Colgate v. United States

Citation50 S.Ct. 22,74 L.Ed. 157,280 U.S. 43
Decision Date04 November 1929
Docket NumberNo. 74,74
PartiesCOLGATE v. UNITED STATES
CourtUnited States Supreme Court

Messrs. George A. King, Louis Titus, and C. Bascom Slemp, all of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Messrs. Charles E. Hughes, Jr., Sol. Gen., of Washington, D. C., and Herman J. Galloway, Asst. Atty. Gen., for the United States.

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

The judgment of the Court of Claims, now under consideration, was given on a claim against the United States for alleged patent infringement, and was entered on February 4, 1929. A petition for certiorari seeking review in this Court was filed May 1, 1929, and was denied on October 14, 1929 (280 U. S. 553, 50 S. Ct. 15, 74 L. Ed. —). The Government contends that both methods of review, either by appeal or certiorari, in this Court are now without avail.

The claim was referred by the Senate to the Court of Claims for an advisory finding and report of the material facts. A hearing was had in the Court of Claims, and it reported its findings on the questions of fact. Thereafter the Court of Claims reheard the case under a Special Jurisdictional Act of Congress approved March 3, 1927 (44 Stat. c. 408, Part. 3, p. 1807), which read as follows:

'That the findings of fact made by the Court of Claims in the case of Arthur E. Colgate, administrator of the estate of Clinton G. Colgate, deceased, against the United States, Congressional, Numbered 6063, Senate Document Numbered 703, Sixty-fourth Congress, second session, be, and they are hereby referred back to the Court of Claims with jurisdiction to render such judgment as the findings of fact heretofore found and the law require: Provided, That either party hereto may appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States upon or from any conclusion of law or judgment, from which appeals now lie in other cases, at any time within ninety days after the rendition of judgment: Provided further, That the amount of any such judgment shall not exceed the sum of $50,000: And provided further, That such notice hereof shall be given to the Attorney General of the United States as may be provided by orders of said court, and it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to cause one of his assistants to appear and defend for the United States.'

Judgment for the Government in the reheard case was given by the Court of Claims on February 4, 1929, based on a letter to the Commissioner of Patents under date of January 15, 1851, from Simpson, the then owner, specifically abandoning the application for the patent.

On April 23, 1929, Arthur Colgate, as administrator of Clinton Colgate, in pursuance of the special act, filed an application in the Court of Claims for the allowance of an appeal to this Court from the adverse judgment, and appeal was allowed by the Court of Claims on April 26, 1929. The appeal was docketed in this Court May 1, 1929, and on the same day a petition for a writ of certiorari was filed on the record in the appeal case. The petition for certiorari, as already said, was denied by us October 14th last. The case is now before us for consideration of the question of our jurisdiction upon the appeal.

We think the proper construction to be put upon this special act is that the review provided for was a petition for certiorari. One of the chief purposes of the general act of February 13, 1925, ch. 229, 43 Stat. 936 (section 3, (28 USCA § 288)) was to abolish appeals from the Court of Claims to this Court and substitute therefor applications for writs of certiorari. The language of the special act is that 'either party hereto may appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States upon or from any conclusion of law or judgment, from which appeals now lie in other cases.' At the time of the passage of that act, no appeals generally 'lay in other cases' from the Court of Claims to this Court, and do not now. It was evidently intended by the act of 1925 to make the method of review by this Court of judge ments of the Court of Claims, uniform. It was intended by the act of 1925 to give this Court an opportunity to determine in advance whether the case was one worthy of review here. To hold that the case may come here only by certiorari is to make it conform to the general purpose of the act of February 13, 1925, in enlarging the use of certiorari as a method of review in this Court. To describe appeals as from judgments 'from which appeals now lie in other cases' is a mistake, unless one gives to the meaning of the word 'appeals' something more than a mere technical meaning. If what was intended was an appeal in its technical significance as distinguished from a certiorari, different words should have been used to indicate it. Therefore the special act must be construed the 1927 act, was merely extending the period usual method of review at the date of the special act, which is and was by application for a writ of certiorari.

The case of Sisseton & Wahpeton Band of Sioux Indians v. United States, 277 U. S. 424, 48 S. Ct. 536, 72 L. Ed. 939, does not control the present case. That case had reference to another special act, granting the appellants one year from the date of the act within which to appeal, and it was held to confer the right of appeal as distinguished from the right to petition for certiorari. That special act was approved March 4, 1927 (chapter 522, 44 Stat., Part 3, p. 1847), and its purpose was to revive a right to appeal to this Court given to the same appellants by the Act of April 11, 1916 (39 Stat. 47, c. 63), but of which appellants had failed to avail themselves within the time limited therefor. Since Congress, by the 1927 Act, was merely extending the period for the exercise of a right conferred in 1916, the term 'appeal,' contained in ...

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