American Transatlantic Co. v. United States

83 F. Supp. 832, 113 Ct. Cl. 484, 37 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1325, 1949 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 56
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 2, 1949
DocketCongressional No. 17639
StatusPublished

This text of 83 F. Supp. 832 (American Transatlantic Co. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Transatlantic Co. v. United States, 83 F. Supp. 832, 113 Ct. Cl. 484, 37 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1325, 1949 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 56 (cc 1949).

Opinion

Madden, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

On January 6, 1930, there was introduced in the Senate of the United States a bill, Senate 3396, making a grant of $15,000,000 to the American Transatlantic Company, the plaintiff herein, for the injury sustained by it as a result of the alleged illegal seizure and condemnation as prizes of war, by Great Britain, of three ships owned by Transatlantic. The seizures took place in October and November, 1915. The full text of Senate 3396 appears in our finding No. 1. The asserted obligation of the United States to compensate for the British seizure was stated in the bill to be an arrangement effected by an exchange of notes between our Government and the British Government, dated May 19,1927, Treaty Series 756, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington 1927, by which exchange of notes, it is asserted in the bill, our Government became responsible to its nationals who had been wronged by Great Britain.

The Senate, by Senate Eesolution 265, of May 22, 1930, referred Senate 3396 to this court for the action provided for in the Act of March 3, 1911, 36 Stat. 1135, 1138, the provisions of which are now -found in Sections 1492 and 2509 of Title 28 of the United States Code, which Title is the Judicial Code, as it was amended and reenacted in 1948. By these sections it is provided that when either House of Congress shall refer a bill to this court, the court

* * * shall proceed with the same in accordance with its rules ana report to such House, the facts in the case, including facts relating to delay or laches, facts bearing upon the question whether the bar of any statute of limitation should be removed, or facts claimed to excuse the claimant for not having resorted to any established legal remedy.
The court shall also report conclusions sufficient to inform Congress whether the demand is a legal or equitable claim or a gratuity, and the amount, if any, legally or equitably due from the United States to the claimant.

The court has performed its statutory function, and reports to the Senate its findings of the relevant facts in the [513]*513case, and this opinion explaining why it has found the facts as it has, and why it has reached the conclusions which it has reached.

The important question of fact in the case is whether, at the time in October and November 1915 when the ships in question were seized by Great Britain, they were owned, in substance and reality, though not in form, by one Hugo Stinnes, a German, or were really the property of their formal owner, the plaintiff, an American corporation. The legal question in the case is whether, even if Hugo Stinnes was the real and substantial owner of the ships, Great Britain was justified, by international law, in seizing them, in view of the fact that they had American registry and flew the American flag.

Bichard G. Wagner, an American-born resident of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, formed the plaintiff company in March 1915. His father, whose name was Wagenknecht, had come to America from Germany in 1853. He changed his name to Wagner. His son, Richard G. Wagner, prospered in a steel business, which he sold to advantage, and went into the beet sugar business, being president of three sugar companies. Wagner in 1913 suffered financial reverses, sold most of his stock in these companies, and ceased to be president of any of them. By the end of 1914 he was in debt and had pledged a life insurance policy to secure a note.

About December 4, 1914, Wagner received a cablegram from Copenhagen, Denmark, sent by the Copenhagen Coal and Coke Company, a Hugo Stinnes company, or by Albert Jensen, the resident manager of the company and Hugo Stinnes’ agent in Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries. The wife of Hugo Stinnes was Wagner’s first cousin. She was the daughter of one Wagenknecht, a brother of Wagner’s father, who had come to the United States with Wagner’s father but had later gone to Uruguay.

On December 31, 1914, Wagner sailed from New York, arriving at Rotterdam on January 10, 1915. He proceeded to Germany, visited his relatives, and then went to Copenhagen to confer with Jensen. Jensen had been buying commodities and ships with Stinnes’ money, which was made [514]*514available to him in a Copenhagen bank. The plaintiff says that, so far as the ships so purchased were concerned, Jensen, or certain Danish corporations owned by him, bought the ships for Jensen’s ownership, the Stinnes money used for their purchase being loaned by Stinnes to Jensen. We defer the answer to this question.

Jensen was having difficulty obtaining permanent Danish registration on these newly acquired ships. Great Britain had learned that they were being bought with Stinnes’ money, knew that Jensen was an agent of Stinnes, and made representations to and brought pressure upon the Danish Government to curb Jensen’s activities. Jensen was admonished by his government, which later enacted a law making Danish registration subject to the discretion of the government.

Jensen was notified by Stinnes that Wagner was coming to see him in Copenhagen. Wagner came, and within a few days Wagner and Jensen had agreed that Wagner was to form an American corporation to which ships already bought and to be bought by Jensen with money advanced by Stinnes were to be transferred. The corporation’s officers and directors were to be Americans, which would qualify its ships to obtain American registry and fly the American flag. Jensen was to own most of the stock of the corporation.

On January 29,1915, Wagner gave Jensen a general power of attorney to act for him in Europe. Early in February 1915, the Danish Government brought criminal proceedings against Jensen for attempting to smuggle copper out of Denmark into Germany, at the instigation of Hugo Stinnes. He was ultimately convicted and served 60 days in jail for the offense. His crime was not regarded as a dishonoring one and did not affect his citizenship or his standing in his business community. At about the time of the proceeding against Jensen, one Theodore Lahr, of [Rotterdam, Holland, was requested by telegram to meet Wagner in Germany. Lahr had formerly been an agent of the Stinnes interests in Holland. He was not able to go, but a few days later a power of attorney, executed at Dusseldorf, Germany, was sent him by Wagner, authorizing him to purchase ships for [515]*515Wagner. This power of attorney was later superseded by others executed by Wagner and the plaintiff company in the United States, reciting Wagner’s American citizenship, and broadening the geographical area within which Lahr might act.

Wagner returned to the United States by way of Italy, reaching New York in March 1915. On March 22,1915, the American Transatlantic Company, the plaintiff company, was organized under the laws of the State of Delaware. The first $1,000 put into the company was borrowed by Wagner. He sent several cablegrams to Jensen asking for $40,000 to be made available to him, and on April 15, Jensen made $40,000 available from freight money that he had in a New York bank. The money was paid into the company for 400 shares of its stock. An office was set up in New York.

On May 16, 1915, which was before Wagner had received notice that the title to any ships had been transferred to either himself or the plaintiff company, Wagner consulted the United States Commissioner of Navigation in the Department of Commerce with regard to securing American registry for the ships.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

The Benito Estenger
176 U.S. 568 (Supreme Court, 1900)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
83 F. Supp. 832, 113 Ct. Cl. 484, 37 A.F.T.R. (P-H) 1325, 1949 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 56, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-transatlantic-co-v-united-states-cc-1949.