Insurance Co. of North America v. United States

Jones, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion.,of the court:

This is a suit on one of the French Spoliation Claims.

The French Spoliation claims grew out of the depredations of French cruisers upon our commerce, and from the judgments of French prize courts. These claims could have been enforced, against France only by our Government;either through diplomacy or through a declaration of war.1

France claimed that the United States had violated a previous treaty which in return for help rendered to the United States had given to France certain exclusive privileges in merchant commerce; that the United…