Albert De Valengin Administrators, Plaintiffs In Error v. John Duffy, Defendant In Error

• Decision Date: 01 January 1840
• Citation: 10 L.Ed. 457,39 U.S. 282,14 Pet. 282
• Parties: ALBERT P. DE VALENGIN'S ADMINISTRATORS, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN H. DUFFY, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

39 U.S. 282

14 Pet. 282

10 L.Ed. 457

ALBERT P. DE VALENGIN'S ADMINISTRATORS, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, v. JOHN H. DUFFY, DEFENDANT IN ERROR.

January Term, 1840

IN error to the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Maryland.

In the Circuit Court of Maryland, John H. Duffy, the defendant in error, instituted a suit against the administrators of Albert P. De Valengin, for the recovery of a sum of money which he claimed to belong to him, being a portion of the indemnity paid by the government of Brazil, for the capture and loss of the brig President Adams, by a Brazilian cruiser, in 1828.

John H. Duffy, a citizen of the United States, domiciled at Buenos Ayres, in 1828, shipped a quantity of hides, and other articles of merchandise, in 1828, on board the brig President Adams, commanded and part owned by Albert P. De Valengin, a citizen of Baltimore for Gibraltar. The government of Brazil, and that of Buenos Ayres were then at war.

For the better security of the property from Brazilian capture, the property was shipped in the name of De Valengin, and soon after she sailed she was captured by an armed vessel of Brazil, and carried into Monte Video. There, both vessel and cargo were totally lost.

Under an agreement between John H. Duffy and Captain De Valengin, a claim for the cargo as well as the vessel was made by him on the government of Brazil, for indemnity. The ownership of John H. Duffy was concealed in this application; as his property was liable to capture by the cruisers of Brazil; he being domiciled at Buenos Ayres. Captain De Valengin died before any thing was recovered from the government of Brazil for the President Adams and cargo; and a certain James Neale, who had become his administrator, under letters of administration granted in Maryland, prosecuted the claim as the representative of De Valengin; and was, at length, paid the indemnity in Baltimore, by the aid of Mr. James Birkhead, of Rio de Janeiro; who remitted it to him from that place. The proceeds of the property remitted by Mr. Birkhead, were returned in an inventory filed by Mr. Neale, as administrator, in the Orphans Court, at Baltimore, as the estate of De Valengin.

A suit for the recovery of the amount claimed by John H. Duffy, was instituted in the Circuit Court of the United States against James Neale, as the administrator of De Valengin; and he having died before the trial of the cause, and the plaintiffs in error having taken out letters of administration, de bonis non, to the estate of De Valengin, they were summoned, and they appeared and took defence in the action.

In the declaration in the action, the only court applicable to the controversy between the parties to the suit, was that for money had and received by James Neale, the administrator of De Valengin, for the use of the plaintiff. On the issues of non assumpsit and plene administravit, the jury found for the plaintiff on the first, and for the defendants on the second count. The Circuit Court entered a judgment on the first plea for the amount found by the jury, fourteen thousand and thirteen dollars and sixty-seven cents: the judgment to bind assets.

From this judgment the defendants prosecuted this writ of error.

On the trial of the cause in the Circuit Court, the defendants took a bill of exceptions to the decisions of the Court, on six different propositions or prayers, submitted by their counsel for the opinion of the Court. The bill of exceptions contains the whole evidence in the cause. All the prayers of the counsel for the defendants were refused by the Court.

The opinion of the Supreme Court on the matters presented under the writ of error, was given on two propositions; into which all those submitted in the Circuit Court were considered to be resolved.

'1. That the agreement between Captain De Valengin and John H. Duffy, under which De Valengin was to claim remuneration from the Brazilian government, for the loss of the brig President Adams and her cargo, on the ground of its being neutral property; when, in truth, the cargo was the property of John H. Duffy, and therefore belligerent, and liable to capture by the laws of nations; was fraudulent and immoral: and that the Courts of Justice of the United States will not assist a party to recover money due on such agreement.'

'2. That if the money belonged to John H. Duffy, the action would not lie against Neale, as administrator, nor the money be assets in his hands of De Valengin's estate; that his return to the Orphans Court cannot alter the character of the transaction: and that this suit ought to have been continued against Neale's administrator, and not against the representatives of De Valengin.'

The case was submitted to the Court on printed arguments, by Mr. M'Mahon and Mr. Johnson, for the plaintiffs in error; and by Mr. Williams, for the defendant in error.

On the first proposition, as stated the Circuit Court in its opinion: the counsel for the plaintiffs in error contended, that the alleged agreement between John H. Duffy, the defendant in error, and Captain De Valengin, by which the latter was to prosecute the claim on the Brazilian government, for indemnity for the loss of the brig President Adams and her cargo, representing the whole property to belong to him, and, as such, not liable to capture; proposes nothing more or less than the case of two persons conspiring to cheat a third party out of his property.

The object of the agreement was merely to extract money from the third party; and this was to be accomplished by conspiring to make a false and fraudulent repreentation of an injury done to one of them, who, in fact, had sustained no injury; and this falsely alleged injury is made the sole basis of the payment by the third party. The verdict of the jury admits that the payment was made only in consequence of the false and concerted misrepresentations; and would not have been made, if the truth had not been suppressed by the conspiracy.

It is contended, that such an agreement will be held fraudulent everywhere; and that, in such a case, the fraud has no locality.

If two individuals were to conspire, in a foreign country, to obtain money from a third party, either by highway robbery or theft, or by cheating of any description; and under the conspiracy, one of them were to obtain the money of the third party; it would scarcely be contended, that under such an agreement, the other could claim from his associate in the conspiracy a share of the plunder, through the instrumentality of a Court of justice. It is contended that there is no difference between such a case, and a conspiracy to cheat a government: and that such a conspiracy is essentially different as it regards its validity in our Courts, from contracts made for the purpose of evading the revenue laws, or the mere commercial regulations of a foreign country; when to invalidate such a contract would be substantially to enforce such laws and regulations.

It is contended, also, that not only was such an agreement void; and that thereby the principal fact on which the Court instructed the jury in favour of the plaintiff in the Circuit Court was removed from the case; but that the existence of such an agreement necessarily prevented a recovery from the plaintiffs in error: as it would have precluded a recovery against De Valengin, if he had obtained the money from the Brazilian government.

The case put on the whole of the proof of the defendant in error, established this fraudulent agreement, and showed that the money had been obtained by false documents, furnished by John H. Duffy, or obtained by his aid and with his privity.

The property thus coming into the possession of the administrator, the effect of this action was and is to repudiate the plaintiff's own fraudulent documents, evidencing title in De Valengin; and to reclaim the property by force of the agreement to pay over the money to him when recovered. The action could only be maintained upon the agreement to pay over the money when received; he having parted with the title for the fraudulent purpose: this agreement to pay over was a part and parcel of the corrupt and fraudulent agreement, which could not be severed from the latter, nor established without proof of it. The case, therefore, fell within the scope of the well established principle, 'that when recovery cannot be had except by proof of the illegal or corrupt agreement, or through the medium of it, it cannot be had at all.'

The counsel for the plaintiffs in error also contended, that the proof of the fraudulent agreement showed conclusiviely that the defendant in error had no title to the money sought to be recovered: that by his own showing, the title to it was in the Brazilian government; that the money sought to be recovered was not, and never had been his property or the proceeds of his property: but was, on the contrary, a sum of money originally belonging to the Brazilian government, and obtained by fraud from it; and the proof of the fraud furnished by himself, and shown in the agreement supposed by the prayer, established that the title was still in the said government, and not in the defendant in error.

Upon the second proposition, as stated in the opinion of the Court, that the action would not lie against Neale as administrator, nor the money be assets in his hands, of the estate of De Valengin; that the return of Neale to the Orphans Court cannot change the character of the transaction; and that the action should have been continued against Neale's administrator, and not against the plaintiffs in error: the counsel for the plaintiffs in error contended:

The only pretence of claim against the estate of De Valengin and the plaintiffs in error, as administrators de bonis non of his estate, is founded on the allegation that Neale, in his lifetime, received the proceeds of property which did not belong to De Valengin, but in fact belonged to the defendant in error, John H....