Leighton v. United States (161 U.S. 291)

This case is before us on appeal from a judgment of the court of claims dismissing the claimant's petition. The amended petition on which the case was tried, after stating the facts of the depredation, the citizenship of the claimant, and the amity of the Indian tribe, alleged that the claim had been filed in the interior department, allowed on December 5, 1873, for $3,025, and reported to congress March 27, 1874, and again, on November 29, 1887, allowed for $2,500, and reported to congress. It further alleged that the property was worth $5,005, and for that sum prayed judgment.

After the commencement of the suit in the court of claims, the claimant filed this election to reopen:

'Now comes the claimant, Alvin C. Leighton, and elects to reopen the claim set forth in the petition in this cause, and try the same before the court.

'And he avers that the allowance made in said claim was erroneous in this respect: that the commissioner of Indian affairs and the secretary made an allowance of $2,500 by fixing the value of the mules on account of which claim is made in said petition at $125, and of the horses at $100 each, whereas the allowance should have been for $5,005, the value of the mules being $255 each, and of the horses $185 each.

'And the claimant refers to the evidence taken under the rules of this court, as well as that presented to the interior department, in support of this allegation of error.

'The claimant does not seek to disturb the findings or award of the commissioner of Indian affairs and secretary of the interior in any other respect than as above set forth, but admits that the same are correct in all other respects.'

This was done under authority of the last part of section 4 of the act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 851), which reads: 'All unpaid claims which have heretofore been examined, approved and allowed by the secretary of the interior, or under his direction, * * * shall have priority of consideration by such court, and judgments for the amounts therein found due shall be rendered, unless either the claimant or the United States shall elect to reopen the case and try the same before the court, in which event the testimony in the case given by the witnesses, and the documentary evidence, including reports of department agents therein, may be read as depositions and proofs.'

The United States having filed a traverse, the case was submitted to the court of claims, by which court findings of fact were made, and among them that the property was taken and carried away by Indians belonging to the Ogallalla band of the Sioux tribe; that at this time the Ogallalla band 'was in separate treaty relations with the United States, under treaty dated October 26, 1865, proclaimed March 17, 1866 (14 Stat. 747), and were receiving annuities thereunder'; and that such band, 'under its principal chief, Red Cloud, was at the time of said depredation in armed hostility against the United States in resisting the military authorities in the opening of a military road, and the establishment thereon of military posts, and maintaining the same along what was known as the 'Boazman Road,' extending from Fort Laramie, in Wyoming, to Fort Smith, in Montana,' and was 'not in amity with the United States.'

Wm. B. King, for appellant.

Asst. Atty. Gen. Howry, for appellees.

Mr. Justice BREWER, after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.