De Armas v. United States

MADDEN, Judge.

The plaintiff made a contract with the Government to repair East Jetty, Southwest Pass, at the mouth of the Mississippi River. One of the elements of the work was the manufacture and placing of large fascine mattresses of willow poles on the floor of the gulf and of the river, adjacent to the jetty, to prevent the undermining of the jetty by washing. The mattresses were made in large sections, some 200 feet long by 40 feet wide, and, when sunk, were covered by stone of the size which a man could lift, to the amount of 60 pounds on each square foot of the mattresses. Each…