Court Opinion

ID: 8638379
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-11-24 19:49:01.849713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:56:00.821647
License: Public Domain

HOPK1NSON. District Judge
(charging jury). (After stating the several charges of the United- States against the defendant, which constitute the claim sought to be recovered in this action, and also, generally, the grounds on which it is resisted, the judge instructed the jury on the matters of law arising in the case, substantially as follows:) The jury must bear in mind that the appointment of Mr. M'Call. to the duties of a navy agent, was not made under the act of congress of 3d March, 1809, and of course the question of his compensation for his services is not to be governed by the provisions of that law. Had his appointment been under that law, our course in the decision of this cause would be very plain and easy. We should follow the directions of the law, without regarding the acts or opinions of the secretary of the navy, as no agreements by him with Mr. M'Call, however explicit, if made in violation of the law, could be attended to here. The defendant, also, is presumed to have known the law by which his office was conferred on him, and to have-known further that no contract made by the-secretary with him, not warranted by the law, could be enforced in any court of the-United States. Hidr. M’Call was not appointed by virtue of that act of congress, but under a general authority, lawfully exercised by the secretary of the navy, to appoint agents of the department, who are not, properly speaking, navy agents, nor officers of' the United States, but the agents of the secretary or his department. In such cases, where there is no statutory prohibition or limitation, a large discretion is allowed to the departments. In such appointments the duties of the agent, as well as his compensation and emoluments, must be regulated by the agreement made between him and the-secretary. The duties and the compensation must wait upon the object of the appointment; they will vary according to the circumstances of each case; they may be permanent or temporary, more or less. We-have, then, not to look to the law of 3d. March, 1809. for the liquidation of this account, for our guide and rule in settling the-claims of the respective parties, but we must look truly and conscientiously to the agreement between them, upon the faith of which the services of the defendant were rendered. The changes that have taken place in the office of secretary of the navy, have probably produced all the difficulties between the defendant and the department, but they can. produce no change in any contract made within the authority of the officer who made-it.
The original agreement is contained in a correspondence between Mr. Crowninshield, the then secretary of the navy, and Mr.. M'Call. The several letters do not appear to me to be ambiguous, at least as regards the-prineipal item of dispute, that is, the commissions or compensation to be allowed to the defendant; and my construction of them inclines to the opinion given upon them by Secretary Thompson, who had succeeded Mr. Crowninshield in the navy department. When Mr. M'Call rendered his first account to the department, or when it was there settled, Mr. Thompson was in office, and had the account settled according to his construction of the contract. If the duties and services of the appointment turned out to be-more onerous, important and expensive than was contemplated when the contract was; made, they nevertheless can have no operation in changing the meaning or construction of the contract, but they would afford a good and just reason for modifying it for the future, or for making a new and different one. or for the exercise of the secretary’s discretion in making allowances to meet these un*235expected contingencies. Tims, if tlie contract had been made on the basis, that the residence of Mr. M'Call was to be at Barcelona, where living was cheap and commissions low, and where he had also a consulate, and it turned out that the public service required the navy agent to remove to Gibraltar, this would be a fair ground for a new contract, or for additional, equitable allowances. The secretary was not restricted to make no allowances but such as came strictly within the letter of the contract, if he should think there had been services performed, or expenses in that service incurred, not provided for by the contract. It is unfortunate that the secretary who made the agreement was not first called upon to say what was intended by it. His construction would probably have been received as authentic by his successors. The accounts of Mr. M’Call were submitted to the auditor, and by him referred to the secretary, whose decision upon them I am inclined to adopt. It is said Mr. M'Call acquiesced in this decision. Did he do so? It is true he continued to hold the appointment, but to make strong remonstrances against that decision; and it is to be remarked that, in his appeal to the secretary, he takes the ground of his services, and not of the contract, to support his claims. This was correct.
Before Mr. M'Call again rendered his accounts to the department, another secretary, Mr. Southard, came into the office. Mr. M'Call renewed his charges, not only for the period between his first and second accounts, but introduced the very items that had been rejected or suspended by the former secretary. A question has arisen as to what items were rejected and what suspended. It is said that the charge of commissions only was suspended, but that, as to the other disputed items, the opinion of Secretary Thompson is clear, explicit and final. This may or may not have been his intention; but the suspension, as it appears on the account, goes to the whole of it; and we should presume that Mr. M'Call so understood it, as he would hardly have preferred those charges again, in the face of Mr. Thompson’s decision, had he continued in office.
The accounts of the defendant were submitted to Secretary Southard, who seems to have given them a full and careful examination. and finally he passed and allowed the accounts, admitting all Mr. M’Call’s charges, not only for the period subsequent to his own coming into office, but for the antecedent time, allowing the items which his predecessor had refused or suspended. Mr. Southard must, like the defendant, have considered that these items were suspended, and not finally decided upon by Secretary Thompson. Although Mr. Thompson had given his opinion on the principle on which the account should be settled, yet the items affected by the principle were suspended, and not finally acted upon; they were not closed against future consideration and adjustment, by Mr. Thompson himself, or by a successor to his authority. Whatever may have been his reason for not directly applying his principle to the items in question, Mr. Southard believed, and I cannot say he was mistaken, that the whole account, when it came‘to him, was open for his examination and judgment; and he acted upon it accordingly. With my understanding of the original contract with Mr. Crowninshield, as I have intimated, I must consider that, in passing this account and allowing the disputed charges of the defendant, he did not proceed on the ground of that contract, for I do not see how it could bear him out; but that he did proceed on a ground equally tenable and firm, that is, by virtue of his general authority, as the head of his department, to exercise his discretion in making compensation to the agents of the department for their services, in eonformity with his judgment and views of the justice of the case, after a longer experience and a fuller knowledge of the nature of the defendant’s services, had enabled him to appreciate their value, and to estimate more correctly the expenses to which they exposed the agent.
But it is worthy of particular attention, that the account thus settled by Mr. South-ard, which contained the very charges formerly suspended or rejected, as it may have been, has been considered by the department to be finally closed; the defendant obtained his credits; they cannot now be disturbed, and no attempt is. made by this suit to disturb them. If this suit had been brought for the allowances made by Mr. Southard, anterior to the settlement of 1824, we might have been called upon to look to and construe the original contract; but it is now unnecessary, as the accounts now in controversy, are subsequent to that settlement. Before these accounts of the defendant were presented to the department, another change had taken place in the office of secretary; Mr. Branch had succeeded Mr. Southard. The accounts are sent to the new secretary by the fourth auditor, with certain objections, or rather questions upon them. The result was, that Mr. Branch, going back to the original contract for the adjustment of the accounts, resumed the opinion of Secretary Thompson and adjusted them accordingly, as the district attorney has submitted them to you, that is, refusing the defendant credit for the charges which Mr. Southard had allowed in the previous settlement of his accounts.
We have now arrived at the real question in this case, which is, are we at this time at liberty to go back to the contract between Secretary Crowninshield and Mr. M'Call, and to receive or reject the disputed items of his account, as we shall believe they are or are not warranted by the construction we shall put upon that contract; or, on the other hand, are we not bound by the allowances made by *236Secretary Soutliárd, to the defendant in the settlement of his account In 1824, either, as a construction of the contract binding on the United States, or as constituting a new contract for the subsequent services of the defendant? With the opinion I have, and which I have'already intimated, of the meaning of that contract, I cannot think that Mr. Southard admitted the charges in question by virtue of that contract; but that he considered them not to have been finally acted upon by his predecessor, that they were, therefore, open to his judgment upon them, and that after receiving the personal explanations of the charges from Mr. M‘Call, who had returned to the United States for the purpose of settling this account; after learning from him the real nature and extent of his services, and his extraordinary expenses in performing them, together with the change that had taken place in his situation and residence, and the importance and extent of his duties, the secretary took upon himself, as he clearly had a right to do, if the former secretary had but suspended these charges for further explanation, to make these allowances and fix the compensation of the agent, according to his view of the circumstances shown to him, in support of their, justice and equity. In Maedaniel’s Case, 7 Pet. [32 U. S.] 1, it is said by the judge, delivering the opinion of the-court that “it will not be contended that one secretary has not the same power as another, to give a construction to an act which relates to the business of the department.” The court in that case fully recognise the discretion which any one of the great departments of the government must be allowed to exercise, in the distribution of its duties and responsibilities, and that while he regulates the exercise of his powers by the law, it does not follow that he must show a statutory provision for every thing he does.
In the case submitted now to this court and jury, we are not called upon to decide upon the right of Mr. Southard to adinit the credits in question, whether they had been suspended or rejected by the former secretary. Whether Mr. Southard was right or wrong in his action upon the account which he settled wit.li the defendant in 1824, and in his allowance of credits to the defendant in that account which had formerly been withheld, is, at this time and in this suit, of no importance. This suit is not brought by the United States to recover back the money, credited and allowed to the defendant by that settlement, upon the allegation, that the secretary transcended his power in allowing those credits, or on any other allegation. No attempt is made to disturb that settlement. This action is now brought to recover from the defendant the money which he retains for his compensation and charges, for services and expenses subsequent to that settlement, and in strict conformity with the allowances that were made to him by the secretary, in that settlement. Then the question is, if it can be called a question, had the secretary a right to make a contract or arrangement with his agent, acting under and by his authority, performing the services of the department under his direction and controul, for the compensation for these services and for the expenses for which he was to be allowed in performing them? If the secretary had this power, if he has made this contract with the defendant, and the defendant, upon the faith of the contract, has gone on to render his services and to disburse his money in the public service, it is for us to inquire, whether Mr. Southard has exercised his discretion discreetly or not; whether he has been too liberal or not in the terms he gave to his agent. That such an arrangement, such a contract, was made, seems to me to be proved beyond a question by the testimony of Mr. Southard, and of Mr. Watkins at that time the fourth auditor of the treasury department, in addition to the evidence afforded by the settlement itself.. On the faith of this agreement, Mr. M‘Call resigned his consulship at Barcelona, returned to Gibraltar, resumed the duties of his agency, and devoted himself to them. No question has been made of the fidelity and ability with which he performed these duties.
You will observe that this ease comes before you, on a more free and extensive ground than it stood at the department, when these credits were refused. The officers of that department looked at the case only as it appeared on their books and records; they decided it by their regulations for the settlement of accounts, which are intended only for general rules in the transaction of the business of the office, and for the government of extraordinary cases. The courts have often revised the decisions made by the strictness, of these regulations, where they worked manifest injustice to the individuals concerned. The accounting officers of the department, in this instance, took up the original contract as it appears in the correspondence between Secretary Crowninshield and the defendant; they put their construction upon it, with which I do not find fault, and they stopped there. As they found nothing on their books and records of the subsequent proceedings of Mr. Southard, they paid no attention to them. It is our duty, however, to go further into the truth and justice of the case, and to decide upon the rights of the parties by the laws of the land, and not by the office rules of a department. Upon these principles of law, applied to your own views of me evidence, you will make up your verdict. The defendant admits a balance to be due from him to the United States of five thousand four hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety-four cents, which he has always been ready to pay. The United States claim from him the sum of eleven thousand six hundred and twenty dollars and sixty cents, with interest amounting to thirteen hundred and twenty-eight dollars and thirty-one cents. The difference is made by the disputed items in the *237defendant’s account, upon which you. are to decide.
' The jury found a verdict for the United States for five thousand four hundred and seventy-eight dollars and ninety-four cents.