Case: MARY A. WARDWELL, ADMINISTRATRIX OF WILLIAM V. B. WARDWELL, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Wardwell v. United States
Decision Date: 1898-10
Docket Number: 
Citation: 34 Ct. Cl. 535
Volume: 34
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: MARY A. WARDWELL, ADMINISTRATRIX OF WILLIAM V. B. WARDWELL, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, November 28, 1898.
Pages: 535–535

Head Matter:
MARY A. WARDWELL, ADMINISTRATRIX OF WILLIAM V. B. WARDWELL, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
[32 C. Cls. R., 30; 172 U. S. R., 48.]
On the defendant’s 'Appeal.
Claimant sues to recover the amount of three checks, one issued hy a paymaster and two hy a quartermaster in June, 1869, in payment of balances due for quartermaster stores. It is alleged that in the year 1872 the amount of said checks was, in pursuance of the act 29 May, 1866 (Revised Statutes, $ 306), covered into the Treasury and carried to the account of outstanding liabilities, and that no part of either of said checks has ever been paid; that neither óf them has been assigned or transferred hy decedent or claimant, and that they have been lost or destroyed.
The court below decides:
1. When a claim passes into the form of checks its legal character changes from that of a demand for goods sold and delivered to a claim represented by the checks given in liquidation of the original demand. It then becomes a legal obligation arising upon the new form of indebtedness.
2. The fund established by section 306, Revised Statutes, bears upon it the impress of a trust, and the statute of limitations can not be set up against money credited to the. claimant in the permanent appropriation for outstanding Habilites. Such money is held as a trust fund, payable on demand without limit of time.

Opinion:
The decision of the court below is affirmed on the same grounds
Mr. Justice Brewer delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, November 28, 1898.