Case Name: BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY v. THE UNITED STATES
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1923-04-09
Citations: 58 Ct. Cl. 709
Docket Number: 
Parties: BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 58
Pages: 709–709

Head Matter:
BALTIMORE & OHIO RAILROAD COMPANY v. THE UNITED STATES.
[57 C. Cls. 140; 261 U.S. 592.]
Judgment was rendered in favor of the- United States in • the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
The Dent Act, c. .94, 40 Stat. 1172, was intended to remedy irregu-, larities and informalities in the mode of entering into the agreements to which it relates; not to enlarge the authority of the agents by whom they were made.
The “implied agreement” contemplated by this act is not an agreement “ implied in law ” or quasi contract, but an agreement “ implied in fact,” founded on a meeting of minds inferred, as a fact, from conduct of the parties in the light of surrounding. ■....■circumstances.
Findings of fact showing that., the claimant railway company constructed temporary barracks for troops, who were guarding its property as well as that of the Government, and undertook this without any order from their commanding officer, but voluntarily, and without mentioning compensation, apparently from its own desire to provide for the.comfort of the troops, held an insufficient basis for implying an agreement that the Government would pay the cost of construction.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Sanford
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court April 9, 1923.