained, then it is insisted by appellees that said § 1066 has been repealed by the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1887, 24 Stat. 505, c. 359, and is no longer law.
there any very great contention as to the correctness of the judgment below if it be found that the court had jurisdiction.
"In that case, the claimant corporation was not seeking to recover under any law of Congress, but was attempting to enforce an alleged implied assumpsit on the part of United States growing out of and dependent upon the Treaty of Washington, notwithstanding the laws of Congress, which expressly excluded its claim from consideration and from payment out of the fund in controversy. Instead of founding its claim on any law of Congress, as do the present claimants, the company invoked the jurisdiction of this Court to set aside and annul the statute provisions."
on account of certain duties originally paid by claimants but subsequently refunded to them by the United States. The claimants having received the sum specifically awarded to them by the commission, and having been refused the sum retained by the United States, on account of the duties aforesaid, by the Secretary of the Treasury, brought an action in the Court of Claims to recover the amount of said duties. This Court held that the Court of Claims had no jurisdiction to entertain such a suit, and ordered the dismissal of the petition because the claim was founded on and grew out of the treaty with Mexico, and was therefore clearly within the provisions of § 1066, Rev.Stat. The reason of the ruling by this Court in that decision is plain. The claim there in controversy was expressly recognized as a specific claim by the commission organized under the provisions of the treaty with Mexico, and was therefore dependent upon the treaty and grew directly out of it.
June 2, 1886. It is under this act that a means of satisfaction of this claim was provided. The claim may therefore be said to be "founded upon a law of Congress" within the meaning of § 1059, Rev.Stat., and therefore clearly one of which the Court of Claims could take jurisdiction.
It may be said in opposition to this view of the case that had there been no Treaty of Washington, there would have been no fund of $15,500,000 to distribute, the Act of June 5, 1882, would never have been passed, and therefore that the treaty is the basis of all the subsequent legislation, and consequently the basis of this claim -- in other words, that therefore this claim is "dependent upon and grows out of" the treaty of Washington.
We are of opinion, however, that such a dependency upon or growing out of is too remote to come within the meaning of § 1066, Rev.Stat. In our view of the case, the statute contemplates a direct and proximate connection between the treaty and the claim, in order to bring such claim within the class excluded from the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims by § 1066, Rev.Stat. In order to make the claim one arising out of a treaty within the meaning of § 1066, Rev.Stat., the right itself, which the petition makes to be the foundation of the claim, must have its origin -- derive its life and existence -- from some treaty stipulation. This ruling is analogous to that of the ancient and universal rule relating to damages in common law actions -- namely that a wrongdoer shall be held responsible only for the proximate, and not for the remote, consequences of his actions.
This disposition of this question renders it unnecessary to consider whether § 1066 has been repealed by the subsequent Act of Congress approved March 3, 1887, supra, since if there has been such repeal, it is admitted on all hands that the Court of Claims would have jurisdiction of the case.
Congress by the Act of December 21, 1871, 17 Stat. 24, and were never chargeable to this fund.
"Section five of the Act of June 2, 1886 (supra) fixes the amount of the fund, and specifies exactly what shall be deducted from it, and provides that the balance shall be distributed to the judgment creditors. The item thus deducted was not among those thus specified."

References: § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1059
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066
 § 1066