Jackson v. Irving Trust Co., 311 U.S. 494 (1941)

Jackson v. Irving Trust Co.

No. 75

Argued December 19, 1940
Decided January 6, 1941
311 U.S. 494

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SECOND CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. An award of a District Court under the Trading with the Enemy Act cannot be attacked for alleged fraudulent collusion by a motion on affidavits made to that court after payment has been made and the time for appeal has expired. Semble that the remedy would be by bill of review. P. 499.

2. Years after the rendition and payment of an award under § 9(a) of the Trading with the Enemy Act, from which no appeal was taken, the Attorney General, on behalf of the United States and as successor to the Alien Property Custodian, by a motion to the District Court supported by affidavits, sought to have the judgment set aside for want of jurisdiction on the ground that the beneficial owner of the claim was an "enemy" as defined by that Act, and that therefore the suit was not authorized by the Act, but was a suit against the United States without its consent.

Held:

(1) That the complaint in the suit stated a case within the terms of the Act, and the District Court had jurisdiction to determine every issue necessary to the establishment of the claim. P. 500.

(2) That the status, enemy or nonenemy, of the alleged beneficial owner, upon which was based the "jurisdictional" question of the motion, having been an issue raised by the pleadings and proceedings in the case, was determinable by the District Court, however labeled. P. 502.

(3) Whether the particular issue was actually litigated is immaterial in view of the necessary conclusion that there was full opportunity to litigate it and that it was adjudicated by the decree. P. 503.

(4) If the District Court had erred in dealing or in failing to deal with any issue involved, the remedy was by appeal. P. 503.

109 F.2d 714 affirmed.

Certiorari, 310 U.S. 621, to review the reversal of a decree of the District Court, 27 F.Supp. 44, setting aside, on motion, for want of jurisdiction, a former decree which had been rendered under § 9(a) of the Trading with the Enemy Act.