National Home For Disabled Volunteer Soldiers v. Parrish

• Decision Date: 09 June 1913
• Docket Number: No. 678,678
• Citation: 33 S.Ct. 944,229 U.S. 494,57 L.Ed. 1296
• Parties: NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS et al., Appts., v. J. E. PARRISH
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

229 U.S. 494

33 S.Ct. 944

57 L.Ed. 1296

NATIONAL HOME FOR DISABLED VOLUNTEER SOLDIERS et al., Appts.,

v J. E. PARRISH.

No. 678.

Submitted May 5, 1913.

Decided June 9, 1913.

Assistant to the Attorney General Fowler, Assistant Attorney General Adkins, and Mr. Karl W. Kirchwey for appellants.

Mr. R. E. L. Mountcastle for appellee.

Mr. Justice Van Devanter delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal brings under review a decree allowing interest on the amount found due a contractor upon two contracts for the construction of buildings for the Mountain Branch of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.

The Home is a Federal corporation created by legislation now embodied in Rev. Stat. §§ 4825 et seq. (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3337), as 'an establishment for the care of disabled volunteer soldiers of the United States Army.' The erection of the buildings was undertaken by the Home in pursuance of express congressional authority, and after an appropriation for that purpose had been made from the national treasury. 31 Stat. at L. 745, chap. 184, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3346. The contracts called for the completion of the work by the contractor on or before designated dates, which were extended. At the expiration of the last extension the contractor was in default, although the work was largely performed, and the Home, under power reserved in the contracts, proceeded with the completion of the buildings.

In a bill exhibited by the Home against the contractor, in the circuit court of the United States for the eastern district of Tennessee, and in a cross bill by the contractor, the parties presented for judicial determination various matters of difference arising out of the contracts and what was done under them. A hearing resulted in a decree awarding the contractor, upon the contracts, the sum of $21,139.12, to which interest was added from the date when the buildings were fully completed and occupied by the Home. From so much of the decree as allowed interest, the Home appealed to the circuit court of appeals, which rendered a decision of affirmance (——L.R.A.(N.S.)——, 114 C. C. A. 576, 194 Fed. 940); and then the Home appealed here. The sole error assigned challenges the allowance of interest. It is not insisted, nor could it reasonably be, that this allowance was inequitable or an abuse of discretion in the particular circumstances; so the only question is whether in law there was an insuperable obstacle to allowing interest.

The Home is without capital stock, shares, or shareholders; is an eleemosynary institution created by the government to manifest and discharge its sense of gratitude towards those who rendered service in its defense; is under the ultimate supervision of Congress; is supported and maintained from the national treasury, and is essentially a governmental agency. In defining its powers the statute declares that it shall 'have perpetual succession, with powers to take, hold, and convey real and personal property, establish a common seal, and to sue and be sued in courts of law and equity; and to make by-laws, rules, and regulations, not inconsistent with law, for carrying on the business and government of the home, and to affix penalties thereto' (§ 4825); also 'to procure . . . sites, . . . and to have the necessary buildings...