Great Western Ins Co v. United States

• Decision Date: 10 November 1884
• Citation: 5 S.Ct. 99,28 L.Ed. 687,112 U.S. 193
• Parties: GREAT WESTERN INS. CO. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

112 U.S. 193

5 S.Ct. 99

28 L.Ed. 687

GREAT WESTERN INS. CO. v. UNITED STATES.

November 10, 1884.

E. Y. Bell, A. J. Millard, S. G. Clarke, and E. B. Smith, for the Great Western Ins. Co. Sol. Gen. Phillips, for the United States.

MILLER, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the court of claims dismissing a petition for want of jurisdiction. This was not done on a demurrer or plea, but on the following motion: 'The assistant attorney general, on behalf of the United States, moves the court to dismiss the petition in this cause for the reason that it does not disclose a cause of action within the jurisdiction of the court.' The motion on hearing was sustained, and it is this judgment of dismissal we are asked to review.

The petition sets forth that the claimant was an insurance company engaged in the business of insuring against losses by sea, and that it insured, in numerous cases, vessels, cargoes, and freight, owned by citizens of the United States, against war risks during the civil war between the United States and the Confederate states; that by reason of the losses and destruction of the vessels and cargoes so insured, inflicted by the Confederate cruisers Alabama and Florida, this claimant paid the sum of $309,635 to the owners of the vessels and cargoes, and that claimant not only became by law subrogated to rights of such owners against the parties who caused the loss, but took assignments of the claims from the losers to itself. The petition then alleges that the British government, by its laches and unfriendliness, in permitting these cruisers to be built, fitted out, and furnished with supplies within its domin- ion, became responsible for the losses inflicted on the owners of the vessels and cargoes captured and destroyed by them; that petitioner placed these claims in the hands of the secretary of state with the evidence to prove them against that government. The negotiation, treaty, and award known as the Alabama Claims Treaty and the Geneva A ward are then set out, with the allegation that the sum now claimed by petitioner entered into and constituted a part of the $15,500,000 which was awarded to the United States in satisfaction of all claims of this character.

It is alleged that the money so awarded was paid to the United States, by reason of which and certain subsequent dealings with this money, which was finally paid into the treasury of the United States by order of congress, an implied contract arose on the part of the defendants to pay to the claimant the amount of the losses thus set forth, with interest thereon, which is alleged to be over $500,000. The names of the vessels, and the amounts insured in each case on vessel, cargo, and freight, are shown by a schedule attached to the petition. From this it appears that 12 of these vessels were captured by the Alabama, and 8 by the Florida. The names of the owners of the vessels, cargoes, and freight are distinctly set forth, and the amounts paid to each.

The claimant, in its petition, places the right to recover on the ground that by virtue of the transactions between this government and Great Britain, and the receipt by the former of the money paid by the latter on account of these claims, the United States became a trustee for the claimant to the amount of its loss, and liable to pay the same; or, as expressed in another form, the money was received by the government for the use and benefit of the petitioner, and when it was paid into the treasury became indebted to petitioner for that amount. The same ground is assumed in the argument of counsel in this court, the claim being treated essentially as indebitatus assumpsit for money had and received to the use of plaintiff.

If, therefore, the claim is well 'founded on a contract, express or implied, with the United States,' within the meaning of section 1059 of the Revised Statutes, and is not forbidden by any other act of congress, the petition should not have been dismissed; but if it does not present such an implied contract, (for there is no pretense of an express contract,) or if, for any other reason, the case is one of which the court of claims is forbidden to entertain jurisdiction, then the judgment of dismissal was correct.

The case has been mainly argued here on the proposition that the transaction does raise an implied promise on the part of the government of the United States to pay appellant the amount of money paid by it on account of the losses inflicted by the Alabama and Florida, or such proportion of that loss, if it be any less than the whole, as was covered by the award. And the judgment of the court below is defended largely upon the ground that no such legal obligation or contract arises from the transaction. The opinion of the learned chief justice of the court of claims is an able presentation of this view. But the judgment of that court is also defended on the ground that whatever may be the moral or the legal obligation of the government to the appellant growing out of the treaty, the award, and the receipt of the money, it does not present a case cognizable in the court of claims, both because the acts of congress creating the court and conferring its jurisdiction were not intended to embrace this class of cases, and because they were in express terms excluded from it. If this latter proposition be sound, we deem it inappropriate to express any opinion on the other, because the fund in the treasury, paid under the Geneva Award, has been already largely distributed under the decisions of one special commission appointed for that purpose, whose powers have expired, and is now under administration by another commission created for the same purpose by another act of congress. And although it is said that neither of these commissions could, under the law of its creation, take cognizance of appellant's...