THESE were three motions: the first two to dismiss appeals from the Court of Claims, one in the case of Adams, and one in the case of Johnson; the third, in the case of Clark, a motion for a certiorari designed to require that court to make a more extended statement of the evidence on which they had made a particular finding. The motion in the first two cases resting on more grounds than one; in the third, on one ground only.
To understand the cases well, it is necessary to refer to the statutes and rules which regulate appeals from the Court of Claims. An act of March 3, 1863, provides that 'either party may appea to this court, &c., where the amount in controversy exceeds $3000, under such regulations as the said Supreme Court may direct: Provided, That such appeal shall be taken within ninety days after the rendition of such judgment or decree.'At the December Term, 1865, the Supreme Court prescribed certain regulations by which appeals might be taken.
The first rule prescribes that the Court of Claims shall make a finding of the ultimate facts or propositions which the evidence shall establish, in the nature of a special verdict, and not the evidence on which these ultimate facts are founded, and also conclusions of law, which findings of fact and conclusions of law shall be certified to the Supreme Court as part of the record.
The third rule prescribes that 'in all cases an order of allowance of appeal by the Court of Claims, or the chief justice thereof, in vacation, is essential, and the limitation of time for granting such appeal shall cease to run from the time an application is made for the allowance of appeal.'
The forty-eighth rule of the Court of Claims provides that 'whenever such application for an appeal is made in vacation, the same shall be filed with the clerk of this court, and such filing shall be deemed the date of the application for an appeal.'
The act of March 3, 1863, provides 'that the said Court of Claims shall hold one annual session, commencing on the first Monday in October in each year, and continuing as long as may be necessary for the prompt disposition of the business of the court;' and an act of March 17, 1866, 'that the regular session of the Court of Claims shall hereafter commence on the first Monday of December, in each year.'
In this state of statutes and rules, judgment was rendered by the Court of Claims in the case of Adams in his favor on the 19th March, and in the case of Johnson, on the 25th. The court adjourned on the 20th of May to the 25th of June. On the 10th of June the solicitor of the United States for the Court of Claims, Mr. Norton, filed in the office of the clerk, a paper, in the case of Adams, of which the following is a copy: Theodore Adams v. The United States.
1886.
The United States, by E. P. Norton, its solicitor, makes application to the Honorable Court of Claims for an appeal of the case of Theodore Adams v. The United States, to the Supreme Court of the United States.
E. P. NORTON,
Solicitor for the United States.
A similar paper was filed in the case of Johnson, at the same time. On the first day that the court was in actual session, to wit, on the 25th day of June, the solicitor moved for an allowance of these appeals, and on the next day the court made an order allowing them. The order was thus made more than ninety days after the judgments were rendered.
In these two cases, therefore, grounds of motion to dismiss were:
1. Because the appeal must be taken within ninety days after the rendition of the decree, and in this case the said period has elapsed.
2. Because the taking of an appeal in cases decreed by the Court of Claims consists of two things: 1st. Of an application for an appeal, which may be made to the court in term time, or by filing an application in the method prescribed by the rules when made in vacation. 2d. Of an allowance of the appeal so applied for by the court, and that both the application for and the allowance of the appeal must be made within the said term of ninety days from the rendition of the decree.
3. Because the application made for an appeal in this case, and filed in the clerk's office June 10, 1867, is irregular and void, having been made in term time, and not in vacation, as contemplated by the rules of court.
And in all three of the cases an additional ground was assigned, viz.:
That the record had not been made up and settled, as the first rule of the Supreme Court, made at December Term, 1865, required.