Opinion of the Court.

certificates redeemed by him under the act approved June 16, 1880, the residue of two and thirty-five hundredths per cent per annum of unpaid legal rate interest due upon said certificates from their date up to the date of approval of said act providing for their redemption."

The relator as assignee, by her attorney, made demand upon the Treasurer for the payment of the balance of the interest as provided for in the above act, and on November 3, 1897, the Treasurer refused such demand, and wrote the following letter to the attorney:

"SIR: Your letter of the 27th ultimo, enclosing a petition for the payment of interest on certain board of audit certificates, under the act of Congress approved August 13, 1894, is received.

"You will note that the act referred to provides for additional interest to be paid only upon board of audit certificates redeemed by the Treasurer under the act of June 16, 1880. Neither of the certificates recited in your petition was redeemed by the Treasurer, and they are not in his possession.

"You state that certain judgments of the Court of Claims were issued in lieu of these certificates. These judgments were paid by this office in the manner prescribed by law, but neither of them states that they were issued in lieu of or upon debts of the District of Columbia represented by board of audit certificates.

"The Treasurer has therefore no authority to pay the additional interest you demand."

The foregoing facts were set forth in the petition of the relator to the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia asking for a mandamus to compel the Treasurer to make the payment demanded.

In answer to the petition the Treasurer alleged "that the certain board of audit certificates, so called, in the said petition mentioned, namely, the certificates numbered 8879 and 19,429, were not redeemed by him or any person holding the office of

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Treasurer of the United States at any time, and that the only moneys paid by any Treasurer of the United States on account of any of the matters or things in the said petition mentioned. as having relation to the said certificates, or either of them, were paid upon certain judgments of the Court of Claims of the United States, as appears by the transcript from the records of the Treasury Department of the United States, hereto annexed and made part hereof, and that the defendant has no official knowledge, nor has he any official record in his office, showing or tending to show upon what claim or claims either of the said judgments was based."

Nothing but a transcript of the decree contained in the judgment roll was annexed to the return. The relator demurred to the return, and upon these pleadings the cause came on for hearing before the Supreme Court, which ordered a writ of mandamus to issue as prayed for. Upon appeal to the Court of Appeals that court affirmed the judgment, and the Treasurer applied for and obtained a writ of certiorari for the purpose of procuring a review of the judgment by this court.

Upon reading the return made by the Treasurer to the petition for the writ it will be seen that the facts upon which he bases his defence are that he did not redeem the certificates in question, and that the only moneys paid by any Treasurer of the United States were paid on this judgment of the Court of Claims already mentioned, and that it did not appear in any official record in his office upon what claim or claims the judgment of the Court of Claims was based.

The first question which arises, therefore, on this record is whether the Treasurer did redeem these certificates within the meaning of the act of 1894. The act of 1884 did not prohibit their redemption, for they were in suit under the provisions of section 1 of the act of 1880, long before the passage of the act of 1884, and provision was made in the act of 1880 for the payments of the judgments rendered by the Court of Claims upon presentation to the Secretary of the Treasury of a certified copy of such judgments. That they might be founded upon certificates was immaterial, for it

Opinion of the Court.

cannot be supposed that Congress by the act of 1884 meant to prohibit the payment of certificates which were in suit under the act of 1880, and upon which judgment might thereafter be rendered by the Court of Claims. Full effect can be given to the act of 1884 by confining it to the prohibition of payment of certificates which might, after the year, be presented in that form for payment, leaving the provisions for payment on suit brought under the act of 1880 in full force.

Taking this case as made by the record, we find that it is not disputed that the certificates were issued under the act of 1874, duly signed by the board of audit therein provided for, and delivered (without the consent of Evans) to the authorities of the District upon their unfounded claim that they were entitled to their possession as collateral security as already stated. It is not disputed that an action was commenced in the Court of Claims under the act of 1880 to recover against the District of Columbia upon the certificates, as well as upon other claims against the District. It is not disputed that upon a compromise made, all other causes of action were stricken from the petition, that the petition as amended contained a full description of the certificates, and an allegation that they were issued by the board of audit under the act. of 1874, and that judgment was recovered upon such certificates, and upon them only, and for their payment pursuant to the act of 1874, and that pursuant to that judgment the Treasurer paid the amount thereof, together with interest on the certificates from the date of their issue in 1874 to September 11, 1890, the day before their payment.

Upon these facts we have no doubt that the certificates were redeemed within the meaning of the act of 1894. At the time of the judgment in the Court of Claims they were in the hands of the plaintiff in the action mentioned and were valid instruments in his hands, and his sole cause of action was based upon them, and the judgment entered by the Court of Claims necessarily declared their validity and the right of plaintiff to have the same paid as stated in the judgment. When the Treasurer subsequently paid that judgment, did he not therein and thereby redeem these certificates? If the certificates

Opinion of the Court.

themselves had been presented to the Treasurer and he had paid them, they would then, of course, have been redeemed. Were they any the less redeemed because an action had been brought upon them and the court had declared their validity and directed their payment, by a judgment duly entered to that effect, which judgment was subsequently paid by the Treasurer? Such payment, it seems to us, was a redemption of the certificates within the meaning of the act.

The evident purpose of the act of 1894 was to give the balance of interest between 3.65 and 6 per cent to those persons, or their assignees, to whom certificates had been given and the interest upon which had been paid only at the former rate. In all such cases where the certificates had been redeemed by the Treasurer, the additional interest was to be paid, and we cannot doubt that under this act the certificates were redeemed when paid by the Treasurer by virtue of the judgment which had been recovered on them and which was directed to be paid pursuant to the act of 1874. The act of 1894 did not limit the payment to those who had succeeded in exchanging their certificates for bonds bearing interest at the rate of 3.65 per cent. It was through no fault of the holders of these particular certificates that they had not been exchanged for such bonds, but the exchange had not been effected because the authorities of the District improperly retained custody of them, and refused to deliver them to their rightful owner.

The act of 1894 plainly relates to and speaks of the certificates which had been redeemed under the act of 1880, and these certificates had been so redeemed.

The further objection made by the Treasurer, that he had in his office no official record showing or tending to show upon what claim or claims the judgment of the Court of Claims was based, is, under the admitted facts in this case, wholly immaterial.

The judgment roll in the action is of record in the Court of Claims, and that roll showed precisely and in detail that the judgment was recovered upon those specific certificates, and upon nothing else, and when the Treasurer pays such judgment there is thus record evidence that he has paid the certificates

Opinion of the Court.

mentioned in the judgment roll, upon which certificates the judgment itself was recovered.

This is all the defence upon the facts that is made to the issuing of the writ so far as appears by the return made by the Treasurer to the application for mandamus, but upon the argument in this court the further objection was taken that the relator was not such an assignee as was within the contemplation of the act of 1894, because, as was stated, she was not such assignee at the time of the payment of the certifi cates made by the Treasurer.

It is somewhat late to raise this defence, but we think there is nothing in the objection. These certificates had been paid at the rate of interest of 3.65 only, and the act of 1894 intended to give to those people who were their original. owners, or who had become assignees of such owners, although subsequent to the payment of the certificates, the right to recover this additional interest. But if the act were construed as intending to provide for the payment of interest to those persons who were the owners of the certificates at the time when they were redeemed, it could not with any force be argued that such persons might not assign their claim to the balance of the interest provided for in the act of 1894 after the passage of that act. Hence if the defendant had set up in his return any such objection, it might have been obviated by proof that the owners of the certificates when redeemed had after the passage of the act of 1894 assigned their right to the interest mentioned therein to the relator. The Treasurer made no such objection to payment, either in his letter to the attorney for the relator before this proceeding was commenced, or in his return herein. The right of relator, as assignee, has been admitted, and the Treasurer placed his objections on grounds altogether different.

The remaining and most important objection is that this is not a case in which the writ of mandamus can properly be issued to one of the executive officers of the government.

The law relating to mandamus against a public officer is well settled in the abstract, the only doubt which arises being whether the facts regarding any particular case bring it within