Medbury v. United States, 225

• Decision Date: 03 April 1899
• Docket Number: No. 225,225
• Citation: 43 L.Ed. 779,173 U.S. 492,19 S.Ct. 503
• Parties: MEDBURY v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

173 U.S. 492

19 S.Ct. 503

43 L.Ed. 779

MEDBURY

v UNITED STATES.

No. 225.

April 3, 1899.

The appellant herein filed her petition in the court of claims, and sought to recover judgment by virtue of the provisions of the act approved June 16, 1880 (21 Stat. 287).

The attorney general denied all the allegations of the petition, and the case was tried by the court upon the following agreed statement of facts: Congress made a grant of lands to the Wisconsin Central Railroad Company by the act of March 5, 1864 (13 Stat. 66), which contained the condition that the railroad should be built as therein provided. After the grant, the price of the lands reserved within its place limits was raised from $1.25 per acre to $2.50 per acre, under the authority of law and by the direction of the secretary of the interior. In 1872, one Samuel Medbury made an entry of more than 7,000 acres of land, within the place limits of that grant, and at the double minimum price of $2.50 per acre; and he died, in 1874, leaving his widow, the appellant herein, and a son and daughter, who subsequently conveyed to the appellant all their interest in the claim herein made.

The conditions upon which the grant of lands was made to that particular section of the proposed railroad were never complied with, and the proposed railroad was never constructed, for which reason the grant was, by the act of congress of September 29, 1890 (26 Stat. 496), forfeited to the United States. By reason of this failure to build the railroad, and because of the forfeiture of the land grant by congress, the lands purchased by Medbury ceased to be alternate sections of land within a railroad land grant, although they were such when he purchased them. Thereafter, and on the 14th of November, 1894, Lucetta R. Medbury, as the widow and heir of Samuel Medbury, made application to the secretary of the interior for the repayment of the excess of $1.25 per acre upon the seven thousand and odd acres of land entered by her husband, the application being made under the second section of the act of June 16, 1880 (21 Stat. 287), and on October 5, 1897, the application was denied by the secretary. Upon these findings of fact, the court of claims decided, as a conclusion of law, that t e petition should be dismissed for want of jurisdiction. From that decision the claimant has appealed to this court.

Russell Duane and Harvey Spalding, for appellant.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Pradt and George H. Gorman, for the United States.

Mr. Justice PECKHAM, after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

Two questions arise in this case: (1) Whether the court of claims had jurisdiction of the claim; and (2) if it had, what is the true construction of the act of June 16, 1880, requiring the repayment to the purchaser of the excess of $1.25 per acre where the land purchased has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant?

The ground upon which the learned court of claims decided that it had no jurisdiction in the case was that the remedy afforded by the act of 1880 to obtain the repayment of the excess of the price was exclusive of any other. Thus, if the secretary of the interior erroneously construed the act, and refused payment in a case where the claimant was justly entitled thereto, under its provisions, the claimant would be without redress, even though there were no dispute in regard to the facts and the decision of the secretary was a plain mistake in regard to the law. In this construction as to the jurisdiction of the court of claims, we are unable to agree.

The first section of the act of June 16, 1880, does not refer to such a case as this. Section 2 of that act reads, in full, as follows:

'In all cases where homestead or timber culture or desert land entries or other entries of public lands have heretofore or shall hereafter be canceled for conflict, or where, from any cause, the entry has been erroneously allowed and cannot be confirmed, the secretary of the interior shall caused to be repaid to the person who made such entry, or to his heirs or assigns, the fees and commissions, amount of purchase money and excesses paid upon the same, upon the surrender of the duplicate receipt and the execution of a proper relinquishment of all claims to said land, whenever such entry shall have been duly canceled by the commissioner of the general land office, and in all cases where parties have paid double minimum price for land which has afterwards been found not to be within the limits of a railroad land grant, the excess of one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre shall in like manner be repaid to the purchaser thereof, or to his heirs or assigns.'

Section 3 authorizes the secretary of the interior to make the payments provided for in the act out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, and by section 4 the secretary is authorized to draw his warrant on the treasury in order to carry the provisions of the act into effect.

The portion of section 2 which is in italics is the part of the act upon which this claim is founded. The question is whether the court of claims has jurisdiction in this case, upon the facts found.

By the act of March 3, 1887 (24 Stat. 505), the court of claims is given jurisdiction to hear and determine, among other things, all claims founded upon any law of congress. As the claim in this case is founded upon the law of congress of 1880, it would seem that, under this grant of jurisdiction, the court of claims had power to hear and determine the claim in question. The act of 1887 was not, however, the first act giving jurisdiction to the court of claims in regard to a law of congress. It had the same power when the case of Nichols v. U. S., 7 Wall. 122, was decided, and a question of jurisdiction arose in that case. It there appeared that Nichols & Co. were merchants in New York, and they made, in 1847, an importation from abroad, upon which duties were imposed on the quantity invoiced. The importation consisted of casks of liquor, and a portion of the liquor had leaked out during the voyage, and was thus lost, and consequently was never imported in fact into the United States. Notwithstanding these circumstances, Nichols & Co. paid the uties as imposed under the invoice, and without any deduction for leakage, and made no protest in the matter. An act of congress of February 26, 1845, provided that no action should be maintained against any collector to recover duties paid, unless a protest had been made in writing and signed by the claimant at the time of the payment. Where a protest had been made, the importer could thereafter bring a suit against the collector for a recovery of the money so paid, and the suit would be tried in due course of law. The importers, having made no protest, and being therefore unable, under the provisions of the law, to bring suit against the collector, brought suit in the court of claims to recover back the overpayment, upon the ground that the court had power to hear and determine all claims founded upon any law of congress, or upon any regulation of the executive department, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the government of the United States. This court held that the court of claims had no jurisdiction, and in the course of the opinion of the court, which was delivered by Mr. Justice Davis, and in giving the grounds upon which the court denied jurisdiction, it was said:

'Congress has, from time to time, passed laws on the subject of the revenue, which not only provide for the manner of its collection, but also point out a way in which errors can be corrected. These laws constitute a system which congress has provided for the benefit of those persons who complain of illegal assessments of taxes and illegal exactions of duties. In the...