1. Where the answer of an officer to a petition for a mandamus
shows clearly that the claim sought to be enforced was considered
and denied by him, the writ, if granted on demurrer to the answer,
cannot be sustained as merely requiring that he take jurisdiction
to decide the claim.
See P.
267 U. S.
186.
2. Under § 5 of the Dent Act, a decision of the Secretary of the
Interior that interest paid on capital borrowed is not part of the
net losses incurred by a claimant for and in the production of
mineral is a discretionary decision not reviewable by mandamus.
Work v. Rives, ante, p.
267 U. S. 175. P.
267 U. S.
187.
54 App.D.C. 380, 298 F. 839, reversed.
Appeal from a judgment in the Court of Appeals of the District
of Columbia which affirmed a judgment of the Supreme Court of the
District, in mandamus, requiring
Page 267 U. S. 186
the Secretary of the Interior to consider and allow a claim for
interest under the Dent Act.
MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TAFT, delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an appeal under § 250 of the Judicial Code, par. 6, from
a writ of mandamus compelling the Secretary of the Interior to
consider and allow a claim of the Chestatee Pyrites & Chemical
Corporation, under § 5 of the Dent Act. It presents questions very
similar to those heard in
Work v. United States ex rel. Rives,
ante, p.
267 U. S. 175.
The relator owned a pyrites mine before the war. In compliance
with the request of the government to enlarge its plant to meet the
war necessities, it borrowed the sum of $695,000, on which it
obligated itself to pay interest at the rate of 6 percent per
annum. After three hearings before the Secretary of the Interior,
it was awarded $693,313.79. In making the award, the item of
interest claimed of more than $40,000 on the amount borrowed was
disallowed. The mandamus herein issued to compel the consideration
and allowance of this interest.
It is sought in this case, as it was in the
Rives case,
to avoid the objection that the mandamus would control and restrict
the statutory discretion vested in the Secretary by the averment
that he had not taken jurisdiction of the claim for interest and
had not considered it. This case, like the
Rives case, was
heard on demurrer to the answer, and the answer shows clearly that
the claim for
Page 267 U. S. 187
interest was fully considered by two Secretaries of the Interior
and denied.
The only issue is whether the Secretary had discretion under § 5
finally to determine whether interest paid upon the capital
borrowed is to be considered as part of the net losses incurred by
the relator in preparing for and producing the pyrites. We think he
had.
Great reliance was placed by the courts below on the ruling of
this Court in
United States v. New York, 160 U.
S. 598. That was an appeal from a decision of the Court
of Claims in a case brought by the state of New York against the
United States under a statute of the United States, by which the
Secretary of the Treasury was directed to pay out of any money in
the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the governor of any
state, the costs, charges and expenses properly incurred by such
state for enrolling, subsisting, clothing, supplying, arming,
equipping, paying and transporting its troops employed in aiding to
suppress the insurrection against the United States. It was held
that the state could recover interest on the bonds issued by it to
do the things provided for in the Act.
The Act did not vest in the Secretary of the Treasury discretion
finally to decide the extent of the indebtedness, and the claim was
duly transferred to the Court of Claims in order that a judgment
might be rendered thereon. The judgment was carried to this Court.
The issue therefore was merely a question of law whether, under the
statute, interest was payable, and it was held that it was.
The circumstances of the case were different from this, and it
is doubtful whether the conclusion as to interest in such case
would be applicable to the claim made by the relator, even if we
could hear it on its merits. But it is not here on its merits. The
question was one for the Secretary of the Interior to decide, and
that finally.
Reversed.