A judgment of the Court of Claims, under the Act of June 16,
1880, c. 243, in favor of the claimant, against the District of
Columbia upon a certificate of the Board of Audit of the District,
in an action commenced in 1880, is not affected by the provision in
the Act of July 5, 1884, c. 227, forbidding the payment of such
certificates, not presented for payment within one year from the
date of the passage of the latter act.
The evident purpose of the Act of August 13, 1804, c. 279, was
to give the balance of interest upon the certificates between 3.65
and 6 percent to the original holders of the certificates, or their
assignees, the interest upon which had been paid only at the former
rate.
The right of the relator as assignee having been admitted, it is
no longer open to inquiry.
If a public officer of the United States refuses to perform a
mere ministerial duty, imposed upon him by law, mandamus will lie
to compel him to do his duty.
In this case, as the duty of the Treasurer of the United States
to pay the money in question was ministerial in its nature, and
should have been performed by him on demand; mandamus was the
proper remedy for failure to do so.
The case is stated in the opinion.
Page 176 U. S. 222
MR. JUSTICE Peckham delivered the opinion of the Court.
A writ of certiorari was issued in this case to the Court of
Appeals of the District of Columbia for the purpose of reviewing a
judgment of that court affirming a judgment of the Supreme Court of
the District, which awarded to the relator, Marie A. Valentine, a
writ of mandamus to compel the petitioner, who is the Treasurer of
the United States, to pay her, as assignee, a residue of 2.35
percentum interest upon certain certificates issued by the Board of
Audit of the District of Columbia pursuant to the provisions of
section 6 of the Act approved June 20, 1874, entitled "An Act for
the government of the District of Columbia, and for Other
Purposes." 18 Stat. 116, 118, c. 337.
The facts upon which the controversy arises are uncontradicted,
and are as follows: one Charles E. Evans, who, previous to 1874,
had done a large amount of work for the District in laying concrete
and brick pavements in the City of Washington, duly presented his
claims on that account to the Board of Audit constituted under the
act above mentioned, which board, after an examination of such
claims, executed on the first of August, 1874, the two certificates
which form the basis of the claim of the relator, each certificate
being dated on that day, one of which acknowledged an indebtedness
to him on the part of the District of Columbia of $19,616.25 and
the other $909.40. They were not, however, delivered to Evans,
because at the time they were made a claim had been set up by the
authorities of the District that Evans was liable for the expense
of repairs which were needed on pavements laid by him (which claim,
however, as it afterwards appeared, was not well founded), and the
Board of Audit, instead of delivering the certificates to Evans,
withheld them from him, and at or about their date delivered them
to the commissioners of the District, who held them as collateral
security for the payment of any liability of Evans for the repairs
mentioned. They remained from August, 1874, until June 9, 1890, in
a
Page 176 U. S. 223
tin box in the office of the Treasurer of the United States, who
held it and its contents subject to the control of the
commissioners of the District.
By reason of this refusal to deliver the certificates and their
retention in the hands of the Treasurer, Evans was unable to avail
himself of the right given by the act of 1874 to exchange such
certificates for the 3.65 bonds mentioned in that act, and for the
same reason he was unable to avail himself of the provisions of
section 9 of the Act approved June 16, 1880 (21 Stat. 284, c. 243),
providing for the redemption of the certificates created by the act
of 1874. An action was therefore commenced in December, 1880, in
the Court of Claims by the assignee of Evans to recover judgment
against the District of Columbia upon those certificates, under the
provisions of section 1 of the above act of 1880. In this action,
in addition to the claims upon the certificates already mentioned,
Fisher, the assignee, included a large amount of other claims
against the District, which had also been assigned to him by
Evans.
In 1884, Congress passed an Act, approved July 5, 1884, 23 Stat.
123, 131, c. 227, providing that no payment should be made of any
certificate issued under the act of 1874 that should not be
presented for payment within one year from the date of the approval
of the act of 1884.
After its commencement (the certificates still remaining in the
custody of the Treasurer), the action above mentioned continued
pending until sometime during the December term, 1889, of the Court
of Claims, when the executors of the will of Fisher, the assignee,
were substituted as parties plaintiff in the action upon the
suggestion of the death of Fisher having been duly made upon the
record, and the action was revived in the names of the executors of
Fisher's will.
In June, 1890, a settlement of that action was agreed upon, by
the terms of which the two certificates were to be delivered to the
plaintiffs, and the other matters in dispute therein were to be
withdrawn from the court by the discontinuance of the action.
Pursuant to that settlement and on June 9, 1890, under the advice
of the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the case, the
certificates were delivered to the plaintiff's
Page 176 U. S. 224
attorney, who thereupon presented them to the Treasurer and
requested him, in his capacity as
ex officio commissioner
of the sinking fund of the District of Columbia, to issue in
exchange for them the 3.65 bonds authorized by the act of Congress
of 1874. The Treasurer refused to redeem the certificates or to
issue bonds for the payment thereof, or in any way to pay the same,
until the parties had obtained a judgment in the Court of Claims in
the action already mentioned, which should provide for their
payment. Accordingly, the plaintiffs in that action asked and
obtained leave to amend their petition by striking out all
reference to any other causes of action than those upon these two
certificates. The amendment was consented to by the Assistant
Attorney General, and on June 12, 1890, a judgment was duly
obtained in favor of plaintiffs and against the District of
Columbia for the recovery, "in the manner provided by the Act of
June 16, 1880, chapter 243," of the sums mentioned in the
certificates. The judgment roll in the case contained the petition
in which these particular certificates were set out in full, and it
showed that the judgment entered by the Court of Claims was
recovered on those certificates and on them alone. There was thus
evidence on record which showed the cause of action on which the
judgment was based. On September 12, 1890, the Treasurer paid these
certificates with interest from their date, August 1, 1874, to
September 11, 1890 at 3.65 percentum, by paying the judgment
entered by the Court of Claims. Subsequently to that time the
executors of Fisher, the assignee of Evans, assigned to one
Robinson all interest in the claims and demands against the
District, and Robinson subsequently assigned the same to the
relator. Thus, some sixteen years after the certificates had been
duly made under the authority of the act of 1874 they were finally
redeemed, the delay having been caused by their retention as above
section of which reads as follows: deliver them to their owner.
On August 13, 1894, Congress passed an act, 28 Stat. 277, c.
279, the first section of which reads as follows:
"That the Treasurer of the United States is hereby directed to
pay to the owners, holders, or assignees of all Board of Audit
Page 176 U. S. 225
certificates redeemed by him under the Act approved June 16,
1880, the residue of two and thirty-five hundredths percentum 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
Page 176 U. S. 226
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 defense 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 payment 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
Page 176 U. S. 227
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
Page 176 U. S. 228
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 percentum 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 percentum. 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
Page 176 U. S. 229
mentioned in the judgment roll, upon which certificates the
judgment itself was recovered.
This is all the defense 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 certificates made by the Treasurer.
It is somewhat late to raise this defense, 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
Page 176 U. S. 230
the law which permits the writ to issue where a mere ministerial
duty is imposed upon an executive officer, which duty he is bound
to perform without any further question. If he refuse under such
circumstances, mandamus will lie to compel him to perform his duty.
This is the principle upheld by this Court in
United States v.
Black, 128 U. S. 40, and
upon the authority of that case, the defendant claims that no
mandamus can be issued against him.
The writ was refused in the
Black case because, as the
Court held, the decision which was demanded from the Commissioner
of Pensions required of him, in the performance of his regular
duties as commissioner, the examination of several acts of
Congress, their construction, and the effect which the later acts
had upon the former, all of which required the exercise of judgment
to such an extent as to take his decision out of the category of a
mere ministerial act. A decision upon such facts, the Court said,
would not be controlled by mandamus. The circumstances under which
a party has the right to the writ are examined in the course of the
opinion, which was delivered by Mr. Justice Bradley, and many cases
upon the subject are therein cited, and the result of the
examination was as just stated.
In this case, the facts are quite different. There is but one
act of Congress to be examined, and it is specially directed to the
Treasurer. We think its construction is quite plain and
unmistakable. It directs the Treasurer to pay the interest on the
certificates which had been redeemed by him, and the only question
for him to determine was whether these certificates had been
redeemed within the meaning of that act. That they were we have
already attempted to show, and the duty of the Treasurer seems to
us to be at once plain, imperative, and entirely ministerial, and
he should have paid the interest as directed in the statute.
This case comes within the exception stated in the
Black case that where a special statute imposes a mere
ministerial duty upon an executive officer, which he neglects or
refuses to perform, then mandamus lies to compel its performance;
but the court will not interfere with the executive officers of
Page 176 U. S. 231
the government in the exercise of their ordinary official
duties, even when those duties require an interpretation of the
law, the court having no appellate power for that purpose. On this
last ground, the Court denied the writ.
Unless the writ of mandamus is to become practically valueless,
and is to be refused even where a public officer is commanded to do
a particular act by virtue of a particular statute, this writ
should be granted. Every statute to some extent requires
construction by the public officer whose duties may be defined
therein. Such officer must read the law, and he must therefore, in
a certain sense, construe it, in order to form a judgment from its
language what duty he is directed by the statute to perform. But
that does not necessarily and in all cases make the duty of the
officer anything other than a purely ministerial one. If the law
direct him to perform an act in regard to which no discretion is
committed to him, and which, upon the facts existing, he is bound
to perform, then that act is ministerial, although depending upon a
statute which requires, in some degree, a construction of its
language by the officer. Unless this be so, the value of this writ
is very greatly impaired. Every executive officer whose duty is
plainly devolved upon him by statute might refuse to perform it,
and when his refusal is brought before the court, he might
successfully plead that the performance of the duty involved the
construction of a statute by him, and therefore it was not
ministerial, and the court would on that account be powerless to
give relief. Such a limitation of the powers of the court, we
think, would be most unfortunate, as it would relieve from judicial
supervision all executive officers in the performance of their
duties whenever they should plead that the duty required of them
arose upon the construction of a statute, no matter how plain its
language, nor how plainly they violated their duty in refusing to
perform the act required.
In this case, we think the proper construction of the statute
was clear, and the duty of the Treasurer to pay the money to the
relator was ministerial in its nature, and should have been
performed by him upon demand.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals must be
Affirmed.