United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

United States v. Ross, 92 U.S. 281 (1875)

United States v. Ross

92 U.S. 281

Syllabus

1. It is incumbent upon a claimant, under the Captured or Abandoned Property Act, to establish by sufficient proof that the property captured or abandoned came into the hands of a Treasury agent; that it was sold; that the proceeds of the sale were paid into the Treasury of the United States, and that he was the owner of the property, and entitled to the proceeds thereof.

2. Because the claimant's property was captured and sent forward by a military officer, and there is an unclaimed fund in the Treasury derived from sales of property of the same kind, a court is not authorized to conclude, as matter of law, that the property was delivered by that officer to a Treasury agent, that it was sold by the latter, and that the proceeds were covered into the Treasury.

3. The presumption that public officers have done their duty does not supply proof of independent and substantive facts.

APPEAL from the Court of Claims.

Page 92 U. S. 282