Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 53 Part 1.djvu/706

 APPENDIX CCI years after entry of the decree, the Government contended that under section 1008 of the Revised Statutes no judgment or decree shall be reviewed by the Supreme Court unless the appeal is taken within 2 years after the entry of the judgment, except in case of some disability such as insanity. Appellant contended the statute of limitations was suspended by reason of his incarceration. It was held that in order for a disability to suspend the statute it must exist at the time the right arises, which here was upon entry of the decree, and before the appellant was jailed. Section 1008 of the Revised Statutes was taken directly and without change from the second section of the act of June 1, 1872. This last act was a revision of the twenty-second section of the Judiciary Act of 1789. The language was substantially the same. The court said: "The phraseology of the act of 1872, and of the one thousand and eighth section of the Revised Statutes is so nearly identical with that of the twenty-second section of the act of 1789, in reference to the point under consideration, that we must presume they were intended to have the same construction, and the act of 1789 contains no language which requires that it should have a different con- struction from that which had long been established in reference to all the statutes of limitation then known, whether in the mother country or in this. On the contrary, as we have seen, the terms of the act of 1789 fairly call for the same construction which had for centuries prevailed in reference to those statutes." Upon a revision of statutes, a different interpretation is not to be given them without some substantial change of phraseology, some change other than what may have been necessary to abbreviate the form of the laws. SEC. 5601. The enactment of the said revision is not to affect or repeal any act of Congress passed since the 1st day of December one thousand eight hundredand seventy-three, and all acts passed since that date are to have full effect as if passed after the enactment of this revision, and so far as such acts vary from, or conflict with any provision contained in said revision, they are to have effect as subse- quent statutes, and as repealing any portion of the revision inconsistent therewith. United States v. Auffmordt, 122 U. S. 197 Action by the United States against Auffmordt and others composing the firm of C. A. Auffmordt & Co., to recover $321,519.29 with interest for alleged false entry as to value of merchandise by reason of which defendants forfeited the value of goods in the above amount to the United States, consigned to them from a manufacturer in Switzerland. After the opening by the United States at the trial, defendants moved for a directed verdict on the ground that there was no statute of the United States whereby the value of the merchandise could be recovered by reason of the acts alleged to have been committed by the defendants. The District Court so ruled and directed a verdict for defendants. Judgment affirmed by the Circuit Court and the case went to the Supreme Court of the United States on writ of error. Section 2864 of the Revised Statutes, as originally enacted, in providing for a forfeiture of merchandise omitted a provision in the basic act providing for forfeiture of the value thereof. The Revised Statutes were enacted on June 22, 1874, but embraced only the laws in force on December 1, 1873. The act of February 18, 1875, c. 80, 18 Stat. 319, entitled "An act to correct errors and to supply omissions in the Revised Statutes of the United States," amended section 2864 by restoring the omitted provision. It was contended by the United States that Congress intended by this amendment that R. S. 2864 should provide that the value of such goods should be forfeited. However, this amendment was in conflict with a statute passed on June 22, 1874, which did not provide for for- feiture of value. The court affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court, saying the sole object of the act of February 18, 1875, was to correct errors and supply omissions in the text of the Revised Statutes, as its title indicated, so as to make the same truly express the statutes in force on December 1, 1873. It was in no sense new legislation nor a new law enacted to take effect from the date of its assage, in such wise as to alter any enactment made since the passage of the Revised Statutes. The intention was to make section 2864 read as it ought to have read in the printed volume, in the shape in which it was in force on the 1st of December 1873, as a part of section 1 of the act of March 3, 1863, c. 76, 12 Stat. 738. It left the act of June 22, 1874, to have its full effect in respect to section 2864, in like manner as if the words "or the value thereof" had been con- tained in that section, in the printed volume of the Revised Statutes. There was a law in force on December 1, 1873, and subsequently thereto, down to June 22, 1874, authorizing a forfeiture of the value of merchandise for the causes stated in section 2864, and the fact forfeitures of such value might have been incurred during the intervening period between December 1, 1873, and June 22, 1874, was a sufficient reason for the correction made in section 2864.

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