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for which the court was constituted. On September 11, 1885, certain strictures, apparently proceeding from the First Comptroller's office, having appeared in the press on the expenditures of the court, Mr. Creswell, who was mentioned as having been partly responsible, addressed to the First Comptroller a letter, in which he took exception to the impugnments, and defended himself and the court. After maintaining that it was the intention of Congress to give him a salary of $8,000 a year, and that this sum was much less than he would have received if a fee had been taxed in each case under section 824 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, he stated that there had been filed in the court 5,751 petitions, claiming in the aggregate $28,000,000, without interest.

While the accounts were suspended a number of the attorneys subscribed to a fund, which they placed in the hands of two persons as trustees, to advance pay "to clerks or other persons" employed by the court, on such security "by pledge or otherwise" as might be obtainable. The attorneys declared that they took this step in the interest of their clients, by whom the expenses must in the end be paid, the statute requiring all expenses to be deducted from the fund before its distribution. Some of the attorneys in New York signed a paper expressing their approval of the employment of the various persons in question.

The question of legal authority was removed by an act of June 2, 1886, by which the proper accounting and disbursing officers of the Treasury were directed to audit and pay the controverted expenses. It appears by a sworn statement of the disbursing officer of the court that the total expenses for three years, exclusive of the compensation of the officers expressly provided for by law, amounted to $341,216.34.3

Mr. Harlan to Mr. Bayard, September 5, 1885. (Letter of the Secretary of State, and response thereto by the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, Washington, 1885.)

224 Stats. at L. 77. It was held that the accounting officers of the Treasury had no authority under this statute to deduct the expenses of the Geneva arbitration from the fund. (Weld v. United States, 23 Court of Claims, 126.)

3 The principal items in this sum were $127,908.48 for assistant counsel, $114,535.42 for printing, and $47,038.01 for clerks, janitors, watchmen, messengers, and charwomen. The register of the court contained, besides the judges, counsel, and clerk, the following persons: Asa P. French, law clerk to judges; W. P. F. Churchill, messenger to judges; W. P. Huxford, deputy clerk; F. E. Chapin, docket clerk; Amos D. Allen journal clerk; Arthur B. Nichols, printing and file clerk; C. S. Cowie, general clerk; A. L. Jackson, messenger in clerk's office; Walker Blaine, assistant counsel; E. Rosis, stenographer to counsel; J. Martin, messenger to counsel; J. F. Goodrich, auditor and insurance expert; F. D. Lunt, E. E. Tilden, E. G. Goodwin, and George Cowie, assistants in auditor's office; H. Griffin, messenger in auditor's office; J. W. White, H. A. Henriques, G. W. Moore, A. A. Fengar, captains in the United States Revenue Marine, marine experts; H. Conquest Clarke, court reporter; T. Culbertson, marshal; Andrew H. Allen, disbursing agent; A. L. Alexander, janitor; F. Muldoon and Napoleon Bouvet, watchmen; C. A. Clarke, general messenger. Assistant counsel on behalf of the United States, paid by fees, were: Baltimore, A. H. Hobbs; Bangor, C. Hamlin; Boston, Godfrey Morse, W. E.

Work of the Court.

The court adjourned on the 31st of December 1885, the day fixed by law for the termination of its exist

ence.

The work done by the court from its organization on July 12, 1882, to its adjournment on December 31, 1885, was as follows:

First-class (exculpated-cruiser) claims.

Judgments rendered for claimants...

Number of cases docketed ....

Judgments rendered for the United States

Cases dismissed...

Amount recovered in judgments for claimants, principal ..
Amount recovered in judgments for claimants, interest

Total

1,602

994

378

230

$2, 153, 036. 25

...

1, 192, 980. 07

3,346, 016. 32

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Separate judgments were rendered for 10,910 claimants, and the whole number of judgments was 11,377.'

The judgments of the first class were paid in full; Payment of Judgments. and in order that the proportion paid to claimants of the second class might be increased, it was provided by an act of June 2, 1886,2 that to the balance of $9,703,904.89, belonging to the fund proper, there should be added the money derived from premiums on the sale of bonds, making in all the sum of $10,089,004.96. To this sum there was further added the estimated value of the furniture and property of the court. From the aggregate sum so ascertained it was provided that there should be subtracted the expenses of the court actually incurred Spear, Payson E. Tucker, S. H. Phillips, Moses Williams; Charleston, South Carolina, John Wingate; Chicago, R. S. Tuthill; Ellsworth, Maine, H. E. Hamlin; Honolulu, Hawaii, F. P. Hastings; Lewiston, Maine, W. H. White; London, England, E. J. Moffat; New Bedford, C. T. Bonney; New London, Samuel Park; New Orleans, J. S. Whitaker, J. F. Whitaker, C. R. Rice; New York City, G. G. Frelinghuysen, Hamilton Fish, jr., R. H. Strahan, C. C. Suydam, B. Platt Carpenter; Philadelphia, J. H. Heverin; Portland, G. M. Seiders; Portsmouth, New Hampshire, W. Hackett; San Francisco, W. W. Morrow, F. S. Stratton; Savannah, J. O. Ferrill; St. Louis, Eleneious Smith; Wilmington, Delaware, John C. Patterson.

H. Rep. 945, 49 Cong. 1 sess.

224 Stats. at L. 77.

in the transaction of its business and yet to be incurred by closing up its affairs.'

The rules adopted by the second court were substanRules of Procedure. tially the same as those adopted by the first, with such modifications as circumstances rendered necessary.

The rules of the second court were as follows:

"I. The clerk of the court is directed to file of record all claims which may be transmitted to him, and to enter the same on the docket in the order of time in which they may be received.

"Claims transmitted by mail may be addressed to 'D. W. Fessenden, esq., clerk of the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, Washington, D. C.'

"II. All claims must be verified by the affidavit of the claimant, and filed in this court at or before 12 m. of the 14th day of January 1883, or where good reason can be shown for a failure of the claimant to verify his own claim, then by someone on his behalf.

"III. Every claim shall be stated in a petition addressed to the court and signed by the claimant or his attorney.

"The petition shall set forth

"1st. The title of the case, with the full Christian names and surnames of all the claimants, the places and times of their birth, and the places of their residence between the 13th day of April 1861 and the 9th day of April 1865, both inclusive.

"If any of the claimants be naturalized citizens, an authenticated certifi cate of their naturalization shall be appended to the petition, and the petition shall also state whether the claimants, or any of them, have been naturalized in any other country than the United States, and if not so naturalized, whether any and what steps have been taken toward being so naturalized.

"2d. A plain and concise statement of the facts and circumstances, giving place and date, free from argument, and stating all assignments and transfers, whether in whole or in part; also whether the claimant, or anyone on his behalf has received any sum or thing of value by way of compensation, indemnity, dividend, set-off or otherwise upon his claim, and if so, from whom, when, and the specific amount in each case; and further that the claimant at all times during the period included within the dates herein before named in this rule, bore true allegiance to the United States. "3d. The prayer, in which the claimant shall state distinctly the amount of the actual loss or damage for which he asks judgment, the class under which he claims, and the date from which he claims interest thereon.

"The claimant shall also give the post-office address of himself and of his attorney; and may append to his petition, as exhibits, the instruments or documents to which it refers, but shall not insert the same in the body of

When the act of June 2, 1886, was passed, several new bills were pending before Congress in relation to the distribution of the Geneva award. One of these bills proposed to provide for the arrangement and printing of the opinions of the court in the several controverted cases. Another proposed that the payment of judgments should be made to insolvents in certain cases, instead of to their assignees. Yet other bills proposed to create a new court and a new fund, out of which a new class of claimants should be paid. All these proposed measures failed to pass. (H. Rep. 945, 49 Cong. 1 Sess.)

2 It was held to be insufficient under this rule for the claimant to allege that neither he, his assigns, nor his legal representatives had "received, at any time or in any way, compensation or indemnity for the loss of said effects from any insurance company, insurer, or otherwise."

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the petition. Immediately upon the filing of any petition, fifty copies of the same and the accompanying documents shall be printed in octavo form, under the direction of the clerk, for the use of the court and counsel. "Claimants must file separate petitions under each of the classes of claims named in section 5 of the act entitled, ‘An act reestablishing the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, and for the distribution of the unappropriated moneys of the Geneva award,' approved June 5, 1882; but any number of claims by the same person, coming under the same class, may be included in the same petition.

"IV. Parties having a common interest, growing out of the destruction of the same vessel or its cargo may unite in one petition for the recovery of their respective claims, which may be heard together, but separate judgments shall be rendered in the case of each claimant.

"V. Any person of good moral character admitted to practice as attorney or counsel in the supreme court of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, or in any of the Federal courts, on filing with the clerk a written statement of the date and place of such admission, with his name and post-office address in full, may, on motion, be admitted to practice in this court.

"VI. It shall not be necessary for the United States to deny specially, in writing, the validity of any claim; but a general denial of every claim thall be entered of record by the clerk as of course, and thereby every material allegation shall be considered as put in issue by the United States.

"Objections as to the law of the case may be raised by the United States at any stage of the proceedings by demurrer, stating the grounds of such objections with reasonable certainty.

"VII. Testimony to be used in this court may be taken before a commissioner empowered by any circuit or district court of the United States to take testimony, on a rule entered of record in this court for that purpose by either party in any pending case, provided twenty days' notice be given to the adverse party; but nothing herein contained shall prevent the taking of testimony before any other person, with the leave of this court, nor prevent counsel from accepting, by agreement in writing, a shorter notice than twenty days.2

"VIII. It shall be the duty of the counsel of the claimant, at least ten days before the day of hearing, to file with the clerk of the court fifty copies of a brief (printed in octavo form) of the argument in behalf of the claimant.3

"IX. Claims supported by printed or written testimony shall be first heard in the order in which they stand on the docket, unless otherwise specifically ordered by the court; and afterward those claims shall be heard in support of which the claimant may desire to introduce oral testimony.

"X. In cases where the amount claimed exceeds the sum of one thousand dollars, the claimant shall be at the expense of printing his own brief and testimony. In cases not exceeding that amount, the printing shall be done under the direction of the clerk of the court, at the expense of the United States.

1 November 16, 1882, this rule was amended by substituting "sixty-five" for "fifty."

It has been held that section 823 of the Revised Statutes of the United States limiting the compensation of commissioners to take testimony is inapplicable to a commissioner appointed by the Alabama claims court. (Powers v. Manning, 154 Mass. 370, 28 N. E. 290.)

3 November 16, 1882, this rule was amended so as to read: "It shall be the duty of the counsel of the claimant, at least ten days before the day of hearing, to file with the clerk of the court sixty-five copies of a brief (printed in octavo form) of the argument in behalf of the claimant, and a like number of copies of the testimony."

"XI. The time to be occupied in the oral arguments of counsel shall be regulated by the rule in force in the Supreme Court of the United States.

XII. Whenever any deposition or documents shall have been filed in any case before this court, either party to any other case may use such testimony on the hearing thereof: Provided, That the party so desiring to use such testimony in a case in which the same was not originally taken shall file a notice in the case in which such testimony is sought to be used five days before the hearing thereof of his intention so to do, specifying therein particularly the depositions or documents sought to be used and the case or cases in which the same were originally taken.

"XIII. In the case of any claimant who may be absent from the United States at the time of the making, or of presenting, his petition, such petition may be presented and verified by the attorney in fact of such claimant, or by any agent specially authorized thereto, or by any person acting as agent or next friend; but in every case of a petition filed without precedent authority specifically given, the court will require subsequent ratification of such petition or claim by the claimant.

"Such agency or ratification shall, in every case, be duly established by proof to the satisfaction of the court."

On the 6th of October 1882 the court adopted the following additional rules:

"XIV. All attorneys admitted to practice in the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, as created under the law of Congress, approved June 23, A. D. 1874, will be recognized as attorneys in this court, reestablished under the law of Congress, approved June 5, 1882.

"XV. Attorneys for admission to practice in this court, besides complying with the other requirements of the rules, must be present when a motion is made for their admission."

On the 20th of November 1882 the court ordered that "in printing testimony the formal parts of documentary evidence upon which no question arises may be omitted, the counsel agreeing thereto by a written instrument to be filed in the case." On the 1st of November 1883 the clerk of the court issued a circular letter containing minute directions as to printing, so as to secure uniformity; and on the 20th of March 1884 he issued a further circular on the subject.

On the 5th of June 1883 the court adopted the following instructions to commissioners employed to take testimony:

"COURT OF COMMISSIONERS OF ALABAMA' CLAIMS,

"June 5, 1883.

"Ordered, That the clerk of this court be, and he is hereby, directed to issue the following instructions to commissioners appointed and authorized to take testimony to be used in the trial of causes pending before it, viz:

"First. That so soon as the testimony taken in any case in which the sum claimed is one thousand dollars or less shall have been concluded by such commissioner he shall forthwith cause the same to be carefully enveloped, sealed up, and properly indorsed with the number of the case, and promptly forwarded by the United States mail, or other safe conveyance, to the clerk of this court.

"Second. That in any case in which the sum claimed is more than one thousand dollars, when the testimony shall have been so taken and printed under the supervision of such commissioner, at the expense of claimant,

June 9, 1885, the court ordered, "That, hereafter, all motions or papers of any kind, in adjudicated cases, shall be presented by the attorneys of record in such cases, or by some attorney of this court in their behalf, in open court, and be approved by the court before the clerk is authorized to file the same."

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