Dunbar v. United States
United States Court of Claims
The Reporters’ statement of the case: The grounds of the motion are stated in the opinion of the court. 1. The Committee of the Senate on Claims concluded that the agreement was valid, and so reported on March 2,1866. Two Committees of the Senate on Military Affairs reached the same conclusion, and so reported at subsequent dates. The claimant asserted it by bringing his suit in 1871 in this court for damages, on account of the very breach now complained of.
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The Reporters’ statement of the case: The grounds of the motion are stated in the opinion of the court. 1. The Committee of the Senate on Claims concluded that the agreement was valid, and so reported on March 2,1866. Two Committees of the Senate on Military Affairs reached the same conclusion, and so reported at subsequent dates. The claimant asserted it by bringing his suit in 1871 in this court for damages, on account of the very breach now complained of. The Government admitted it by pleading to the merits. The court adjudicated it by dismissing claimant’s petition because more than six…
1DissentNott, J.
The petition in the former action (19 C. Cls. R., 489) did not contain the allegation, which is the vital element of the present case:
‘!And your petitioner avers that his claim appeals not to strict grounds of law, but to the equitable discretion and good conscience of Congress, because he believed that the stipulations contained in the instrument before mentioned were strictly within the power of the Secretary of War, and he relied upon the representations made to him by the highest executive officer of the Government in the War Department, and in good faith expended large sums of money.…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Langford v. United StatesSupreme Court of the United States · 1880
- Dunbar v. United StatesUnited States Court of Claims · 1884