United States v. Justice

• Decision Date: 01 December 1871
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. JUSTICE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

81 U.S. 535

20 L.Ed. 753

14 Wall. 535

UNITED STATES v. JUSTICE.

December Term, 1871

APPEAL from the Court of Claims; the case, as found by it, being thus:

On the 12th of August, 1861, Philip S. Justice, by a letter to Lieutenant Treadwell, first lieutenant of ordnance, proposed to supply the Ordnance Department with 4000 rifled muskets, 'similar in style and finish to the sample deposited' with the said lieutenant, at $20 each.

On the next day Lieutenant Treadwell, inclosing Justice's proposition, wrote to General Ripley, then chief of ordnance, at Washington, as follows:

'I inclose a proposition from Mr. Justice to furnish rifle muskets, calibre .69. I have examined a sample of the musket, and it is a good serviceable arm, .69 calibre, clasp bayonet, long-range sight, original percussion barrel, and well finished.'

On August 16th, 1861, General Ripley replied to Lieutenant Treadwell, saying:

'You are authorized to accept Mr. Justice's proposition.'

And on August 17th, 1861, Lieutenant Treadwell wrote to Justice as follows:

'I am authorized by the Ordnance Department to accept your proposal of August 12th, to furnish for the United States 4000 rifled muskets, calibre 69/100 of an inch, equal in all respects to the sample deposited with me, at $20.'

In execution of the contract, Justice delivered from time to time, 2174 rifled muskets, all of which were inspected by subordinate officers appointed by Lieutenant Treadwell, and received under his official certificate that they had been duly inspected and approved. 'These arms' thus furnished, 'were not,' as the Court of Claims found, 'in all respects, similar to the sample arm, but on an average not inferior to it; which was far from being a standard or first-class arm of the United States. It was not equal to the Springfield rifle. And the Justice arms were far from being a first-class arm.'

Before the 19th of March, 1862, all the muskets, with the exception of 472, had been received and approved; and had also been paid for by the United States at the contract price of $20 each. These 472 were delivered on the said 19th of March; on which day Lieutenant Treadwell acknowledged their receipt, and issued to Justice a final voucher showing that there was due to him for these and some other arms, the sum of $19,171.25.

The muskets thus furnished by Justice were given to three regiments of Pennsylvania volunteers in the field, who were accordingly armed with them. Some time afterwards the Ordnance Department receiving serious complaints from these regiments, alleging that the arms were unserviceable, ordered reinspections of the arms in the hands of these troops, as well as of those remaining yet in store. The reinspection of the arms in the hands of each of these regiments was made by Lieutenant Harris, of the Ordnance, Colonel Doubleday, of the Artillery, and Assistant Inspector-General Buford. It showed that many of the guns were made up of parts of condemned muskets; that the stocks were of soft, unseasoned wood, and were defective in construction; that most of the barrels abounded in flaws; that many locks were defective, that the sights had been merely soldered on, and came off with the gentlest handling; that the bayonets bent 'like lead,' and came off, and that so many of the guns burst that the men were afraid to use them; and that as a whole, the arms in the hands of the troops were 'a worthless lot of arms, unfit for service and dangerous to those who used them.'

Of the arms yet in store, the inspection was made by Lieutenant Treadwell in person. He reported to General Ripley, March 28th, 1862, certifying to the ability and integrity of the armorers who had conducted the original inspection, and saying:

'My instructions to them were to inspect the arms, and reject all that, in their opinion, were not good and serviceable, and in all respects fit for use in the field. I think that these instructions were complied with. The arms were offered to me at a time when the demand for arms was most imperative, and it was deemed desirable to accept them, to meet, in part, the pressing demand. Comparing the arms with those of our own manufacture, none would pass inspection, and it was not supposed that they should be subjected to any such standard; but that all that were passed on inspection would prove good and serviceable, was believed. Examining two boxes of these arms in store, I do not find them to have the radical defects complained of, nor can I account for the very different report of their inspection at camp, and that made to me by my inspectors. I find the sights are soldered on, but on tapping twenty of them with a hammer sufficiently hard to dent them, none were found to come off, or even started.'

On the 20th of March, 1862, the Chief of Ordnance informed the Secretary of War that he deemed it his duty to withhold payment of the above voucher for $19,171.25, given by Lieutenant Treadwell to Justice, until the matter could be investigated. He submitted to the secretary all the papers on the subject, and suggested that the matter be referred to the two gentlemen (Messrs. Joseph Holt and Robert Dale Owen) who had been authorized by the secretary to audit and adjust all claims and contracts in respect to ordnance, arms, and ammunition. This recommendation was approved by the Secretary of War, who referred the voucher of March 19th, together with all the papers and reports received from the Ordnance Office, to this committee, who were then sitting in Washington. The committee proceeded to investigate the character and quality of the arms. Justice was in Washington during its session, appeared before it, and was persistent and energetic in presenting his claim. He offered no evidence, but presented several written arguments.

The first report of the committee, who declared that they 'considered it proved that Mr. Justice had not fulfilled his obligation to furnish a serviceable arm to the government,' was condemnatory of all the guns, as 'not suitable in workmanship or material for the public service.' Fourteen days after it was made, Justice succeeded in convincing the commissioners that in thus condemning all the guns they had fallen incontestably into error. He also protested that as his arms were accepted after inspection by government authority, the government could not rightfully decline to pay for all so accepted. A second report corrected the error which Justice had pointed out, and found that the 'complaints of inferiority' related chiefly to 2174 rifled muskets. Accordingly the committee decided, in their second report that the payments theretofore made to Justice be considered as 'on account,' and that $15 per gun only be allowed for the 2174 rifled muskets, instead of $20, the contract price.

[In their first report they had decided that $15 was an ample equivalent for all the arms.]

The Second Auditor was now instructed by the Chief of Ordnance to settle Justice's account on the voucher of March 19th for $19,171.25, on 'the basis of this decision;' and he accordingly stated an account between Justice and the United States, in which he charged the contractor as with an overpayment of $5 each for all the rifled muskets already paid for at the contract price of $20, and deducted $5 from the contract price of each of the muskets embraced in the voucher of March 19th. As the whole number of these arms was, as has been seen, 2174, the amount deducted from the face of that voucher was thus $10,870, leaving on the face of the account $8301.25 as the balance due.

On the 8th of December, 1862, Justice received from the Treasurer of the United States certificates of indebtedness amounting to $6000, and a treasury draft for $2301.25, amounting in all to $8301.25; the receipt of which he acknowledged in a letter to the Treasurer of the United States, thus:

'SIR: Have received your letter of draft, together with the following certificates of indebtedness, payable to blank, viz.:

No. 36,332 to No. '337, i. e., 6 of $1000, $6000 00

Draft for balance remitted, 2301 25

Amounting to, $8301 25

'Issued on war warrant No. 3405 for that amount in favor of Philip S. Justice.

'Scale No. 12,051.

'Yours, &c.,

'P. S. JUSTICE.

'F. E. SPINNER,

'Treasurer of the United States.'

No other receipt was ever given by Justice for the amount, or any portion of the amount, of the above voucher of March 19th. The amount thus received left a balance of that voucher amounting to $10,870 unpaid; and to recover this balance, Justice, on the 16th of October, 1867 (nearly five years, it will be seen, after receiving it), brought suit in the Court of Claims.

The Court of Claims found for the claimant the $10,870 claimed, and the United States appealed.

Mr. G. H. Williams, Attorney-General, and Mr. W. McMichael, Assistant Allorney-General, for the United States:

The arms were not according to contract. They were not serviceable, nor did they equal the sample furnished by the contractor; the Court of Claims having found, as a fact, that 'these arms, furnished by claimant, were not in all respects similar to the sample arm.' This, although qualified by the subsequent language of the court, nevertheless goes to show a failure to comply with the condition of Lieutenant Treadwell's letter of August 17th, 1861, which provides that the muskets shall be 'equal in all respects to the sample deposited with' him.

These arms were furnished directly by the claimant. The presumption is that he knew their defective character, and he cannot take advantage of a nominal inspection at the arsenal by subordinates, to screen himself from the consequences of the careful inspections of the responsible officers whose reports are above referred to. The obligation of his contract with the United States was, not that his arms should pass an inspection, but that they should be of a certain standard, and this obligation he failed to fulfil.

The result of the examination of Justice's...