Nassau Smelting Refining Works v. United States, 37

• Citation: 69 L.Ed. 190,266 U.S. 101,45 S.Ct. 25
• Decision Date: 17 November 1924
• Docket Number: No. 37,37
• Parties: NASSAU SMELTING & REFINING WORKS, Limited, v. UNITED STATES
• Court: United States Supreme Court

266 U.S. 101

45 S.Ct. 25

69 L.Ed. 190

NASSAU SMELTING & REFINING WORKS, Limited,

v UNITED STATES.

No. 37.

Argued and Submitted Oct. 7, 1924.

Decided Nov. 17, 1924.

Mr. A. S. Gilbert, of New York City, for plaintiff in error.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 102-103 intentionally omitted] The Attorney General and Mr. Alfred A. Wheat, of New York City, for the United States.

Mr. Chief Justice TAFT delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was brought by the United States against the Nassau Smelting & Refining Works in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, to recover $15,000, with interest at 6 per cent., for copper bands and pig lead sold and delivered. By its amended answer the defendant did not deny its obligation as claimed, but set up, as counterclaims, balances due from the United States to it of $6,023.81 for one delivery of copper bands, another of $5,836.42, and a third of $2,576.09. The averment in the answer is, as to each of these claims, that the agreement upon which the bands were furnished was not executed in the manner prescribed by law, and so was embraced within the saving provisions of section 1 of the Act approved March 2, 1919, entitled 'An act to provide relief in cases of contracts connected with the prosecution of the war and for other purposes,' and known as the Dent Act (chapter 94, 40 Stat. 1272. [Comp. St. Ann. Supp. 1919, §§ 3115 14/15a to 3115 14/15e]). The defendant's contention was that, as each counterclaim was for less than $10,000, subdivision 20 of section 24 of the Judicial Code of the United States (Comp. St. § 991) gave the District Court jurisdiction to find and award, by way of counterclaims herein, a fair and just compensation to the defendant from the United States. The United States moved for judgment on the pleadings for the full amount claimed in the petition, without deduction of the counterclaims, and this motion was granted; the court holding it had no jurisdiction of suits against the United States under the Dent Act, like those presented as counterclaims herein, either as original actions or set-offs or counterclaims. Judgment was accordingly entered on the complaint for the United States in the sum of $15,286.72. Proceedings in error were prosecuted, and the Circuit Judge, acting as a District Judge, certified, conformably to Judicial Code, § 238 (Comp. St. § 1215), that the jurisdiction of the court was in issue and that the order dismissing the set-offs or counterclaims was based solely upon the ground that the court had no jurisdiction to determine them.

It was suggested at the hearing in this court that, as there was unquestioned jurisdiction of the suit by the United States under the first paragraph of section 24 of the Judicial Code, the case could not be brought directly from the District Court to this court on a certificate under section 238 of the Code as to the jurisdiction of the counterclaim. But we think that unquestioned jurisdiction over the complaint does not prevent a certificate as to jurisdiction of the new suit attempted in the form of a counterclaim. The question is not one as to the introduction of counterclaims as a mere matter of procedure. The objection to a suit against the United States is fundamental, whether it be in the form of an original action, or a set-off, or a counterclaim. Jurisdiction in either case does not exist, unless there is specific congressional authority for it. Nor is there doubt that the question is one which involves the jurisdiction of the District Court as a federal court under the statutes of the United States, for the jurisdiction of the District Court in this regard is wholly dependent on such statutes.

The second question is whether such counterclaims as are averred in the answer are authorized by paragraph 26 of section 24 of the Judicial Code. That paragraph provides that the District Court of the United...