Price v. United States, 174 U.S. 373 (1899)

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Price v. United States

No. 947

Argued April 19, 1899
Decided May 16, 1899
174 U.S. 373

APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS

Syllabus

Under the Act of March 3, 1891, c. 638, giving the Court of Claims jurisdiction over claims for property of citizens of the United States taken or destroyed by Indians, no jurisdiction is given to the court over a claim for merely consequential damages resulting to the owner of property so taken by reason of the taking, but not directly caused by the Indians.

This case comes to us on appeal from the Court of Claims. The matter of dispute is disclosed by the second and fourth findings of the court, which are as follows:

Second. On the 26th day of June, 1847, near the Arkansas River, on the route from Western Missouri to Santa Fe at a place in what is now the State of Kansas, Indians belonging to the Osage tribe took and drove away 32 head of oxen, the property of said decedent, which at the time and place of taking were reasonably worth the sum of four hundred dollars ($400).

At the time said oxen were taken, they were being used by said decedent in the transportation of goods along the route aforesaid, and in consequence of such taking, decedent was compelled to abandon the trip, and to sell his portion of said goods and four (4) wagons belonging to him for the sum of one thousand two hundred dollars ($1,200).

The goods and wagons of said decedent at the time of the depredation were reasonably worth the sum of seven thousand six hundred dollars ($7,600).

Said property was taken as aforesaid without just cause or provocation on the part of the owner or his agent in charge and has not been returned or paid for.

Fourth. A claim for the property so taken was presented to the Interior Department in June, 1872, and evidence was filed in support thereof.

Judgment in that court was entered for $400 (33 Ct.Cl. 106), to review which judgment the petitioner appealed.