A claim for property accidentally destroyed in the bombardment
and burning of a town by the naval forces of the United States is
not of itself within the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims.
Appeal from the Court of Claims dismissing a petition before it
as not
"founded upon any law of Congress, or upon any regulation of an
executive department, or upon
Page 79 U. S. 316
any contract, express or implied, with the government of the
United States,"
confessedly the only cases in which the court, by the statutes
creating it, has jurisdiction.
MR. JUSTICE CLIFFORD stated the case and delivered the judgment
of this Court.
The petitioners alleged in the court below that they were
naturalized citizens of the United States; that just before the
13th of July, 1854, they arrived at San Juan del Norte, or
Greytown, possessed of a valuable invoice of merchandise, with the
intention of establishing a commercial house in some part of
Central America; that on that day the town of San Juan was
bombarded and burnt by the United States sloop-of-war
Cyane, and all the merchandise, books, and papers of the
petitioners, together with their personal effects. Appearance was
entered by the Assistant Attorney General, and he demurred to the
petition because it did not set forth facts sufficient to
constitute a cause of action, and the court below sustained the
demurrer and dismissed the petition. Whereupon the petitioners
appealed to this Court and alleged that the decision sustaining the
demurrer was erroneous, but the Court here, inasmuch as the claim
is not one
"founded upon any law of Congress, or upon any regulation of an
executive department, or upon any contract, express or implied,
with the government of the United States,"
concurs in opinion with the Court of Claims and
Affirms the decree dismissing the petition.