Frank Blacklock v. United States
Decision Date | 13 January 1908 |
Docket Number | No. 65,65 |
Citation | 208 U.S. 75,28 S.Ct. 228,52 L.Ed. 396 |
Parties | FRANK BLACKLOCK, Executor of Rinaldo P. Smith, Representing the Firm of Smith, Ellett, & Company, Appt., v. UNITED STATES |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This appeal brings up for review a judgment in the court of claims dismissing a petition filed in that court against the United States.
So far as it is necessary to state the facts, the case is substantially as follows:
Smith, Ellett, & Company, a firm composed of Rinaldo P. Smith and Francis M. Ellett, were engaged in business as leather and commission merchants in Baltimore from some time in 1867 or 1868 to January 1st, 1870.
On the 26th of October, 1869, George J. Stephens, a distiller and tanner in Virginia, was indebted to Smith, Ellett, & Company, in the sum of $7,000, already due, and in the further sum of $2,000, to become due in the course of future dealings. On the same day a certain deed was executed between Stephens of the first part, Beazley, trustee, of the second part, and Smith and Ellett, doing business as Smith, Ellett, & Company, of the third part. It recited that Stephens was indebted to Smith, Ellett, & Company in the sum of $4,000, evidenced by the bond or demand note of Stephens dated October 26th, 1869, and that Smith, Ellett, & Company had accepted, for the accommodation of Stephens, a draft for $3,000, and had agreed to accept a further accommodation draft for $2,000. In order that said acceptances in addition to the note for $4,000 might be secured, Stephens, by deed dated October 26th, 1869, conveyed to Beazley a tract of land containing about 400 acres, more or less, in Greene county, Virginia, upon which Stephens then resided, with the mansion house and all buildings thereon, including a tannery and distillery, and all things appurtenant thereto, 'in trust to secure the said bond of $4,000, and all the acceptances already made and given as aforesaid, now current and to become payable, and all acceptances to be hereafter made and given as aforesaid, and all which may be made and given for renewal of former ones, or to replace the money paid by the party of the first part in taking up former ones as aforesaid, or in any other manner as stated in the premises, so as the same shall not exceed the sum of $5,000.'
The property conveyed was worth more than $3,000. The deed was duly acknowledged and recorded on the 30th day of October, 1869.
When that deed of trust was executed and recorded there was due from Stephens to the United States government internal revenue taxes which had accrued from July, 1867, to October 26th, 1869, amounting to $4,000.
On the 25th of January, 1870, Smith and Ellett executed the following instrument of writing:
In order to satisfy the above taxes and the penalties authorized by law, the collector of internal revenue for Virginia, by his deputy, Lawson, during December, 1870, distrained the distillery building and about 3 acres (of the 400-acre tract) upon which the distillery stood, and advertised the property for sale. Prior to any sale the distillery building and contents, including a quantity of whisky, were destroyed by fire. The collector thereupon, before the day of sale, extended his distraint so as to include the balance of Stephens's land, amounting in all to about 525 acres, which included the land embraced by the trust deed to Smith, Ellett, & Company, and advertised all of said land for sale. Pursuant to the advertisement, the deputy collector, on January 12th, 1871, offered the whole of Stephens's land for sale at public auction. Smith, being present as a member of Smith, Ellett, & Company, gave formal notice of the above deed of trust, asserting a prior lien under it to that of the government, and protesting against the sale of the land except subject to that lien. The deputy collector proceeded with the sale and the property was bid in for the government for $4,239.50, that being the amount of delinquent taxes, penalties for nonpayment thereof, and costs of distraint and sale. One year thereafter, January 12th, 1872, that officer executed a deed to the United States, which was duly acknowledged and recorded on November 25th, 1873.
Under the authority conferred upon the Commissioner of Internal Revenue by § 3208 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of March 1st, 1879, and with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, the lands so purchased were sold, at public auction, by order of the Commissioner, on the 12th day of June 1888, and Miss Stephens became the purchaser at the price of $500. She died after the sale, and on October 6th, 1888, the United States, by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, executed a quitclaim deed to the devisees of the purchaser, conveying to them 'all right, title, and interest of the United States at the time of said last-named sale in the premises aforesaid, and free from any claim on the part of the United States.'
By an act of Congress of May 27th, 1902 (32 Stat. at L. 207, 243, chap. 887), it was provided: 'That jurisdiction is hereby conferred on the court of claims to hear and determine the claim of Rinaldo P. Smith, of Baltimore, Maryland, against the government of the United States, on account of the sale, purchase, or occupation by the government, through its internal revenue office or others, of certain real estate of one George J. Stephens in Greene county, Virginia, upon which the late firm of Smith, Ellett, & Company, now represented by Rinaldo P. Smith, had a prior lien; and the right of the government to plead the statute of limitations in bar of said claims is hereby waived: Provided, That said claimant file his petition within sixty days from the passage of this act, in said court of claims, either at law or in equity, as he may deem the rights of his case shall require; and the government shall, upon notice served according to the rules and practice of said court, appear and defend against said suit, and the same shall proceed to final hearing and judgment, with the right of appeal to the Supreme Court of United States by either party, as provided by law.'
The present action was brought in 1904 by the executor of Smith under the authority of that act.
The petition sets forth certain facts connected with the claim, and, among other things, it alleged the following: 9. ...
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