Radich v. Hutchins

ERROR to the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Texas.

This was an action brought by Radich against Hutchins and Wells. He alleges in his petition that he is a subject of the Emperor of Russia, and that he was, in 1864, the owner of four hundred and fifty bales of cotton, of the value of $50,000, which he designed to export from Texas, where he then resided, to Mexico, and which were then in transit on their way to Matamoras; that the defendant Hutchins, claiming to be a lieutenant-colonel in the army of the Confederate States, and chief of the cotton office at Houston in that State, combining with the defendant Wells and others, had, without warrant of law, by a public notice, prohibited the exportation of cotton from the State, except upon written permits from his office; that such permits would not be issued, except upon condition that the person desiring to export cotton should sell to them an equal amount, at a nominal and arbitrary price, for the benefit of the Confederate States; that, being desirous to export and sell his cotton, because of the risk incurred of its destruction or loss during the war, and knowing that if he should attempt to send it beyond the frontier of the State into Mexico the armed forces of the Confederate States, provided to carry out the illegal exactions of the defendants and their confederates, would capture and confiscate it, he was compelled to submit, and did submit, to the condition imposed, and accordingly elivered to the defendants one-half of his cotton, namely, two hundred and twenty-five bales, at a nominal and arbitrary price, as a consideration for a permit to export the other half, but upon a stipulation, however, insisted upon by himself, that he should have the privilege of re deeming the bales sold, and exporting them upon the payment of such sum as the defendants might demand; and that afterwards he paid them $13,357 in specie, and in goods, wares, and merchandise at specie values, in redemption of the bales and for a permit to export them. He alleges that the amount thus paid was illegally and oppressively exacted, and that he submitted to the wrong because of the armed forces to support and enforce it.

The defendants demurred. The demurrer was sustained and the petition dismissed. Radich thereupon sued out this writ of error.

The case was argued for the plaintiff in error by Mr. Thomas J. Durant, who cited Cutner v. United States, 17 Wall. 517; The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat. 283; United States v. Guillem, 11 How. 47; Sprott v. United States, 20 Wall. 459; Hickman v. Jones, 9 id. 197; The Venice, 2 id. 258.

Mr. Philip Phillips, contra.

MR. JUSTICE FIELD delivered the opinion of the court.