Nortz v. United States

• Decision Date: 18 February 1935
• Docket Number: No. 531,531
• Citation: 55 S.Ct. 428,95 A.L.R. 1346,79 L.Ed. 907,294 U.S. 317
• Parties: NORTZ v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

294 U.S. 317

55 S.Ct. 428

79 L.Ed. 907

NORTZ

v UNITED STATES.

No. 531.

Argued Jan. 10, 1935.

Decided Feb. 18, 1935.

Messrs. Otto C. Sommerich and Raymond T. Heilpern, both of New York City, for Nortz.

The Attorney General and Mr. Angus D. MacLean, Asst. Sol. Gen., of Washington, D.C., for the United States.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 318-322 intentionally omitted] Mr. Chief Justice HUGHES delivered the opinion of the Court.

The facts certified by the Court of Claims may be thus summarized: Plaintiff brought suit as owner of gold certificates of the Treasury of the United States of the nominal amount of $106,300. He alleged that defendant, by these gold certificates and under the applicable acts of Congress, had certified that there had been deposited in the Treasury of the United States $106,300 in gold coin which would be paid to the claimant, as holder, upon demand; that, at the time of the issue of these certificates, and to and including January 17, 1934, a dollar in gold consisted of 25.8 grains of gold, nine-tenths fine; that claimant was entitled to receive from defendant one ounce of gold for each $20.67 of the gold certificates; that on January 17, 1934, he duly presented the certificates and demanded their redemption by the payment of gold coin to the extent above mentioned; that on that date, and for some time prior and subsequent thereto, an ounce of gold was of the value of at least $33.43, and that claimant was accordingly entitled to receive in redemption 5,104.22 ounces of gold of the value of $170,634.07; that the demand was refused; that, in view of the penalties imposed under the order of the Secretary of the Treasury, approved by the President, on January 15, 1934, supplementing the order of December 28, 1933, and the laws and regulations under which those orders were issued, which the claimant alleged were unconstitutional as constituting a deprivation of property without due process of law, claimant delivered the gold certificates to defendant under protest and received in exchange currency of the United States in the sum of $106,300 which was not redeemable in gold; and that in consequence claimant was damaged in the sum of $64,334.07, for which, with interest, judgment was demanded.

Defendant demurred to the petition upon the ground that it did not state a cause of action against the United States.

The questions certified by the court are as follows:

'1. Is an owner of gold certificates of the United States, Series of 1928, not holding a Federal license to acquire or hold gold coins or gold certificates, who, on January 17, 1934, had surrendered his certificates to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States under protest and had received therefor legal tender currency of equivalent face amount, entitled to receive from the United States a further sum inasmuch as the weight of a gold dollar was 25.8 grains, nine-tenths fine, and the market price thereof on January 17, 1934, was in excess of the currency so received?

'2. Is a gold certificate, Series of 1928, under the facts stated in question 1 an express contract of the United States in its corporate or proprietary capacity which will enable its owner and holder to bring suit thereon in the Court of Claims?

'3. Do the provisions of the Emergency Banking Act of March 9, 1933, and the Order of the Secretary of the Treasury dated December 28, 1933, requiring the plaintiff as owner of gold certificates as stated in question 1 to deliver the same to the Treasury of the United States in exchange for currency of an equivalent amount, not redeemable in gold, amount to a taking of property within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?'

Defendant's demurrer, which admitted the facts well pleaded in the petition, did not admit allegations which amounted to conclusions of law in relation to the nature of the gold certificates or the legal effect of the legislation under which they were issued, held, or to be redeemed. Dillon v. Barnard, 21 Wall. 430, 437, 22 L.Ed. 673; United States v. Ames, 99 U.S. 35, 45, 25 L.Ed. 295; Inter-State Land Co. v. Maxwell Land Grant Co., 139 U.S. 569, 577, 578, 11 S.Ct. 656, 35 L.Ed. 278; Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Brown, 213 U.S. 25, 43, 29 S.Ct. 404, 53 L.Ed. 682.

Gold certificates were authorized by section 5 of the Act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 709, 711), which provided that the Secretary of the Treasury might receive 'deposits of gold coin and bullion' and issue certificates therefor 'in denominations of not less than twenty dollars each, corresponding with the denominations of the United States notes.' The coin and bullion so deposited were to be retained in the Treasury for the payment of the certificates on demand. It was further provided that 'certificates representing coin in the treasury may be issued in payment of interest on the public debt, which certificates, together with those issued for coin and bullion deposited, shall not at any time exceed twenty per centum beyond the amount of coin and bullion in the treasury.' See Rev. St. § 254, 31 U.S.C. § 428 (31 USCA § 428). Section 12 of the Act of July 12, 1882 (22 Stat. 165), contained a further provision authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury 'to receive deposits of gold coin' and to issue certificates therefor, also in denominations of dollars as stated. The Act of March 14, 1900 (31 Stat. 45 (31 USCA § 314)), prescribed that the dollar 'consisting of twenty-five and eight-tenths grains of gold nine-tenths fine, * * * shall be the standard unit of value, and all forms of money issued or coined by the United States shall be maintained at a parity of value with this standard, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Treasury to maintain such parity.' Section 6 of that act also authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to receive deposits of gold coin and to issue gold certificates therefor, and provided that the coin so deposited should be held by the Treasury for the payment of such certificates on demand and should be 'used for no other pur- pose.' And the latter clause appears in the amending Acts of March 4, 1907 (34 Stat. 1289), and of March 2, 1911 (36 Stat. 965). See 31 U.S.C. § 429; 31 USCA § 429.

The Act of December 24, 1919 (41 Stat. 370 (31 USCA § 451)), made gold certificates, payable to bearer on demand, 'legal tender in payment of all debts and dues, public and private.' And section 2 of the Joint Resolution of June 5, 1933 (48 Stat. 113 (31 USCA § 462)), amending the Act of May 12, 1933, § 43(b)(1) (48 Stat. 52), provided that 'all coins and currencies of the United States * * * heretofore or hereafter coined or issued, shall be legal tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties, and dues.'

Gold certificates under this legislation were required to be issued in denominations of dollars, and called for the payment of dollars.¹ These gold certificates were currency. They were not less so because the specified number of dollars were payable in gold coin, of the coinage of the United States. Being currency, and constituting legal tender, it is entirely inadmissible to regard the gold certificates as warehouse receipts.² They were not contracts for a certain quantity of gold as a commodity. They called for dollars, not bullion.

We may lay on one side the question whether the issue of currency of this description created an express contract upon which the United States has consented to be sued under the provisions of section 145 of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C. § 250 (28 USCA § 250). Compare Horowitz v. United States, 267 U.S. 458, 461, 45 S.Ct. 344, 69 L.Ed. 736.³ We may assume that plaintiff's petition permits an alternative view. Plaintiff urges as the gist of his contention that, by the acts of Congress, and the orders thereunder, requiring the delivery of his gold certificates to the Treasury in exchange for currency not redeemable in gold, he has been deprived of his property, and that he is entitled to maintain this action to recover the just compensation secured by him by the Fifth Amendment. But, even in that view, the Court of Claims has no authority to entertain the action, if the claim is at best one for nominal damages. The Court of Claims 'was not instituted to try such a case.' Grant v. United States, 7 Wall. 331, 338, 19 L.Ed. 194; Marion & Rye V. Railway Co. v. United States, 270 U.S. 280, 282, 46 S.Ct. 253, 70 L.Ed. 585. Accordingly, we inquire whether the case which the plaintiff presents is one which would justify the recovery of actual damages.

By section 3 of the Emergency Banking Relief Act of March 9, 1933 (48 Stat. 2), amending section 11 of the Federal Reserve Act (39 Stat. 752, 12 USCA § 248(n), the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized, whenever in his judgment it was necessary 'to protect the currency system of the United States,' to require all persons 'to pay and deliver to the Treasurer of the United...