Seaboard Air Line Ry v. United States, 62

• Decision Date: 16 March 1920
• Docket Number: No. 62,62
• Citation: 65 L.Ed. 1149,41 S.Ct. 611,256 U.S. 655
• Parties: SEABOARD AIR LINE RY. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

256 U.S. 655

41 S.Ct. 611

65 L.Ed. 1149

SEABOARD AIR LINE RY.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 62.

Argued March 16, 1920.

Restored to the Docket for Reargument Nov. 15, 1920.

Reargued April 12, 1921.

Decided June 6, 1921.

Mr. Benjamin Carter, of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Mr. Frank Davis, Jr., of Columbus, Ohio, for appellee.

Mr. Justice McREYNOLDS delivered the opinion of the Court.

Appellant sued in the Court of Claims to recover balances for transportation services originally payable to the Florida Central & Peninsular Railroad Company, to whose rights it had succeeded through merger or consolidation. Holding that because of section 3477 R. S. (9 Stat. 41, and 10 Stat. 170 [Comp. St. § 6383]) appellant could not maintain the action, that court dismissed its petition.

Section 3477:

'All transfers and assignments made of any claim upon the United States, or of any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities for receiving payment of any such claim, or of any part or share thereof, shall be absolutely null and void, unless they are freely made and executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, after the allowance of such a claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof. * * *'

The Seaboard Air Line Railway was originally chartered under the laws of Virginia; by authorized union with others, it became a consolidated corporation under the laws of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama; and in 1903 under 'articles of agreement of merger and consolidation' and the statutes of Georgia and Florida (section 2173, Civil Code Ga. 1895; section 2812, Gen. Stat. Fla.), the Florida Central & Peninsular Railroad, a Florida corporation, was united with it. As agreed and provided by the laws of the two states, the rights, privileges, franchises, and all property, real, personal, and mixed, and all debts on every account, as well as stock subscriptions and other things in action belonging to each of the constituents, were transferred to and vested in the consolidated corporation without further act or deed, 'as effectually as they were in the former companies.'

Section 3477 has been before this court many times for construction and application. United States v. Gillis, 95 U. S. 407, 24 L. Ed. 503; Erwin v. United States, 97 U. S. 392, 24 L. Ed. 1065; Spofford v. Kirk, 97 U. S. 484, 24 L. Ed. 1032; Goodman v. Niblack, 102 U. S. 556, 26 L. Ed. 229; St. Paul, etc., R. R. v. United States, 112 U. S. 733, 5 Sup. Ct. 366, 28 L. Ed. 861; Bailey v. United States, 109 U. S. 432, 3 Sup. Ct. 272, 27 L. Ed. 988; Butler v. Goreley, 146 U. S. 303, 13 Sup. Ct. 84, 36 L. Ed. 981; Hager v. Swayne, 149 U. S. 242, 13 Sup. Ct. 841, ...