The claim of the Chestatee Pyrites & Chemical Corporation for compensation under the War Minerals Relief ct, March 2, 1919, c. 94, § 5, 40 Stat. 1272, 1274 (50 USCA § 80 note), is here for the fourth time. Before the World War the company owned a pyrites mine. In 1918, it made extensive enlargements of its plant at the request of the Secretary of the Interior. As hostilities ceased soon thereafter, the undertaking resulted in a large loss. Prior to 1922, it made applications for relief from the losses suffered. These applications resulted in awards aggregating $737,765.24. Of this amount $223,529.17 was paid by the government on October 25, 1919; $469,784.62 on October 5, 1922; and $44,451.45 on March 14, 1932.
The demand now presented is for the further sum of $524,276.43, alleged to have been due December 31, 1931; and for additional amounts which cannot be stated definitely because they are accruing daily. These sums, claimed as items of loss, represent interest paid or accrued since March 2, 1919, on a contract to repay with interest $645,000 borrowed by the corporation in 1918, mainly in order to pay for enlarging the plant. In 1922, the Secretary had, in calculating losses suffered, refused to allow any sum paid for interest on borrowed money. The corporation thereupon sought, by mandamus, to compel the award of interest. In that proceeding this court held, in 1925, that mandamus must be denied, because the act made the determination of the Secretary conclusive. Work v. U.S. ex rel. Chestatee Pyrites & Chemical Corporation, 267 U.S. 185, 45 S.Ct. 256, 69 L.Ed. 566. The proceeding at bar is a second petition for mandamus, filed pursuant to an amendment of the act made February 13, 1929, c. 182, 45 Stat. 1166, which authorized a claimant thereunder to 'petition the Supreme Court of the District Court of Columbia to review the final decision of the Secretary of the Interior upon any question of law which has arisen or which may hereafter arise in the adjustment, liquidation and payment of his claim under said Acts.'
The corporation sought in the second petition for mandamus, as in the first, to compel the Secretary to consider, in determining the amount of net losses, interest payable on borrowed money. The trial court denied the mandamus. Its judgment was reversed by the District Court of Appeals, 60 App.D.C. 62, 47 F. (2d) 424; and in sustaining the reversal, in Wilbur v. United States, 284 U.S. 231, 237, 238, 52 S.Ct. 113, 115, 76 L.Ed. 261, we said: 'The amount of interest that at the time of the passage of the Relief Act March 2, 1919, had been paid or incurred by relator for money borrowed and lost in producing and preparing to produce pyrites upon the specified conditions, is to be taken into account in determining the amount of its net loss as of that date.' Thereupon, the Secretary made an award of $44,451.45, this amoun being, as stated by him, 'the amount of interest that at the time of the passage of the act of Congress of March 2, 1919, had been paid on the obligations incurred by the relator for money borrowed and lost in producing and preparing to produce pyrites * * * and preparing to produce pyrites * * * and for which in justice and equity the relator was entitled to receive reimbursement. * * *'
The corporation insists that there should, as stated, be allowed as part of its net loss, on account of interest payable on borrowed money, the further sum of $524,276.43, and, also, additional amounts which cannot be definitely stated now. The $524,276.43 represents interest paid or accrued between March 2, 1919, and December 31, 1931, growing out of obligations for borrowed money outstanding March 2, 1919. The claim for additional unascertained amounts represents the interest which has accrued on those obligations since December 31, 1931, plus that which will accrue hereafter on such parts thereof as may, from time to time, be outstanding. To enforce this demand, the corporation secured a rule upon the Secretary to show cause why he had not complied with the decree entered pursuant to our decision in the Wilbur case. The Secretary averred that he had fully complied therewith, by allowing all interest paid or accrued to March 2, 1919; and that this was all the interest 'for which in justice and equity the relator was entitled to receive reimbursement from the appropriation made by Congress for the payment of such losses.' The District Court sustained the position of the Secretary. Its judgment was reversed by the Court of Appeals of the District, 61 App.D.C. 324, 62 F.(2d) 863. This Court granted certiorari, 289 U.S. 715, 53 S.Ct. 527, 77 L.Ed. --. We think the District Court was right.