Case: CHARLES E. THOMPSON, ADMINISTRATOR OF ADAMS, v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Thompson v. United States
Decision Date: 1885-04-27
Docket Number: No. 14372
Citation: 20 Ct. Cl. 276
Volume: 20
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: CHARLES E. THOMPSON, ADMINISTRATOR OF ADAMS, v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Pages: 276–280

Head Matter:
CHARLES E. THOMPSON, ADMINISTRATOR OF ADAMS, v. THE UNITED STATES.
[No. 14372.
Decided April 27, 1885.]
On the Proofs.
A seaman of the United States ship Wyoming dies before the passage of the Japanese Indemnity Fund Act. The question is whether his distributive share goes to his administrator.
I.The term “ legal representatíve” is not of uniform interpretation. The ordinary meaning of “representative,” “legal representative,” “personal representative,” is the person constituted representative by the proper court.
II.In the absence of anything to the contrary in the context, the term “legal representative” in a statute or written instrument must be held to mean executor or administrator.
III. The heir succeeds to property and legal rights by inheritance, and takes because of the death of the owner ; the administrator represents the owner in the settlement of his estate.
IV. The word “ heirs” being used in the title of an act is sufficient to indicate that the heir of a soldier or seaman shall take under the term “representative," and not the administrator.
V,Under the term “legal representative,” as used in. the Japanese Indemnity Fund Act 1883 (22 Stat. L., p. 421), the administrator of a seaman entitled to a distributive share of the fund may maintain an action to recover it.
The Reporters’ statement of tbe case:
The following are the facts as found by the court:
I. Henry Adams died in Philadelphia on November 20,1867, and letters of administration upon his estate were duly granted by the register of wills of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, to the claimant, Charles B. Thompson, upon his entering security in the sum of $600.
II. At the time of his death $100 was standing to the credit of said Henry Adams on the books of the Fourth Auditor of the Treasury, due to him for enlistment in the Navy.
III. On April 8,1868, the Fourth Auditor allowed to said Charles B. Thompson $48.30 from the above amount of $100 for Adams’s funeral expenses, and the same was paid to him.
IV. Under the act of Congress “ in relation to the Japanese indemnity fund,” approved February 22,1883, the share of said Henry Adams, for services in July, 1863, as a seaman on the United States ship Wyoming, in the sum of $140,000 appropriated by said act “to be distributed to the officers and,crews of the Wyoming and Ta K:ang according to the laws of the United States governing thé distribution of prize money,” has been ascertained by the Fourth Auditor to be $428.62. On March 3, 1883, in view of his application as administrator of said Henry Adams, deceased, for his share in the Japanese indemnity award, as well as the balauce, $51.70, remaining to his credit in the Treasury since 1867, Charles E. Thompson gave new security, as such administrator, to the register of wills in and for the county of Philadelphia in the sum of $600, for the faithful performance of his duties.
Mr. Leonard Myers for the claimant.
Mr. J. G. Fay (with whom was the Assistant Attorney-General) for the defendants.

Opinion:
Weldon, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court:
This suit is brought by the claimant, as administrator of Henry Adams, to recover two distinct sums of money, to wit: $51.70, being amount due the deceased for services in the Navy, and the sum of $428.62, due the estate of decedent as the share allotted to the " legal representatives " of said decedent under the act of February 22, 1883, in relation to the " Japanese indemnity fund."
To the first item the defendants interpose the statute of limitations.
The statute of limitations is a sufficient answer to the plaintiff's demand for the balance due his decedent for services as a seaman in the Navy.
The claimant had a right to sue more than six years prior to the bringing of this suit; and that being true, his right was barred at the time the present action was commenced.
To the claimant's right to recover the second amount it is insisted that he is not the "legal representative," within the meaning of the act of February, 1883 ; but that the heirs of Henry Adams are the proper parties to receive and recover the sum awarded under said act.
Upon the decision of the legal signification of the term " legal representatives" depends the proper solution of the question involved in this controversy.
The term "legal representative" is not of uniform interpretation. It may mean those who succeed to the inheritance of an estate, or it may mean those upon whom the law devolves the legal capacity of an administrator or executor. If the money appropriated by the act of 1883 was intended by Congress as a mere personal gratuity to Adams if living, and in •case of his death to his heirs, as a class of persons, they taking in their own right and not by inheritance, then the administrator would, by virtue of his office, have no control or jurisdiction of the fund; but the same would pass by direct appointment of law to the heirs as a class, taking in their own aigbt.
The ordinary meaning of the words "representative," "legal representative," " personal representative," is, that they refer to the person constituted representative by the proper court, and the onus is upon those attempting to maintain a different construction to show a different meaning. (2 Jarman on Wills, 120; Holloway v. Clarkson, 2 Hare, 523; 118 Mass., 198; Bouvier Law Dictionary, vol. 2, 410-576.)
In the absence of anything appearing in the context, those words found in a statute or written instrument must be held .as meaning the administrator or executor. The heir is not technically a representative of the deceased unless made so by express appointment or reasonable intendment.
He succeeds to property and legal rights by inheritance, and takes the estate because of the death of the owner. The heirs inherit property subject to the equitable rights of the creditors, because the law devolves the same upon them, as succeeding to the rights of property upon the death of the original owner; but the administrator or executor represents the original owner in the settlement of his estate.
We are referred by the Attorney-General to the case of the heirs of Emerson (13 Peters, 409) in support of the contention made by the government in this case. We have examined that case carefully, and while it construes the words "legal representatives" as meaning the heirs, there is in the title of the act a clear and unequivocal indication as to who the term. " legal representatives " intends to describe. It is true that the Supreme Court reasoned that, from the nature of the fund and the character of the grant, the heirs and not the .administrator were meant; but the decision was on a statute the very terms of which indicated the character of the person who was to be the recipient of the grant. The word " heirs" being used in the title is in itself sufficient to indicate that the heir and not the administrator took by the terms of the grant.
The meaning of the words " legal representatives," as used in a statute of the United States, with no qualifying expressions, has been construed and interpreted by this court in two cases — Chaplin et al. v. United States, and Swan et al. v. The United States (19 C. Cls. R., 424, 50).
If the grant is a mere gratuity, it does not follow from that fact that Congress intended that the heirs, and not the administrator, should take by the grant.
If the decedent was in debt, and at the time of his decrease there were equitable claims against the government, which by the enactment of the law of 1883 became a legal right to some person succeeding him, and it is not definite as to who shall take, it is no unreasonable construction that the allowance goes into the hands of his administrator, to be distributed according to the laws of his domicile.
The local probate courts having jurisdiction of estates are much better qualified to determine questions of inheritance than the officers of the Treasury Department, who are not pre sumed to know the laws of inheritance as they are changed and modified by the local laws of the different States.
Courts must construe words in their ordinary and common acceptation, and by that rule we must hold that, under the law of 1883, the administrator is entitled to receive the money as the legal representative of Henry Adams. The claimant comes before this court clothed with the legal authority of administrator under the laws of Pennsylvania, where the decedent resided and died, and it is therefore the judgment of the court that he recover the sum of $428.30.