Daigle v. United States

42 Ct. Cl. 124, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 88, 1907 WL 916
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedFebruary 4, 1907
Docket10266
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 42 Ct. Cl. 124 (Daigle 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
Daigle v. United States, 42 Ct. Cl. 124, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 88, 1907 WL 916 (cc 1907).

Opinions

Peelle, Ch. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The claim in this case is for stores and supplies taken by the military forces of the United States for their use from the claimant’s decedent in West Baton Rouge Parish, La., during the late civil war.

The claim was originally referred to the court by the Committee on War Claims of the House of Representatives under the act of March 3, 1883, commonly known as the Bowman Act (22 Stat. L., 485).

Under that reference the court on a preliminary inquiry found that the claimant’s decedent, from whom the stores and supplies were taken, was not loyal to the Government of the United States throughout the late civil war, and in respect thereto section 4 of that act provides:

“ In any case of a claim for supplies or stores taken by or furnished to any part of the military or naval forces of the United States for their use during the late war for the suppression of the rebellion the petition shall aver that the [127]*127person who furnished such supplies or stores, or from whom such supplies or stores were taken, did not give any aid or comfort to said rebellion, but was throughout the war loyal to the Government of the United States, and the fact of such loyalty shall be a jurisdictional fact; and unless the said court shall, on a preliminary inquiry, find that the person who furnished such supplies or stores, or from whom the same were taken, as aforesaid, was loyal to the Government of the United States throughout said war, the court shall not have jurisdiction of such cause, and the same shall, without further proceedings, be dismissed.”

The claimant’s decedent not having been found loyal, the court was by that section prohibited from tailing jurisdiction, and for that reason the cause was, “ without further proceedings,” dismissed.

No motion for a new trial was made, and the case was certified to Congress.

Thereafter, on June 5, 1900, as hereinbefore first set forth, the United States Senate by resolution referred to the court the bill set out providing for the payment of said claims, under the provisions of section 14 of the act of March 3, 1887, known as the Tucker Act, which reads as follows:

“ That whenever any bill, except for a pension, shall be pending in either House of Congress providing for the payment of a claim against the United States, legal or equitable, or for a grant, gift, or bounty to any person, the House in which said bill is pending may refer the same to the Court of Claims, who shall proceed with the same in accordance with the provisions of the act approved March third, eighteen hundred and eighty-three, entitled ‘An act to afford assistance and relief to Congress and the Executive Departments in the investigation of 'claims and demands against the Government,’ and report to such House the facts in the case and the amount, where the same can be liquidated, including any facts bearing upon the question whether there has been delay or laches in presenting such claim or applying for such grant, gift, or bounty, and any facts bearing upon the question whether the bar of any statute of limitation should be removed or which shall be claimed to excuse the claimant for not having resorted to any established legal remedy.”

Under the latter reference the claimants appeared and filed their petition, in which they averred the facts of the loss by their decedent, substantially as set forth under the Bowman Act reference.

[128]*128The claimants have, taken new evidence since the reference under the Tucker Act looking to the establishment of the loyalty of their decedent, and they submit the case both on the merits of the claim and the loyalty of the claimant, asking the court to reverse its finding that the claimant was not loyal, so made while the claim was pending under the Bowman Act; but as the fact of loyalty under the Bowman Act is “ a jurisdictional fact ” the dismissal of the cause went to judgment and is res judicata.

It may not be amiss to give here the legislative history of the several acts of Congress respecting the loyalty of a claimant for stores and supplies, showing the inhibitions placed upon the Executive and the courts as to the payment and adjudication of such claims.

By the act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. L., 765, 767), enlarging the jurisdiction of this court, and for other purposes, section 12 thereof, now Revised Statutes, sections 1072 and 1073, inhibited the court from rendering judgment in favor of a citizen of the United States unless it was set forth in the petition that the claimant and every prior owner thereof, where the claim had been assigned, had at all times borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States, and, whether a citizen or not, that he had not in any way voluntarily aided, abetted, or given encouragement to the rebellion against said Government, which allegiance it was therein provided “ may be traversed by the Government, and if on the trial such issue shall be decided against the claimant his petition shall be dismissed.”

By the act of March 12, 1863 (12 Stat L., 820), known as the captured and abandoned property act, which authorized the Treasury Department to sell all captured and abandoned property and to turn the proceeds thereof into the Treasury for the public use, the owners were given the right to file a petition in the Court of Claims within two years after the suppression of the rebellion to recover such proceeds on condition that such owner “ had never given aid or comfort to the present rebellion.”

By the act of July 4, 1864 (13 Stat. L., 781), ¿ntitled “ An act to restrict the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims, and to provide for the payment of certain demands for quarter[129]*129master stores and subsistence supplies furnished to the Army of the United States,” it was provided in the very first section “ that the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims shall not extend to or include any claim against the United States growing out of the destruction or appropriation of or damage to property by the Army or Navy, or any part of the Army or Navy engaged in the suppression of the rebellion, from the commencement to the close thereof.”

The second section of that act provides “ that all claims of loyal citizens in States not in rebellion, for quartermaster stores actually furnished,” etc., receipted for or not by the officer taking the same, shall be submitted to the Quartermaster-General, with such proof as they can present, but no allowance thereof was to be made unless that officer was “ convinced that it is just, and of the loyalty of the claimant, and that the stores had been actually received or taken for the use of and used by said Army.” The third section of that act is substantially the same, except that it applies to subsistence supplies to be passed upon by the Commissary-General.

By joint resolution of March 2, 1867 (14 Stat.

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Bluebook (online)
42 Ct. Cl. 124, 1907 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 88, 1907 WL 916, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/daigle-v-united-states-cc-1907.