Great Western Serum Company v. United States/Opinion of the Court

The Serum Company sued to recover the value of anti-hog cholera serum, anti-cholera virus, and serum blood, seized without agreement to purchase by agents of the Bureau of Animal Industry in November, § 914, and thereafter destroyed. Judgment went for the defendant, and we are asked to reverse it upon the ground that—

'As a conclusion of law the court should have found that the     Act of Congress of March 4, 1915, created an obligation to      pay for the appellant's materials, and that the facts show an      implied contract to purchase and to pay for such materials.'

'In case of an emergency arising out of the existence of foot     and mouth disease, rinderpest, contagious pleuro pneumonia,      or other contagious or infectious disease of animals, which      in the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture threatens the      live stock industry of the country, he may expend in the city      of Washington or elsewhere, out of any money in the treasury      not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $2,500,000, which sum      is hereby appropriated, or so much thereof as he determines      to be necessary, in the arrest and eradication of any such      disease, including the payment of claims growing out of past      and future purchases and destruction, in co-operation with      the states, of animals affected by or exposed to, or of      materials contaminated by or exposed to, any such disease,      wherever found and irrespective of ownership, under like or      substantially similar circumstances, when such owner has      complied with all quarantine regulations, and said sum shall      be immediately available for the purposes specified.' 38      Stat. 1115.

There was no purchase of the destroyed articles or agreement therefor-none is claimed-and we think it quite clear that no contractual obligation by the United States to pay for them can be implied from the act itself.

Affirmed.