McCollum ex rel. McCollum v. United States

33 Ct. Cl. 469, 1898 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37, 1800 WL 2101
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMay 31, 1898
DocketIndian Depredations, 8078
StatusPublished

This text of 33 Ct. Cl. 469 (McCollum ex rel. McCollum 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
McCollum ex rel. McCollum v. United States, 33 Ct. Cl. 469, 1898 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37, 1800 WL 2101 (cc 1898).

Opinion

Peelle, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The question arises on the defendants’ motion for a new trial in a case wherein judgment was rendered on the Cth day of February, 1893, for $1,447.50 on the stipulation of the parties agreeing to accept the amount allowed by the Secretary of the Interior for a depredation committed by the defendant Indians iu the Territory, now State, of Oregon, October 23, 1855, as provided by section 4, act MarSh 3, 1891 (26 Stat. L., 851, and 1 Supp:E. S., 2d ed., p. 913). By the terms of that section it is provided that all allowed unpaid claims “shall have priority of consideration,” and further, that “judgments for the amounts therein found due shall be rendered unless either the claimant or the United States shall elect to reopen the case and try the same before the court,” etc.

At the time the stipulation of the parties was submitted no question as to rhe jurisdiction of the court was raised or suggested, and, acting under the otherwise mandatory provision of the statute, the court directed judgment to be entered thereon.

Since that time, however, the court in a number of litigated cases, and particularly in the cases of Love (29 G. Cls. R., 332) and Valle (29 C. Cls. R., 62), has found and adjudged that the defendant Indians were not in amity with the United States during the period covered by the depredation in the case at bar.

Following these decisions the defendants, within two years from the date of the judgment rendered herein, to wit, November 26,1894,filed their motion for a new trial in these Avords:

“In this cause, wherein judgment was rendered on February 6,1893, for the sum of $1,447.50, comes the Assistant Attorney-General, for and on behalf of the defendants, and moves the court for a new trial thereof, in accordance with the provisions of section 1088 of the Eevised Statutes of the United States, for the reason that in the award of said judgment wrong and injustice were done the United States, in this, that—
“(1) The defendant Indians at the date of the -alleged depredation Avere not in amity with the United States.
[471]*471“ (2) The Secretary of the Interior was without authority to allow said claim.’
“ (3) The stipulation for judgment was without authority of law.
“ (4) In entering the judgment pro forma the court was without jurisdiction, and said judgment operates as a wrong and injustice to the United States "and the defendant Indians.
“Wherefore said judgment should be set aside and vacated, and anew hearing thereof awarded by the court.”

By the act August 23, 1894 (28 Stat. L., 424, 476), making appropriations to supply deficiencies for the fiscal year ending June 30,1894, and prior years, including appropriations to pay the judgments of the Court of Claims in Indian depredation cases, it was provided:

“That no one of the said judgments’shall be paid until the Attorney-General shall have certified to the Secretary of the Treasury that he has caused to be examined the evidence heretofore presented to the Court of Claims in support of said judgment and such other pertinent evidence as he shall be able to procure as to whether fraud, wrong, or injustice has been done to the United States, or whether exorbitant sums have been allowed, and finds upon such evidence no grounds sufficient in his opinion'to support a new trial of said case; or until there shall have been filed with said Secretary a duly certified transcript of the proceedings of the Court of Claims denying the motion made by the Attorney-General for a new trial in any one of said judgments.”

Thereafter, to wit, March 16,1895, the defendants filed a motion in these words:

“ Comes the Assistant Attorney-General and moves the court for leave to amend the motion for a new trial in the above cause by striking from the original motion on file the words ‘in accordance with the provisions of section 1088 of the Revised Statutes of the United States,’ and to grant the new trial on the motion therefor as amended.”

Although the motion for a new trial was filed within two years, under the provision of Revised Statutes, section 1088, it will be observed that the motion to amend the motion for a new trial by striking out the words “ in accordance with the provisions of section 1088 of the Revised Statutes of the United States,” was filed more than two years after the rendition of the judgment.

The claimant’s first contention is that, inasmuch as his claim was examined and allowed by the Secretary of the Interior under the act of 1885, and neither party had elected to .reopen [472]*472the case, that therefore the judgment rendered therein was a final determination of the case within the meaning of section 7 of the Indian depredation act, 1891.

But the judgment so rendered was by the terms of that section made final only in the event a new trial or a rehearing was not granted by the court or the judgment was not reversed or modified on appeal.

True, the Assistant Attorney-General, then in charge of Indian depredation cases, did not consent that judgment might be rendered for the amount allowed by the Secretary of the Interior, by signing a stipulation reciting the facts and agreeing not to reopen the case, but his act in that respect did not estop the United States from making a motion for a new trial in the manner provided by law therefor, nor did his action in that respect conclude the court from granting a new trial thereon.

It is too well known to require argument that jurisdiction can not be conferred by consent.

The conditions which the Congress annex to the right to sue the United States can not be waived, and so judgments rendered by agreement of parties, as in the case at bar, have no more sanctity in respect of motions for a new trial than judgments rendered in litigated cases.

The claimant’s further contention is substantially (1) that section 1088 is not applicable to motions for new trials under the Indian depredation act 1891, and (2) that the defendants by their amendment striking out the words quoted from the motion for a new trial, thereby abandoned their right to a new trial under that section, thus leaving their motion as an ordinary one at common law; and having been filed after the term at which the judgment was rendered, the motion is too late and should be overruled.

Section 1088 is as follows:

“The Court of Claims, at any time while any claim is pending before it, or on appeal from it, or within two years next after the final disposition of such claim, may, on motion on behalf of the United States, grant a new trial and stay the payment of any judgment therein, upon such evidence, cumulative or otherwise, as shall satisfy the court that any fraud, wrong, or injustice in the x>remises has been done to the United States; but until an order is made staying the payment of a judgment, the same shall be payable and paid as now provided by law.”

[473]*473That section, as was held in the case of Young v. United-States (95 U. S. R. 641, 643), “was passed for the protection of the United States. It constitutes one of the conditions which Congress has seen fit to attach to the grant of a. right to sue the United States.

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Related

United States v. Ayres
76 U.S. 608 (Supreme Court, 1870)
United States v. Crusell
79 U.S. 175 (Supreme Court, 1871)
Ex Parte: In the Matter of the United States
83 U.S. 699 (Supreme Court, 1872)
Young v. United States
95 U.S. 641 (Supreme Court, 1877)
Valk v. United States
29 Ct. Cl. 62 (Court of Claims, 1894)
Leighton v. United States
29 Ct. Cl. 288 (Court of Claims, 1894)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 Ct. Cl. 469, 1898 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 37, 1800 WL 2101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccollum-ex-rel-mccollum-v-united-states-cc-1898.