Page:United States v. Samperyac.pdf/13

130 Rh   The fact that the cognizance of these claims is given to a court possessed of full and ample equity jurisdiction, with the injunction to try the cases according to the rules of a court of equity, goes far to prove that congress intended to refer them to the judiciary, and allow the United States to be sued before her own courts, that a ﬁnal termination might be put to these demands upon her justice. The provision for an appeal from the decision of this court to the supreme court of the United States, by either party, strongly evinces the intention of congress that these claims should receive their adjudication by the judiciary of the United States. If, then, congress intended to refer them to the judiciary, can it be reasonably inferred that they intended to limit the general powers of the court to which the reference is made? We think not.

The act, in terms, does not limit the jurisdiction of this court; and we are not to infer a limitation unless it be expressed, or arises from a necessary implication.

If we are correct in affirming the proposition that the act of 1824 authorizing certain claimants to bring suit against the United States, on the equity side, possessed of full chancery power and jurisdiction, it follows, that a bill of review will lie in this court, unless there be something in the act itself forbidding it.

It has been urged that that part of the act which says that the judgment or decree of this court, unless appealed from in one year, shall be ﬁnal and conclusive, necessarily precludes the idea of a bill of review. We entertain a different opinion. The provision just referred to, relates to the time in which an appeal may be taken. It says nothing about a bill of review, or rehearing.

Each of these modes of revising the decrees of this court, "according to the practice in chancery, is left untouched, and stands precisely as they existed had no time been limited for an appeal. The court entertains a bill of review, in virtue of the chancery jurisdiction conferred by the act of congress by which it was created, and possessing that power previous to the act of 1824, continued to possess it, with the authority to apply it to these cases, for the adjudication of which the latter act was