United States v. Wardwell
| Decision Date | 28 November 1898 |
| Docket Number | No. 53,53 |
| Citation | 19 S.Ct. 86,172 U.S. 48,43 L.Ed. 360 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES v. WARDWELL |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This is an appeal from the court of claims. 32 Ct. Cl. 30. The facts as found by that court are that in June, 1869, three checks were drawn in favor of William V. B. Wardwell, one by Major W. B. Rochester, paymaster, United States army, and two by Major M. I. Ludington, quartermaster, United States army, all drawn on the assistant treasurer of the United States in New York, and in payment of lawful claims of Wardwell against the United States. Subsequently to the issue of the checks, and while still in the possession and ownership of Wardwell, they were lost or destroyed, probably in a depredation committed on his house by Indians in the year 1872. None of the checks having been presented for payment, the amounts thereof were covered into the treasury of the United States, and carried to the account of 'Outstanding Liabilities,' in pursuance of the act of May 2, 1866, now section 306 and following of the Revised Statutes, the entry on the books of the treasury (as shown by a report made by the secretary of the treasury to the house of representatives) being as follows:
Balance Due Balance Due
Name. Period. United from United
States. States.
W. V. B. Wardwell 1872 .... $461.87
No part of the same has ever been paid. Wardwell is dead, and the claimant is his duly appointed and acting administratrix. As such she, in 1890, applied to the treasury department for payment of the checks by the issue of treasury warrants, and at the same time filed a bond of indemnity, with sufficient sureties, for double the amounts thereof, to secure the United States against a possible second demand for payment. The first comptroller of the treasury declined to per- mit the settlement of a new account or the issue of warrants in favor of the claimant. Thereafter, and on April 10, 1896, she commenced this suit. As a conclusion of law the court found that the statute of limitations did not begin to run until the 14th day of April, 1890, the time when the accounting officers of the treasury refused to recognize the claimant's demand, and that she was entitled to recover the amount of the three checks, and on the 11th day of January, 1897, entered judgment for that amount. From such judgment the United States appealed to this court.
Section 1069, Rev. St., provides:
'Every claim against the United States, cognizable by the court of claims, shall be forever barred unless the petition setting forth a statement thereof is filed in the court, or transmitted to it by the secretary of the senate or the clerk of the house of representatives as provided by law, within six years after the claim first accrues: provided, that the claims of married women first accrued during marriage, of persons under the age of twenty-one years first accrued during minority, and of idiots, lunatics, insane persons, and persons beyond the seas at the time the claim accrued, entitled to the claim, shall not be barred if the petition be filed in the court or transmitted, as aforesaid, within three years after the disability has ceased; but no other disability than those enumerated shall prevent any claim from being barred, nor shall any of the said disabilities operate cumulatively.'
The act of May 2, 1866, is entitled 'An act to facilitate the settlement of the accounts of the treasurer of the United States, and to secure certain moneys to the people of the United States, or to persons to whom they are due, and who are entitled to receive the same.' 14 Stat. 41.
This was carried into the Revised Statutes as section 306 and following. Section 306, 307, and 308 read:
'Sec. 306. At the termination of each fiscal year all amounts of moneys that are represented by certificates, drafts or checks, issued by the treasurer, or by any disbursing officer of any department of the government, upon the treasurer or any assistant treasurer or designated depositary of the United States, or upon any national bank designated as a depositary of the United States, and which shall be represented on the books of either of such offices as standing to the credit of any disbursing officer, and which were issued to facilitate the payment of warrants, or for any other purpose in liquidation of a debt due from the United States, and which have for three years or more remained outstanding, unsatisfied and unpaid, shall be deposited by the treasurer, to be covered into the treasury by warrant and to be carried to the credit of the parties in whose favor such certificates, drafts or checks were respectively issued, or to the persons who are entitled to receive pay therefor, and into an appropriation account to be denominated 'Outstanding Liabilities.'
George H. Gorman, for the United States.
George A. King, for appellee.
Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
Section 1069, Rev. St., is not merely a statute of limitations, but also jurisdictional in its nature, and limiting the cases of which the court of claims can take cognizance. Finn v. U. S., 123 U. S. 227, 8 Sup. Ct. 82.
Counsel for the government contend that the claim against the United States first accrued in 1869, when the checks were issued, or, if not then, at least in 1872, when they were lost or destroyed, and therefore, this being 24 years before the commencement of this suit, that the claim was barred. If there were nothing to be considered but the single section referred to, it would be difficult to escape this conclusion of counsel.
It is further contended that sections 306, 307, and 308 relate to what is simply a matter of bookkeeping, and do not in any manner change the scope of the liability of the government. But we are of the opinion that they mean something more. While it may be that they do not provide for the creation of an express trust, liability for which, according to general rules, continues until there is a direct repudiation thereof, yet they contain a promise by the government to hold the money thus covered into the treasury for the benefit of the owner until such time as he shall call for it. This is a continuing promise, and one to which full force and efficacy should be given. If bookkeeping was the only matter sought to be provided for, there were no need of section 308. That prescribes payment, and payment in a particular way. The payee does not simply surrender his check and receive money. But, 'on presenting the same to the proper officer,' he is 'entitled to have it paid by the settlement of an account and the issuing of a warrant in his favor.' This may be mere machinery for payment, but it is machinery not used or required until after the money has been 'covered into the treasury by warrant,' and 'carried to the credit' of the payee. The right given is the right to surrender the check and receive a warrant on the treasury. It will also be noticed that the purpose of the act of 1866 was, as expressed in its title, not merely to 'facilitate the settlement of the accounts of the treasurer of the United States,' not merely to perfect a system of bookkeeping, but also 'to secure certain moneys * * * to persons to whom they are due, and who are entitled to receive the same.' And the deposit by the treasurer is not of a gross amount, to be applied to any claims that may arise, but of the amount due for certain specified checks and drafts. In other words, the purpose of the government by this statute is to secure to each party who holds government paper the amount thereof, to place it in the treasury to his credit, and to prescribe a method by which whenever he wishes he can obtain it. No time is mentioned within which he must apply...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Nager Electric Company, Inc. v. United States
...601, 602, 17 S.Ct. 701, 41 L.Ed. 1130 (1897) (Tucker Act did not repeal statutory tolling provisions); United States v. Wardwell, 172 U.S. 48, 52, 19 S.Ct. 86, 43 L.Ed. 360 (1898) (running of limitations on certain lost or destroyed United States checks); Soriano v. United States, 352 U.S. ......
-
Kerby v. Mortgage Funding Corp., CIV.A. CCB-97-1509.
...L.Ed. 1099 (1903); United States v. Cumming, 130 U.S. 452, 455, 9 S.Ct. 583, 584, 32 L.Ed. 1029 (1889); United States v. Wardwell, 172 U.S. 48, 52, 19 S.Ct. 86, 88, 43 L.Ed. 360 (1898); Finn v. United States, 123 U.S. 227, 229, 8 S.Ct. 82, 83-84, 31 L.Ed. 128 (1887). In the only case among ......
-
Moll v. US Life Title Ins. Co. of New York
...and that it could be tolled only as provided in the statute. Id. at 232, 8 S.Ct. at 85. See also United States v. Wardwell, 172 U.S. 48, 52, 19 S.Ct. 86, 88, 43 L.Ed. 360 (1898). "Where a time limitation is jurisdictional, it must be strictly construed and will not be tolled or extended on ......
-
Chance v. Zinke
...more generally as opposed to just equitable tolling.3 The government asserts that the Court held in United States v. Wardwell , 172 U.S. 48, 19 S.Ct. 86, 43 L.Ed. 360 (1898), that the Tucker Act's statute of limitations was jurisdictional. But Wardwell too dealt with the 1863 statute of lim......
-
Under John R. Sand & Gravel Co., May Lower Courts Apply Their Own Precedent in Determining Whether a Statute Waiving Sovereign Immunity Is Jurisdictional?
...was the law for the remainder of the Nineteenth Century, and indeed for almost all of the Twentieth." (citing United States v. Wardwell, 172 U.S. 48 (1898))), aff'd sub nom. Blueport Co., L.L.C. v. United States, 533 F.3d 1374 (Fed. Cir. 2008); Hardin v. City Title & Escrow Co., 797 F.2d 10......