OCR Text |
Show mfoevQ i toe? Matete wl lid 1 jSfSM .Lteefe Sam r . f", v : ! v V Huge sums involved in suits brought against the government in the court of claims at Washington. ' 11 V -rt HERE is a government firing line when f''i,' ' firing Is almost constantly going on &'t iS No blood Is spilled, but Interest is in wMI la- tense always, for It Is shooting fo: i I money big money. Long shots pre I fit dominate. xv " 'B 'n a 1ueer Place for a Tiring lin 'n a 'ormer ar' gall dry. In othei i"2 words, the old abode of the Corcorai 4 gallery, Seventeenth street and Penn iylvanla avenue, Washington, D. C, now houses th United States court of claims; and there nearly ever; day of the court's sessions eminent counsel endeavoi to score a bull's-eye and thereby win for themselves and their clients coin of the realm in sums all the waj from a few thousands to many millions of dollars. Ii is a mighty absorbing and always alluring game, be cause, as a rule, the stakes are high. Competitors are numerous because, if a hit is made, the pay is sure. At the present writing some ninety-nine millions (in fresh crinkly notes of Uncle Sam worth 100 pei cent of each 100 cents) are involved. That is. cases are now pending In the court of claims calling foi $i)8, 730,115. 70 A judgment by the court of claims, unless reversed by the United States Supreme court, is as good as cash. It follows that the priza of prizes in legal circles cir-cles today is some sort of a fairly well substantiated claim against the United States government. Innumerable In-numerable such claims are discovered and made. The cases now pending number more than ten thousand. Needless to say if all or any considerable part of this ninety-nine million dollars is paid it will come out of the United States treasury i. e., out of the pockets of the people of the United State's. There fore, on this firing line tlie people have their repre sontatives, the same consisting of a numerous staff of attorneys retained upon salaries by Uncle Sam. Nominally their chief is the attorney general, gen-eral, but the attorney general in person is engrossed en-grossed with greater matters the construction and enforcement of the greater laws, particularly the antitrust laws. He has very little time to devote to "routine." ! The gentleman in actual charge, therefore, is the "assistant attorney general in charge of the defense of suits against the United States." Under Un-der the present administration this gentleman is Mr. Huston Thompson of Denver, Colo., former classmate at Princeton of President Wilson. Mr. Thompson holds one of the many big submerged Jobs in the government service. This Denver man, the records show, has injected .western hustle into his job. When he came kto the office he found the dockets of the court of claims cluttered up with some twenty-odd thousand thou-sand cases. Now the total is 10,705 cases. The claims run all the way from a few thousand dollars into the millions. They originate for the most part in the numerous contracts made by all departments of the government for the building of battleships, cruisers, and other vessels; the erection erec-tion of public buildings; dredging and Improvement Improve-ment of rivers and harbors; the building and maintenance main-tenance of dams, locks, and seawalls; reclamation projects; construction of dry docks; contracts for army supplies; contracts with mail contractors and railroad companies for carrying mails; claims for the alleged use and infringement of patented devices; and suits where it is contended that an Implied contract exists. In amount the so-called "Divisor case" Is the largest. The railroads are attacking the validity of an executive order issued in 1907 which bases compensation for carrying the mails upon a division divi-sion of the total weight by seven rather than by six. It is a contention that a seven-day week rather than a six-day week was meant in the statute covering railway mail pay. If the government govern-ment loses this case it must pay to the railroads over $40,000,000. One of the. highest dams in the world has produced pro-duced one of the biggest law suits in the world. As is shown by the accompanying picture, this dam is a bigger proposition, as far as height goes, than the United States capitol building with its enormous dome at Washington, D. C. It is the tlain which stores water for the Shoshone irrigation irriga-tion project in Wyoming. The contestants are endeavoring to collect more than SS00.000 in addition to the $1,338,000 allowed under the terms of the contract as interpreted by the United States reclamation service. The original orig-inal contractors went into bankruptcy after the first year's work on the job and the bonding company com-pany behind the contractors took over the contract. con-tract. An unprecedented spring flood in the Shoshone Sho-shone river, accompanied by a run of saw logs from a mill operated a mile or so above the site of the dam. washed out the temporary works which had been stalled preparatory to the construction con-struction of the present concrete dam. It is also alleged that the government made requirements re-quirements not specified in the terms of the original orig-inal contract which necessitated the removal of the foundation of the dam 12 feet upstream. It is sought to fasten on the government responsibility for the run f saw logs and it Is contended that the requirements of the government engineers were unusual and unnecessarily strict. The contentions of the United States, on the other hand, are that neither contractor appreciated appre-ciated the peculiar difficulties of the work undertaken; under-taken; that the plant and material brought on the ground for the performance of the work was conspicuously con-spicuously Inadequate; that the engineers employed em-ployed by the contractors were incompetent and inefficient and not qualified by training and experience experi-ence for the undertaking of such a work; and. in short, that all of the dilliculties encountered grew out of the negligence, inefficiency and improper methodB of the contractors. The claims growing out of naval matters are numerous and large. There Is a device used In manufacturing torpedoes which is known as a "superheater." It is a contrivance whereby fuel J burned in the compressed air driving the motor ,-' fi filial 1 4 fLn vi vv : A- v 4- sTw " tX-.... " - by which the torpedo is propelled, so that the compressed com-pressed air is heated to a high pressure before its energy is utilized. Its use Increases the speed and range of torpedoes. The question now is whether the United States must pay the E. W. Bliss company $500 per torpedo tor-pedo purchased by the United States during the last five years containing this device. The total amount at issue is $225,000. It is an intricate patent pat-ent case, the decision of which depends upon whether patents held by the Bliss company cover the type of "superheater" used in the American torpedo. Litigation over sixteen years old involves the question whether the United States government must disgorge more than $340,000 in addition to the million already paid Jor fhe government dry dock at the League Island Navy yard, Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. The contractor claims he was compelled to make a much greater excavation than was specified in the terms of the contract covering the work. The answer of the government is that the contractor con-tractor did not follow the method recommended by the board of naval engineers, which had studied the matter, and hence was himself responsible and liable for the extra cost. The court of claims has sustained the contractor contrac-tor and the department of justice is now asking the Supreme court to overrule the court of claims. Whatever the government may have to pay for generally is valued at astonishingly high figures. A submarine case involves $400,000. It hinges upon a string of patents on buoyancfe-regulating apparatus for submarine boats. The Electric Boat company is back of the case. It claims "that the invention described and claimed in said several sev-eral letters patent, and each of them, are and have been recognized to be of great utility and value in the construction and operation of submarine boats." The original inventor, Lawrence Y. Spear, assigned his rights to the Submarine Boat company. com-pany. It is carefully pointed out that "Spear was the original, first and sole inventor of the improvements," im-provements," and it is then declared that the United Unit-ed States has used the inventions without license and has neglected and refused to pay royalty. About the right thing for Uncle Sam to do. It is alleged, is to pay the Electric Boat company $100,-000 $100,-000 per submarine boat containing the Spear apparatus. ap-paratus. At the date of the filing of the brief, December De-cember 10, 1915, four Buch boats were in use. The case, however, involves a demand for another $100,000, for each boat built subsequently by the United States in which the inventions are used. Land-grant railroads, under the terms of their charters, are required to carry troops of the United States free. The question ha now come up as to whether the National Guard when transported to the annual maneuvers in various parts of the United States "are troops of the United States." As the test case stands the Southern railroad asks for $2,447.90 for the payment of railway fares for the transportation of officers and men of the Alabama Ala-bama National Guard and the Mississippi National Guard from points in Alabama and Mississippi to the United States military post and camp at Chickamauga Park, Georgia, in 1908 and 1910. When finally disposed of, however, a much larger amount will be involved. It will set a precedent under which, if the Southern railroad Is successful, other of the land-grant railroads will come into court and ask pay for transporting the militia. The established practice of the war and treasury departments is that the organized militia when participating with the regular army at a military camp at joint maneuvers and field instructions are entitled to the pay, subsistence and transportation allowances of the officers and men of the regular army; that said organized troops whan bo transported are traveling under orders of the war department, and paj'ment for their transportation transpor-tation can only be made on the same basis applicable appli-cable to the regular army. This would mean that transportation for militia over land-grant railroads would be subject to the land-grant deductions made for the transportation of regulars. It Is held that the expression, "troops of the United states," as used in land-grant acts is sufficiently broad to include organized militia when traveling under the orders of the war department IT v J, V yr St. f V 1 j-v f"''sirw'""'"""J Issil 1""" ""' I I mews E. j a 3os3r 1 The court of claims has already held that the members of the National Guard do not become "troops of the United States" until they are called out and mustered into the federal service by hi president. Hence, this court has declared that the Southern railroad ought to be paid the extra $2,447.70. To this judgment the department of Justice demurred and is now asking the Supreme court for a review of the case. That little vest-pocket stamp book, with a dozen stamps in it, price 25 cents, is the subject of a lawsuit law-suit in which Uncle Sam is asked to pay more than $1,006,000 damages. It is declared to be royalties roy-alties due the patentee of the stamp-book idea. The case goes back to 1898. In that year, through Senator Penrose, two models of a stamp book patented by Frank G. Farnham, together with a printed pamphlet explanatory of the device, were referred to the then third assistant postmaster general. John A. Merrltt was third assistant at the time and replied that "the department deems it inexpedient to sell postage stamps in the .way proposed. However, after July 1, 1899, the then third assistant postmaster general, Edwin C. Madden, Mad-den, designed without knowledge of the existence of the Farnham patent the stamp book now used by the department. The bureau of engraving engrav-ing and printing evolved methods for its manufacture manu-facture and the post office department began the public sale of two-cent stamps in book form. Farnham wants the alleged profits of the government gov-ernment on the sale of the stamp books during the ten-year period from 1900 to 1910. The governments govern-ments sells 12 two-cent stamps for a quarter, charging one cent for the book. The contention is that the profits on the sale sf the books during the ten years have exceeded a million dollars. Farnham's attorneys have appealed to the Supreme Su-preme court, where a final decision is now expected. Another interesting suit iB that brought by the contractor 'vho constructed lock and dam No. 37, Ohio river, which cost, approximately, $1,250,000. The contractor wants an additional $147,000. This lock and dam is located about ten miles below Cincinnati and at the time of its completion comple-tion about five years ago was the largest movable, as distinguished from the stationary, dam in the world, being .900 feet across the navigable pass alone, with the lock n the Ohio side and three bear traps each 80 feet wide on the Kentucky side of the river. A bear trap consists of two concrete piers or walls with wooden shutters at each end hinged to the bottom of the dam structure. The shutters may be raised or lowered for the purpose of allowing surplus water to escape, thus obviating the continual raising and lowering of the dam proper in the navigable pass. The dam is movable, in that its construction is of Chanoine weirs, which consist of wooden wickets about 18 feet high and 3 feet wide, and are upon hingei substantially fastened to a sill embedded In th concrete foundation extending to bedrock. Whev up during low water the wickets in the navigable pass resemble a high board fence, and vessels then pass through the lock, and when the river rises sufficiently they are lowered and boats pass right over them. The suit grows out of the alleged al-leged misrepresentation by the government of th depth to which the contractor would have to exc vate to bedrock. j |