Corralitos Company v. United States

Statement by Mr. Justice Peckham:

The appellant herein filed its original petition in the court of claims, against the United States and the Apache Indians, on September 6, 1892. Subsequently, and by leave of court, an amended petition was filed March 2, 1894, from which it appears that the petitioner is a corporation chartered under the laws of the state of New York and doing business in the state of Chihuahua, county of Guleana, Republic of Mexico, and that property to the value of nearly $75,000, belonging to the petitioner, and situated at the time in the Republic of Mexico, was taken therefrom in 1881 and 1882, and stolen and carried off by the Apache Indians, then in amity with the United States, and brought from the Republic of Mexico into the United States. By virtue of the act of Congress, entitled 'An Act to Provide for the Adjudication and Payment of Claims Arising from Indian Depredations,' approved March 3, 1891, judgment for the value of the property thus taken by the Indians was demanded.

The United States filed a plea in bar, alleging that the claimant ought not to have and maintain its suit, 'because the depredation complained of is alleged to have occurred in the Republic of Mexico, beyond the jurisdiction of the United States an t he courts thereof; and that the court therefore had no jurisdiction to entertain this suit.'

The plaintiff demurred to the plea in bar as bad in substance.

The court of claims overruled the demurrer, sustained the plea in bar, and dismissed the petition. 33 Ct. Cl. 342. The petitioner appealed from that judgment to this court.

Mr. Justice Peckham, after stating the foregoing facts, delivered the opinion of the court: