United States Court of Claims

The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims (67 Stat. 226), and abolished in 1982. At that time, its jurisdiction was assumed by the newly created United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and United States Claims Court (96 Stat. 25), which was later renamed the Court of Federal Claims.

Before the Court of Claims was established, monetary claims against the federal government were normally submitted through petitions to Congress. By the time of the Court's creation, this workload had become unwieldy, so Congress gave the Court jurisdiction to hear all monetary claims based upon a law, a regulation, or a federal government contract. The Court was required to report its findings to Congress and to prepare bills for payments to claimants whose petitions were approved by the Court; since only Congress was constitutionally empowered to make appropriations, Congress still had to approve these bills and reports, but it usually did so pro forma.

The Court originally had three judges, who were given lifetime appointments. The judges were authorized to appoint commissioners to take depositions and issue subpoenas. The federal government was represented in the Court by a solicitor appointed by the President.

History

Establishment of the Court

The Court of Claims was established in 1855 to adjudicate certain claims brought against the United States government by veterans of the Mexican–American War. Initially, the court met at Willard's Hotel, from May to June of 1855, thereafter moving to the U.S. Capitol. There, the court met in the Supreme Court's chamber in the basement of the Capitol, until it was given its space to use.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress asked that the court be given the power to issue final judgments. Congress granted this power with the Act of March 3, 1863, and explicitly made the judgments appealable to the Supreme Court. However, it also modified the law governing the Court so that its reports and bills were sent to the Department of the Treasury rather than directly to Congress. The moneys to cover these costs were then made a part of the appropriation for the Treasury Department.

The conflict inherent between these two provisions was made manifest when in 1864, the decision in Gordon v. United States was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied that it had jurisdiction, because the decisions of the Court of Claims, hence any appeals, were subject to review by an executive department. Less than a year later, Congress passed a law removing review of the Court of Claims from the Treasury Department.

Passage of the Tucker Act

In 1887, Congress passed the Tucker Act (24 Stat. 505), which further restricted the claims that could be submitted directly to Congress, requiring that these claims instead be submitted to the Court of Claims. It broadened the court's jurisdiction so that “claims founded upon the Constitution” could be heard. In particular, this meant that monetary claims based on takings under the eminent domain clause of the Fifth Amendment could be brought before the Court of Claims. The Tucker Act also opened the Court to tax refund suits.

Depredations against American shipping committed by the French during the Quasi-War of 1793 to 1800 led to claims against France that were relinquished by the terms of the Treaty of 1800. Since the claims against France were no longer valid, claimants continually petitioned Congress for the relief that had been waived by the treaty. It wasn’t until January 20, 1885 that a law was passed, 23 Stat. 283, that provided for consideration of the matter before the Court of Claims. The lead case, Gray v. United States, 21 Ct. Cl. 340, written by Judge John Davis, includes a complete discussion of the historical and political circumstances which led to the hostilities between the United States and France and their resolution by treaty. The cases, termed "French Spoliation Claims", continued in the court until 1915.

In 1925, Congress changed the structure of the Court of Claims by authorizing the Court to appoint seven commissioners who were empowered to hear evidence in judicial proceedings and report on findings of fact. The judges of the Court of Claims would then serve as a board of review for the commissioners.

In 1932, Congress reduced the salary of the judges of the Court of Claims as part of the Legislative Appropriation Act of 1932. Thomas Sutler Williams was one of the judges of the Court, and he sued the federal government, claiming that his salary could not be cut because the Constitution specified that judicial salaries could not be reduced. The Supreme Court ruled on Williams v. United States in 1933, deciding that the Court of Claims was an Article I or legislative court, and that therefore Congress had the authority to reduce the salaries of the judges of the Court of Claims.

Beginning in 1948, Congress directed that when directed by the court, the commissioner could make recommendations for conclusions of law (62 Stat. 976). Chief Judge Wilson Cowen made this mandatory under the court rules in 1964.

Elevation to Article III status

In 1953, Congress passed a law which converted the Court of Claims into an Article III court. That act also raised the number of commissioners to 15. In spite of this Congressional statement of the Court's status, when Judge J. Warren Madden was sitting by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, one of the parties asked that the decision be thrown out, on the basis that Madden wasn't a valid judge in that court. On appeal, the Supreme Court, in Glidden Co. v. Zdanok, held that the Court of Claims was a proper constitutional, Article III, court and that its judges could sit by designation and assignment on other courts. Ironically, the judges could no longer sit on Congressional reference cases because of this change, since an independent court could not act in an advisory role to Congress. The solution, enacted by Congress in 1966, was to have the trial judges hear the cases upon assignment by the chief judge of the trial division.

Two more judges were added to the court in 1966, bringing the total to seven.

Congress terminated the Indian Claims Commission in 1978 and required that any pending cases be transferred to the Court of Claims. Of the 170 cases so transferred many were complicated longstanding accounting claims that had been before the Commission for years. One of the most famous of these cases was United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians, which ultimately reached the Supreme Court. Aside from its large judgment awarded to the Sioux, the case also featured interesting questions about judicial power and the ability of Congress to waive the Federal government's legal defense of res judicata to allow a claim to be judicially determined.

Abolition

In 1982, Congress abolished the court, transferring its trial level jurisdiction to the newly created United States Claims Court (which is now known as the United States Court of Federal Claims) and its appellate jurisdiction to the equally new United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. By this time, the Court had expanded to have seven judges; they were transferred to the Federal Circuit.

Judges

Following is a list of judges who have served on the United States Court of Claims up to the merger of the Court into the Federal Circuit.

Judge	Began active service	Ended active service	Appointed by
Isaac Newton Blackford	1855	1859	Franklin Pierce
John James Gilchrist	1855	1858	Franklin Pierce
George Parker Scarburgh	1855	1861	Franklin Pierce
Edward G. Loring	1858	1877	James Buchanan
James Hughes	1860	1864	James Buchanan
Joseph Casey	1861	1870	Abraham Lincoln
Ebenezer Peck	1863	1878	Abraham Lincoln
David Wilmot	1863	1868	Abraham Lincoln
Charles Cooper Nott, Sr.	1865	1916	Abraham Lincoln
Samuel Milligan	1868	1874	Andrew Johnson
Charles Daniel Drake	1870	1885	Ulysses Grant
William Adams Richardson	1874	1896	Ulysses Grant
John Chandler Bancroft Davis	1877 1882	1881 1883	Rutherford B. Hayes Chester A. Arthur
William H. Hunt	1878	1881	Rutherford B. Hayes
Glenni William Scofield	1881	1891	James A. Garfield
Lawrence Weldon	1883	1905	Chester A. Arthur
John Davis	1885	1902	Chester A. Arthur
Stanton Judkins Peelle	1892	1913	Benjamin Harrison
Charles Bowen Howry	1897	1928	Grover Cleveland
Francis Marion Wright	1903	1905	Theodore Roosevelt
George Wesley Atkinson	1905	1916	Theodore Roosevelt
Samuel Stebbins Barney	1905	1919	Theodore Roosevelt
Fenton Whitlock Booth	1905	1947	Theodore Roosevelt
Edward Kernan Campbell	1913	1938	Woodrow Wilson
George Eddy Downey	1915	1926	Woodrow Wilson
James Hay	1916	1931	Woodrow Wilson
Samuel Jordan Graham	1919	1951	Woodrow Wilson
John McKenzie Moss	1926	1929	Calvin Coolidge
William Raymond Green	1928	1947	Calvin Coolidge
Nicholas John Sinnott	1928	1929	Calvin Coolidge
Benjamin Horsley Littleton	1929	1966	Herbert Hoover
Thomas Sutler Williams	1929	1940	Herbert Hoover
Richard Smith Whaley	1930	1951	Herbert Hoover
Samuel Estill Whitaker	1939	1967	Franklin D. Roosevelt
John Marvin Jones	1940	1947	Franklin D. Roosevelt
J. Warren Madden	1941	1972	Franklin D. Roosevelt
George Evan Howell	1947	1953	Harry S. Truman
Don Nelson Laramore	1954	1982	Dwight Eisenhower
James Randall Durfee	1960	1977	Dwight Eisenhower
Oscar Hirsh Davis	1962	1982	John F. Kennedy
Linton McGee Collins	1964	1972	Lyndon B. Johnson
Arnold Wilson Cowen	1964	1982	Lyndon B. Johnson
Philip Nichols Jr.	1966	1982	Lyndon B. Johnson
Byron George Skelton	1966	1982	Lyndon B. Johnson
Robert Lowe Kunzig	1971	1982	Richard Nixon
Marion Tinsley Bennett	1972	1982	Richard Nixon
Shiro Kashiwa	1972	1982	Richard Nixon
Daniel Mortimer Friedman	1978	1982	Jimmy Carter
Edward Samuel Smith	1978	1982	Jimmy Carter

See also

• Charles Cooper Nott, Sr., Chief Justice (1896–1905)
• George W. Atkinson, Associate Justice (1905–1916)
• Category:Judges of the United States Court of Claims

References

Books

Journals

Websites