O’reilly De Camara v. Brooke, 209 U.S. 45 (1908)

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O’Reilly de Camara v. Brooke

No. 104

Argued February 28, March 2, 1908
Decided March 16, 1908
209 U.S. 45

ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK

Syllabus

A tort can be e ratified so as to make an act done in the course of the principal’s business and purporting to be done in his name his tort, and the rule of exonerating the servant when the master assumes liability is still applicable to a greater or less extent when the master is the sovereign. The Paquete Habana, 189 U.S. 453, 469.

By virtue of an order of the Secretary of War and also by the Platt amendment of the Act of March 2, 1901, c. 803, 31 Stat. 897, and the treaty with Cuba of May 22, 1903, 33 Stat. 2249, the acts of the officers of the United States, during the military occupation of Cuba, complained of in this action, were ratified by the United States, and those officers relieved of liability therefor.

The courts will not declare an act to be a tort in violation of the law of nations or of a treaty of the United States when the Executive, Congress, and the treatymaking power have all adopted it.

The holder of a heritable office in Cuba which had been abolished prior to the extinction of Spanish sovereignty, but who, pending compensation for its condemnation, was receiving the emoluments of one of the grants of the office, held in this case to have no property rights that survived the extinction of such sovereignty.

142 F. 858 affirmed.

The facts are stated in the opinion.