Southern Pac Co v. United States v. 19 20, 1924, 285

• Decision Date: 11 May 1925
• Docket Number: No. 285,285
• Citation: 69 L.Ed. 947,268 U.S. 263,45 S.Ct. 500
• Parties: SOUTHERN PAC. CO. v. UNITED STATES. Argued Nov. 19-20, 1924
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

268 U.S. 263

45 S.Ct. 500

69 L.Ed. 947

SOUTHERN PAC. CO.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 285.

Argued Nov. 19-20, 1924.

Decided May 11, 1925.

Messrs. Wm. R. Harr and Charles H. Bates, both of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Mr. Merrill E. Otis, of St. Joseph, Mo., for the United States.

Mr. Justice SANFORD delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Southern Pacific Company, having carried certain persons as passengers at the request of the Government and received payment for such transportation at land-grant rates, brought this action to recover the difference between the rates thus paid and the full tariff rates. The Court of Claims, on its findings of fact, being of opinion that the claimant bt its course of proceeding and acceptance of the land-grant rates was precluded from the recovery of the balance of the full tariff rates, entered judgment dismissing the petition. 59 Ct. Cl. 36.

The facts found, shortly stated, are as follows: The claimant in 1911 became a party to the so-called land-grant equalization agreements' with the Quartermaster General, by which it agreed (subject to certain exceptions not here material) to transport troops of the United States at the net rates effective over land-grant lines, that is, at fifty per cent. of the rates charged private parties.¹ Thereafter, between March 1, 1912, and June 18, 1916,² the claimant transported, upon Government requests, a number of applicants for enlistment in the Army, discharged, retired and furloughed soldiers, and civilian employees in the War Department.

It had been previously ruled by the Comptroller of the Treasury that such persons were to be regarded as troops of the United States and that their transportation could be paid for only at land-grant rates; and disbursing officers, as the claimant knew, were authorized to make payments on that basis only. Because of this ruling the claimant presented its bills for all such transportation on the form of voucher prescribed for transportation at land-grant rates,³ in which it stated in appropriate columns the 'gross amount' of the regular fares, the 'amount to be deducted on account of land-grant,' and, in the final column, the 'amount claimed' (the gross amount less the land-grant deduction); and certified the accounts to be correct. All these vouchers were presented to the Disbursing Quartermaster at San Francisco, and were paid by him in the amounts claimed; and all these payments were accepted by the claimant.

Prior to January 1, 1914, the claimant, except in one instance, accepted payment of these bills without protest or other objection.

After January 1, 1914, however, there was written, typewritten or stamped by the claimant upon a part of the land-grant vouchers, before they were paid, a so-called short form of protest, reading as follows: 'Amounts claimed in this bill accepted under protest.' This form of protest was understood by the clerk who handled these bills in the office of the Disbursing Quartermaster as being 'addressed to the matter of land-grant rates,' for the purpose of reserving the claimant's right to present a further claim for full commercial fares to the accounting officers or the courts. The claimant used this form of protest on 201 vouchers between January 1 and October 1, 1914;⁴ but 303 of the vouchers presented and paid during this period bore no protest.

On October 1, 1914, the claimant began 'systematically' to endorse in typewriting on the land-grant vouchers, before presentment, a so-called long form of protest, reading as follows:

'As U. S. Government accounting officers claim they have no authority to allow or pay for the transportation of discharged soldiers more than the fares for troops of the U. S. such fares are shown herein but under protest and S. P. Co. for itself and connecting carriers does not waive any of its rights to full published tariff fares and any payment at any less amount will be accepted as part payment only for the services performed.'

This form of protest was used on 516 vouchers between October 1, 1914 and June 18, 1916;⁵ but 212 of the vouchers presented and paid within this period bore no form of protest whatever.

The claimant brought the present action in March, 1918, shortly before the decision in United States v. Union Pacific Railroad, 249 U. S. 354, 39 S. Ct. 294, 63 L. Ed. 643. In that case the railroad company, a party to the land-grant equalization agreement, having transported persons of all the classes that are here in question except civilian employees, had presented to the Auditor for the War Department claims for such transportation at the full tariff rates, and the Auditor and Comptroller having successively refused to allow these claims at more than the land-grant rates, had then brought suit in the Court of Claims to recover the full passenger fares. It was held by this court that such persons were not troops of the United States within the meaning of the land-grant acts and the equalization agreements, and that the railroad company was entitled to recover the full amount claimed. In the present case the Court of Claims held that in the light of this decision none of the classes of persons here in question could be regarded as troops of the United States, and recognized that the claimant would have been entitled originally to compensation at the full passenger rates. This is not questioned by the Government; the sole contention being that, as was further held by the Court of Claims, the action of the claimant in voluntarily presenting its bills at the land-grant rates and accepting payment thereof, precludes it from recovery of the balance of the full rates to which it would otherwise have been intitled.

The question when the substantive right to recover an amount justly due from the Government is lost through some act or omission upon the part of the claimant, was considered at length in St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway v. United States (No. 310) 45 S. Ct. 472, 69 L. Ed. ——,⁶ decided April 27, 1925, in which the decisions bearing on this question were collated. It was there said that this right 'can be lost only through some act or omission on the part of the claimant which, under the rules of the common law as applied by this Court to claims against the Government, discharges the cause of action. Acquiescence by the claimant in the payment by the Government of a smaller amount than is due will ordinarily effect the discharge. Acquiescence can be established by showing conduct before the payment which might have led the Government to believe that the amount allowed was all that was claimed, or that such amount, if paid, would be received in full satisfaction of the claim. Acquiescence can,...