Case: Andrew C. Bradley, to the use of Alexander R. Shepherd, to the use of George Taylor et al. v. The United States
Abbreviation: Bradley ex rel. Shepherd v. United States
Decision Date: 1877-12
Docket Number: 
Citation: 13 Ct. Cl. 166
Volume: 13
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: Andrew C. Bradley, to the use of Alexander R. Shepherd, to the use of George Taylor et al. v. The United States.
Judges: 
Pages: 166–183

Head Matter:
BRADLEY’S CASE.
Andrew C. Bradley, to the use of Alexander R. Shepherd, to the use of George Taylor et al. v. The United States.
On the Proofs.
The Postmaster-General rents a building for three years at an agreed rent, “subject to an appropriation l>y Congress for tlie payment of the. rental.” Congress appropriates for the first anil second years of the term, but refuses to appropriate for the third. The landlord sues on the lease.
I. When the Postmaster-General rents a building for three years at an agreed rental, but “subject to an appropriation by Congress for the payment of the rental,” no liability arises beyond the will of Congress; and though the department occupies the building the full term, and Congress make apirropriations for the first and second years of the lease, yet if no appropriation bo made for the third year, no action can be maintained therefor on the lease.
II. When a lease for three years is made subject to the ratification of Congress, and Congress, after appropriating for two years, direct ilio Postmaster-General to deliver up possession unless the owner will accept- a reduced rent for the third, and he. makes no demand for possession, lie will be deemed to have acquiesced in the proposed reduction.
The Reporters' statement of fke case':
The court found the following facts:
I. On the 6th of June, A. D. 1873, the Postmaster-General and the claimant, Bradley, made and executed an indenture, of which the following is a copy:
a This indenture, made this sixth day of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, by and between Andrew 0. Bradley, of Washington, D. 0., of the first part, and John A. J. Creswell, Postmaster-General, for and in behalf of the United States of America, of the second part, witnesseth: That the said party of the first part, for and in consideration of the rents] covenants, and agreements to be paid, kept, aud performed by the party of the second part, doth hereby demise and lease unto the said party of the second part those certain premises, with the four-story brick house and brick stable thereon, situated on the north side of B street, between 9th and 10th streets, in the city of Washington,, in the District of Columbia, and known as house numbered 915 on said B street, northwest, to have and to hold to the party of the second part, for the term of three years from and after the 5th day of June, anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, with the privilege to the said party of the second part of a renewal of the said term for the further period of two years:
“ The said party of the second part yielding and paying therefor the annual rent, during the said term and a subsequent renewal thereof, as aforesaid, of four thousand two hundred dollars ($4,200), payable quarterly, on the 30th day of September, the 31st day of December, the 31st day of March, and the 30th day of June.
* “ And it is hereby mutually understood and agreed, by and between the parties hereto, that this lease is made subject to an appropriation by Congress for the payment of the rental herein stipulated for, and that no payment shall be made to said party of the first part on account of such rental until such appropriation shall be available, and that as soon as practicable after such appropriation shall become available the arrears of the rent then due shall be paid in full, and thereafter payment .shall be made at the times and in the manner hereinbefore stipulated.
“And it is hereby agreed by said party of the first part that he will, at his own expíense, remove such partitions and construct such partitions, with necessary-.doorways and doors, in said building, and construct such water-closets, with the neces.sary water connections, as may be required by the Supervising Architect of the Treasmy Department, and that he will leave ifi good order all gas-fixtures now in said building for the use of said party of the second part; and the party of the second part ■will keep the said premises in good repair during the continu- anee of this lease and. any renewed term thereof, and the expenses of any alterations of or additions to the interior, not herein otherwise provided for, so as to adapt it to the use of the United States, and not calculated to damage the premises, are to be borne by the party of the second part, and all taxes and assessments legally levied or charged upon the property are to be paid by the party of the first part.
“And it is hereby further provided that in case the premises, or any part thereof, during said term or the renewal thereof, be destroyed or injured by fire or other unavoidable casualty,, so that the same shall be thereby rendered unfit for use, then the rent hereinbefore reserved, or a just and proportionable part thereof, according to the extent and nature of the injury sustained, shall be suspended or abated until said the premises shall have been put in proper condition for use by and at the expense of the said party of the first part; and the said party of the second part covenants to deliver up the said premises to the party of the first part at the determination of this lease, or at the end of any renewal of the term thereof, in good order and condition, reasonable wear and use thereof and injury by unavoidable fire or other casualty excepted.
“And it is further stipulated that the party of the second part may, at or before the delivery of the premises aforesaid, remove such additions- to or improvements of the same, placed on the premises by the said party of the second part, the removal of which, as aforesaid, will not injure the premises, as he, the said party of the second part, may elect so to do.
“ In witness whereof the parties hereto have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first above written.
“A. 0. BRADLEY. [seal.]
“JNO. A. J. CRESWELL, [SEAL.;
" JPostmastet --General.
“ Signed, sealed, and delivered in presence of—
“T. A. Spence.
“A. G. Mills.”
II. The premises described in said indenture were sold and conveyed and the lease was assigned by said Bradley to Alexander R. Shepherd, and by him conveyed and assigned to-George Taylor, Samuel Cross, and Peter F. Bacon, as alleged in the petition and in the amendment thereof.
III. Said premises were used and occupied for the uses and purposes of the Post-Office Department, and for the benefit of' the United States, under the direction of the Postmaster-General, from the time of executing said indenture until and including June 30, 1876, as well as subsequently thereto.
IY. The claimants have been paid the rent of said premises,. through special appropriations of Congress, up to and including June 30, 1875, but have been paid nothing for the year ending June 30,1876.
V. It does not appear that demand has ever been made upon the Postmaster-General on the part of the claimants for delivery up of the possession of the premises.
Mr. Xatlianiel Wilson (with whom was Mr. J. IhMey Ashton) for the claimant:
On behalf of the claimant, it- is respectfully submitted that the plain and obvious meaning of the lease is, that it was subject to the approval of Congress, and that such approval was to be made manifest by an appropriation of money.
Their could be no appropriation in advance of the rent for the ■whole term. The decision of Congress upon the first application for an appropriation was to be final, as validating or invalidating the conditional contract,- and it was distinctly and in terms provided that when an appropriation should have been made out of which the arrears of rent could be paid, thereafter payment should be made “ at the times and in- the manner” stipulated for in the lease.
Congress ratified and gave validity to the lease and to its conditions for the whole term thereof, when, upon the request of the Postmaster-General, having the lease before it and full information as to the circumstances under which it was made, it appropriated money for the payment of the rent that accrued between the 6th day of June, 1873, and June 30, 1874, according to the terms of the lease.
Congress further recognized, ratified, and validated the contract by the proviso that “hereafter no contract shall be made for the rent of any building or part of any building in Washington not now in use by the government, to be used for the purposes of the government, until an appropriation therefor shall have been made in terms by Congress.”
Congress again recognized the validity of the contract by appropriating the sum called for by the lease for the year ending June 30,1875.
The United States entered into and maintained possession of the claimant’s property under and by virtue of the lease. The action of Congress certainly ratified and validated the lease for tbe first and second years of the term. If the lease ended with the second year, the United States is liable for the rent now claimed, because it is a settled and indisputable principle of law that a tenant holding over after the expiration of his lease, with the consent of the landlord, becomes a tenant from year to year, subject to the terms and conditions of the original lease. (Taylor’s Landlord and Tenant, sec. 22. Kugler r. The United Mates, 4 C. Cls. B., 414.)
A lease for years, though void as to the term of years, is good for one year if the lessee enters, and the tenancy thereafter becomes a tenancy from year to year. (Taylor’s Landlord and Tenant, sec. 56, and cases there cited.)
A lease void under the statute of frauds, for want of authority of the agent who executed it, will regulate the rights of the parties during the actual existence of the tenancy. (Porter v. Bleller, 17 Bart., 149.) The rights and liabilities of the lessor and lessee are to be measured and determined by the lease under which possession was obtained, and it is not within the power of either party to change the terms of the tenancy without the assent of the other. (Dougherty v. The United States, 5 C. Cls. B., 108.)
Conceding, for the sake of argument merely, that the lease was and is void, and was made without authority of law, and was never validated, the right of property being in the claimants, the government, having entered upon the realty, is to be deemed as having entered as a tenant under an implied lease, and is bound to pay as rent the just compensation secured by the Constitution to those whose property is taken for public use. It has been expressly held that, in the absence of an express contract, or when the express contract is void, the government is properly chargeable with the value of the property which it has received and used. (Solomon v. The United States, 19 Wall., 17. United States v. Gill, 20 Wall., 517. Heathfield v. United States, 8 O. Cls. B., 213.)
In the enactment and approval of the two laws already cited, the legislative and judicial departments of the government determined in the most solemn and forinal way what that just compensation should be. After the rule of compensation was thus formally established, it was optional with the government to give up the premises or to continue its occupancy. If it remained in possession, it was bound to pay the sum already de termined upon and designated, with full notice to the government, as a just compensation.
This court has heretofore held that when the implied rent or yearly value of the yearly occupancy is judicially settled, it will remain fixed, as though the parties had leased and rented the premises on those terms.
Johnson v. The United States, 8 0. Cls. B., 243 ; 4 C. Cls. It., 248; 2 0. Cls. It., 391.
From the foregoing considerations, the conclusion is inevitable that the claimants are entitled to a judgment for $4,200, unless it be true that the lessor, in and by his indenture of lease, agreed and covenanted that compensation for the occupancy of the building was to depend, during the whole period of the term, solely and absolutely upon the will of Congress in making or withholding successive appropriations; that he was bound to accept in full payment whatever Congress might think it proper to appropriate; and that, should Congress make no appropriation, then he should be entitled to no rent whatever.
This construction is wholly inconsistent with the intention of the parties as expressed in the other provisions of the indenture, and is in palpable violation of the settled rules by which leases are construed. A construction should be preferred which preserves rather than destroys the contract. A rational and just construction will be preferred to one which is unreasonable. The whole contract should be construed in determining the meaning of its parts. A contract which is an entirety cannot be enforced in part and rescinded in part.
Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Simons for the defendants:
There, can be no recovery, because by contract of the parties no payment is to be made on accofint of rent until an appropriation by Congress therefor is available, and no such appropriation has been made for the period in question.
It will not be denied that Bradley might contract, if he should so choose, with Oreswell to lease the premises in question and wait for his rent until Congress should provide means to pay it. In so doing he would voluntarily take, on himself the risk that Congress would act in accordance with his expectation, and it seems to follow of necessity that there could be no right of action for rent under such a lease imtil an appropriation had been made by Congress therefor. Tbe defendants contend that tbe claimant did so in tbis case. With tbis understanding of tbe conditions under wbicb they must proceed, tbe parties insert in them contract tbe covenant recited in tbe statement of facts.
Can it be asserted reasonably that under tbis covenant Bradley could demand rent until an available appropriation for tbe rental should exist ? In fact, it was more than twelve months after execution of tbe lease before Congress acted at all in tbe matter, and the lessor waited patiently for such action in respect to tbe rental of tbe first year.
But it is contended for claimants that tbe act of Congress, in appropriating tbe sum required for tbe rent reserved to July 1, 1874, was such a ratification of tbe lease as to bind tbe defendants thereafter to payment of tbe rent reserved in each year of tlie'remainder of tbe term.
As to tbis, we answer that such is not tbe true construction of tbe covenant. Defendants’ agent agreed to pay quarterly in each fiscal year a fixed rental, provided Congress should appropriate tbe means therefor; and as it was known to both parties that such appropriations, as a rule, are made annually, and were liable to tbe delays and other contingencies affecting legislative action, it was clearly intended that no claim for any part of tbe rental stipulated for should at any time accrue in tbe absence of an available appropriation.
Tbe legislative ratification and its extent are to be gathered, not from what tbe parties proposed, but from tbe appropriation acts themselves. There is no pretense that any express ratification is contained therein, but that effect is sought to be implied from tbe fact that means were provided for payment of tbe rent for tbe first two years and because of tbe prohibition of such contracts in future.
We contend that Congress bad a right to deal with tbe unauthorized compact of tbe parties as it chose, to ratify it wholly, or in part, or conditionally, and tbe lessor thereupon might accept such terms as were imposed or allowed, or get out of bis difficulty as be best could. Having entered into an extra-legal undertaking, be is not in a position to dictate tbe terms of ratication.
Tbe claimants have no right of action apart from the lease.
It is contended on their behalf that defendants, if not bound under tbe lease, can be regarded as tenants bolding over and made bable for tbe reasonable value of the occupancy; but tbis ■does not follow, because, as lias been sliown, the lease is not •void in itself. For the term of three years at least it was a ■valid, binding agreement, under which the lessor undertook to wait for his rent until Congress should give it. The Forty-third ■Congress gave it for two years, but declined to give it for the third, and that ivas precisely the risk which he agreed to run. Under his covenant he had a right to seek or wait for more-favorable action from another Congress. lie therefore refused to .accept the terms proposed in. the Act of March 3,1875, namely,' to take back his property or accept the appropriation of $1,800 for its use, and stood on his covenant .to wait, and that, we insist, is his only remedy.

Opinion:
Richardson, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court:
On the 6th of June, 1873, Andrew C. Bradley entered into and' executed an indenture with the Postmaster-General, leasing to the United States, for the uses of the Post-Office Department, certain premises in Washington, designated as " house No. 915 E street, northwest," for three years from June 5,1873, with the privilege of renewal for two years, at an annual rental of $4,200, payable quarterly, on the first day of September, December, March, and June in each year, and the Postmaster-General took immediate possession, and has ever since used the same for the purposes of his department.
Among the agreements therein is the following:
"And it is hereby mutually understood and agreed, by and between the parties hereto, that this lease is made subject to an .appropriation by Congress for the payment of the rental herein stipulated for, and that no payment shall be made to said party of the first part on account of such rental until such appropriation shall be available, and that, as soon as practicable after such appropriation shall become available, the arrears of the rent then due shall be paid in full, and thereafter payment shall be made at the times and in the manner hereinbefore stipulated."
At the time this lease was made the following provisions of .staute law were in force:
" It shall not be lawful for any department of the government to expend in any'one fiscal year any sfim in excess of appropriations made by Congress for that fiscal year, or to involve the government in any contract for the future payment of money in excess of such appropriations." (Act July 12, 1870, ch. 251, § 7, 16 Stat., 251, now Revised Statutes,. § 3679.)
"No contract or purchase shall hereafter be made, unless the same be authorized by law or be under an appropriation adequate to its fulfillment, except in the War and Navy Departments, for clothing, subsistence, forage, fuel, quarters, or transportation, which, however, shall not exceed the necessities of the current year." (Act March 2,1861, ch. 84, § 10,12 Stat., 220, now Devised Statutes, § 3732.)
In view of these stringent provisions, if not from the language of the lease itself, we are of opinion that in entering into this contract the Postmaster-General, with great caution and prudence, had the clause above referred to inserted for the very purpose of not involving or seeming to involve the United States in any liability beyond the will of Congress to be directly expressed thereon, and of having the payment of rent depend wholly upon appropriations therefor by the legislative branch of the government, and that such purpose was fully accomplished by the terms of the agreement to which the parties assented.
. The claimants allege that Congress by its subsequent action, has committed the defendants to the payment of rent at $4,200 a year for the whole term of three years therein specified, and that they are liable for that amount each year whether Congress appropriates the money or not. That such is the legal effect of the statutes upon which the claimants rely we cannot agree.
In the Act of June 20, 1874, ch. 338 (18 Stat. L., 107), making-appropriations for expenses of the government for the year ending June 30, 1875, there is an appropriation "for rent of house numbered 915 E street, northwest, $4,200"; and in the deficiéncy appropriation Act of June 22,1874 (18 Stat., 144), is the following clause:
"For rent of house numbered nine hundred and fifteen E street, northwest, for further accommodation of the clerical force of the department, from June sixth, eighteenhundred and seventy-three, to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, four thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dollars and eighty-six cents; and hereafter no contract shall be made for the rent of any building or part of any building in Washington, not now in use by the government, to be used for the purpose of the government, until an appropriation therefor shall have been made in terms by Congress."
By these two acts Congress made available appropriations for the payment of rent to the end of the second year of the lease, in accordance with the terms of the contract, making the payment subject to such action; but this cannot be held to be an agreement on the part of Congress that it would appropriate $4,200 for tlie next year, nor that tbe defendants should be liable for tbe rent for that year whether an appropriation should be made or not, nor do those acts constitute a waiver in any particular of the provision that the lease is made "subject to an appropriation by Congress for the payment of the rental therein stipulated for, and that no payment shall be made to said party of the first part on account of such rental until such appropriation shall be available," as it is, in effect, alleged by the claimants.
And the clause which prohibits for the future any contract for the rent of any building in Washington, not then used for the purposes of the government, until an appropriation therefor shall have been made in terms by Congress, does not carry with it the slightest implication that the defendants were bound in that or any other such conditional contract beyond the amount appropriated.
Both of the above-named sums were paid- according to the terms of the appropriations, and no controversy arises thereon.
Then came the Act of March 3,1875, ch. 129 (18 Stat., 3G7), with this clause inserted therein:
"For rent of house numbered nine hundred and fifteen E street, northwest, eighteen hundred dollars: Provided, That the above sum shall not be deemed to be paid on account of any lease for years of said building: Provided, however, That at the end of the present fiscal year the Postmaster-General be directed, upon the demand of the lessor, to 'deliver up the possession of said premises."
Thereby Congress determined to permit the Postmaster-General to continue in possession of the premises another year only on condition that the rent should be $1,800; for which an appropriation was made. That was more tlian three months before the year was to commence, and notice was thereby given to the lessor substantially that upon dem and made uponthe Postmaster-General, possession of the property should be delivered up, or the defendants would continue in possession at the rent specified at the option of the claimants.
No demand for redelivery of the premises having been made, the claimants must now be held to have assented to the terms offered by Congress for the rent of the premises for the year ending June 30,187G.
It will be observed that the Postmaster-General did not make an agreement for the payment of a fixed rental for three years .and submit tlmt agreement to Congress for ratification. What was submitted to Congress by the parties was the right to make or refuse appropriations, which are well known to be annual and not for three years at one time; and it was expressly stipulated, as we have before shown, that no rent should be paid until an appropriation should be available. This was quite a different condition from that which is assumed and relied upon in the argument as having been created by the contract and subsequently complied with, a condition of approval or ratification by Congress which, when once performed, would render the defendants liable for the whole term of three years. The question of ratification of the lease is really not involved in the case, because, even if it were ratified, the fact still remains that the very terms of the instrument are that Congress shall first make an appropriation before any rent is payable, and those terms would not be annulled or altered, but would be adopted by a ratification of the lease, and would continue in force as a condition precedent to the claimant's right of recovery.
The facts do not present a case of implied contract to pay the rentable value of the property for use and occupation, nor a case of hardship which might have existed if the claimant's property had been retained until the expiration of the third year before the determination of Congress to appropriate less than the lease specified was made known, for the claimant was duly and reasonably notified by a public act several months before the third year commenced of the amount it had appropriated and would x>ay; and thus Congress did more for the claimant's interest than it was called upon to do by the agreement in offering to surrender the premises if the lessor was not content with the amount thus made available for the payment of rent.
In the case of Churchwardens v. The Queen (1 Law Reports, Queen's Bench, 1865, p. 199), which was a petition of right against the Crown, upon a contract made by the commissioners of admiralty, wherein, for the performance of certain service, they agreed to pay " a sum of money to be provided by Parliament, after the rate of £18,000 per annum, by quarterly payments," the court held that the liability for payment depended upon Parliament first providing the money. The language of Chief Justice Coclcburn, in giving his opinion, is singularly applicable to the points involved in this case. He sa5rs: " We start with this, that there is involved in this contract the possibility of Parliament refusing to find the fund. The commissioners do not make themselves, nor their department, nor the Crown answerable for a default in the payment of the £18,000 a year to the contractor. It is left to Parliament to find the funds, and in that is necessarily involved the jAossibility of Parliament, in the exercise of its absolute power, refusing to do so; and, in point of fact, Ave cannot shut our eyes to the fact, because I think it sufficiently appears from this record and the acts of Parliament referred to that Parliament has refused to find the funds."
In the case at bar, Congress has refused to furnish the necessary funds to pay the $4,200 demanded, but has appropriated $1,800, and to that extent the claimants are entitled to recover, and judgment will be entered in their favor for that amount.