Strategical Demolition Torpedo Co. v. United States

The plaintiff corporation sues to recover just compensation for the use by the Government of a type of demolition torpedo on which the plaintiff had a patent. The Government moves to dismiss the petition on the ground that the statute giving persons, situated as the plaintiff is, a right to sue, did not become effective until July 17, 1952, and that the plaintiff’s patent had expired before that time. The Government says that the statute had no retroactive effect, and that, therefore, the plaintiff never acquired a right of action.

The plaintiff urges that Congress intended to give the statute…