Mitchell v. United States (88 U.S. 350)

APPEAL from the Court of Claims. That court found the following facts:

At the beginning of the late rebellion, Mitchell, the claimant and appellant, lived in Louisville, Kentucky. He was engaged in business there. In July, 1861, and after the 17th of that month, he procured from the proper military authority of the United States in Kentucky a pass permitting him to go through the army lines into the insurrectionary territory. He thereupon went into the insurgent States and remained there until the latter part of the year 1864. He then returned to Louisville. While in the Confederate States he transacted business, collected debts, and purchased from different parties 724 bales of cotton. He took possession of the cotton and stored it in Savannah. Upon the capture of that place by General Sherman the cotton was seized by the military authorities. It was subsequently sold by the agents of the government. The proceeds, amounting to the sum of $128,692.22, were now in the treasury. Mitchell bought the cotton in November and December, 1864. He remained within the insurrectionary lines from July, 1861, until after the capture of Savannah by the arms of the United States.

The Court of Claims was equally divided in opinion as to whether the claim of Mitchell could be sustained, and accordingly dismissed his petition. Mitchell then removed the case to this court by appeal, assigning for error that on the facts found the Court of Claims should not have dismissed the petition, but should have decided that he acquired a valid title to the cotton.

Mr. J. B. Harlan, for the appellant; Mr. G. H. Williams, Attorney-General, and Mr. John Goforth, Assistant Attorney-General, contra.

Mr. Justice SWAYNE, having stated the case, delivered the opinion of the court, as follows: