Meade v. United States

7 Ct. Cl. 161
CourtSupreme Court of the United States
DecidedDecember 15, 1871
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Ct. Cl. 161 (Meade v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of the United States primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meade v. United States, 7 Ct. Cl. 161 (U.S. 1871).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Olifeokd

delivered the opinion of the court:

Private claims against the Government of the United States, founded upon any law of Congress, or upon any regulation of' an Executive Department, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the Government, are within the jurisdiction of the' Court of Claims, as appears by the second section of the act passed to amend the act establishing that court. (12 Stat. L., p. 765.)

Comprehensive as that provision is, still doubts were entertained whether the. claim of the appellant was not excluded from the jurisdiction .of the court by the ninth section of the amendatory act, but all doubt upon the subject was removed by the joint resolution subsequently passed, by which Congress,, in express terms, referred the claim to that court for adjudication, to he examined and decided in the same manner as other claims against the United States under existing laws. (14 Stat. L., p. 611.)

I. Pursuant to that authority the appellant, as the representative of the deceased claimant, presented his petition to the Court of Claims, setting forth very fully the nature of his alleged cause of action and the ground upon which he claims to recover-in this case. His ancestor, the decedent, was a native-born citizen of the United States. Early in the present century he-went to Spain, and while resident there became extensively engaged in commerce with that country. He was there during the invasion of the French under Napoleon, and continued to-reside there until the treaty of amity, settlement, and limits between Spain and the United States was ratified by both parties.. Throughout that period he was constantly engaged in mercantile pursuits, and he also entered into numerous contracts with • the government of that country, prior to the date of the treaty* by means of which Spain became very largely his debtor.

[170]*170Part of bis claims consisted of fourteen unliquidated accounts for goods sold and delivered, and it also appears that be was illegally arrested during that period, and that be was imprisoned by tbe order of tbe government, for wbicb wrongs and personal injuries be also beld large unliquidated claims. Unable to regain bis freedom from tbe unjust imprisonment be sought tbe aid of tbe United States, and it appears that it was not until our Government interfered that be was released from bis confinement. JBotb before and after tbe date of tbe treaty be invoked tbe aid of tbe Government of tbe United States in collecting bis claims, as well those arising from contracts as those arising from unjust imprisonment and personal injuries.

Prior to tbe date of tbe treaty tbe claimant filed in tbe office of tbe Secretary of State a notice of bis claims against that government, amounting, as be alleged, to $400,000, and tbe finding of tbe court below shows that tbe notice so filed was one of tbe notices referred to and included in tbe treaty between tbe two countries. Reclamations were also made by many other citizens of tbe United States upon Spain for wrongs and injuries ■ suffered by them through tbe acts or official orders of that government, notices of wbicb were either filed in tbe State Department or bad been presented to tbe minister of tbe United States resident in that country. Questions of great magnitude, also, touching treaty obligations previously contracted, tbe settle,ment of disputed territorial limits, and tbe cession of new territorial possessions, were under diplomatic discussion between tbe plenipotentiaries of tbe two governments.

Pending these reclamations, and at a moment when tbe state of tbe negotiations presented strong hopes that they might terminate successfully, the claimant informed tbe Secretary of «State that it bad been intimated to him that if be would advance a further sum of money to that government be might procure a grant of lands in Florida sufficient to cover tbe whole amount of bis claims. Evidently bis purpose was to ascertain whether such a grant, if made, would be sanctioned and respected by tbe United States in case tbe then’pending negotiations should be successful and Florida should be ceded to our jurisdiction.

II. Equal and exact justice to all tbe claimants was what our Government was endeavoring to secure by tbe negotiations, • and, of course, the suggestion received no encouragement what[171]*171ever, as it contemplated a separate provision for one to the exclusion of tbe rest. On the contrary, the reply of the Secretary was to the effect that if the treaty of cession was concluded it would contain a provision that all grants made after a given date, to be fixed by the contracting parties, should be null and of no effect. Influenced by that reply he abandoned any further attempt to collect his claims by procuring a grant of land, and submitted the same to the State Department “ for that protection which his Government may think proper to grant.”

On the 22d of February, 1819, the treaty of amity, settlement, and limits was signed by the respective plenipotentiaries of the two countries, and the Senate of the United States ratified the same on the 24th of the same month. (8 Stat. L., p. 264; 3 Exec. Jour., p. 177.)

All the territories which belonged to Spain, situated to theeastward of. the Mississippi, known by the name of East and West Florida, were agreed to be ceded to the United States in full property and sovereignty, the United States contracting that all the grants of land made therein by Spain, or by her lawful authorities, before the 24th of January, 1818, the date when the first proposal for the cession was made, shall be ratified and confirmed to the persons in the possession of the lands to the same extent that the same grants would be valid if the territories had remained under the dominion of the former sovereign, but the contracting parties also stipulated, in the same article ■of the treaty, that all grants made subsequent to that date “ are hereby declared and agreed to be null and void.”

Animated with a desire of conciliation, and with the object of putting an end to all differences existing between them, the ■contracting parties reciprocally renounced all claims for damages which they themselves or their respective citizens and subjects “have suffered until the time of signing this treaty.” Such claims for damages so renounced by the respective parties, on the one side or the other, were classified in the ninth article of the treaty under different heads, but it will not be necessary to refer to any of the classifications with much particularity, except to the fifth class renounced by the United States, which releases all claims of our citizens “ until the signature of this treaty,” statements of which, soliciting the interposition of the ■Government of- the United States, have been presented to the Department of State or to the minister of the United States [172]*172subsequent to the antecedent convention between the two countries.

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Bluebook (online)
7 Ct. Cl. 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meade-v-united-states-scotus-1871.