United States Court of Claims

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The Court of Claims was a federal court that heard claims against the United States government. It was established in 1855 as the Court of Claims, renamed in 1948 to the United States Court of Claims (67 Stat. 226), and abolished in 1982.

Before the Court of Claims was established, monetary claims against the federal government were normally submitted through petitions to Congress. By the time of the Court's creation, this workload had gotten unwieldy, so Congress gave the Court jurisdiction to hear all monetary claims based upon a law, a regulation, or a federal government contract. The Court was required to report its findings to Congress and to prepare bills for payments to claimants whose petitions were approved by the Court; since only Congress was constitutionally empowered to make appropriations, Congress still had to approve these bills and reports, but this was normally pro forma.

The Court originally had three judges, who were given lifetime appointments. The judges were authorized to appoint commissioners to take depositions and issue subpoenas. The federal government was represented in the Court by a solicitor appointed by the President.

In 1861, Abraham Lincoln in his Annual Message to Congress asked that the court be given the power to issue final judgments. Congress granted this power with the Act of March 3, 1863 (12 Stat. 765), and explicitly made the judgments appealable to the Supreme Court. However, it also modified the law governing the Court so that its reports and bills were sent to the Department of the Treasury rather than directly to Congress. The moneys to cover these costs were then made a part of the appropriation for the Treasury Department.

The conflict inherent between these two provisions was made manifest when in 1864, the decision in Gordon v. United States was appealed to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denied that it had jurisdiction, because the decisions of the Court of Claims, hence any appeals, were subject to review by an executive department (69 U.S. 561; see also 117 U.S. 697). Less than a year later, Congress passed a law (14 Stat. 9) removing review of the Court of Claims from the Treasury Department.

In 1887, Congress passed the Tucker Act (24 Stat. 505), which further restricted the claims that could be submitted directly to Congress, requiring that these claims instead be submitted to the Court of Claims. It broadened the court's jurisdiction so that “claims founded upon the Constitution” could be heard. In particular, this meant that monetary claims based on takings under the eminent domain clause of the Fifth Amendment could be brought before the Court of Claims.

In 1925, Congress changed the structure of the Court of Claims by authorizing the Court to appoint seven commissioners who were empowered to hear evidence and report on findings of fact. The judges of the Court of Claims would then serve as a board of review for the commissioners.

In 1932, Congress reduced the salary of the judges of the Court of Claims as part of the Economy Act of 1932. Thomas Sutler Williams was one of the judges of the Court, and he sued the federal government, claiming that his salary could not be cut because the Constitution specified that judicial salaries could not be reduced. The Supreme Court ruled on Williams v. United States in 1933, deciding that the Court of Claims was an Article I or legislative court, and that therefore Congress had the authority to reduce the salaries of the judges of the Court of Claims.

In 1953, Congress passed a law (67 Stat. 226) which converted the Court of Claims into an Article III court.

In 1982, Congress abolished the court, transferring its trial level jurisdiction to the newly created United States Claims Court (which is now known as the United States Court of Federal Claims) and its appellate jurisdiction to the equally new United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. By this time, the Court had expanded to have seven judges; they were transferred to the Federal Circuit.

[edit] References

Books

Bennett, Marion Tinsley (1976). The United States Court of Claims: A History; Part I: The Judges, 1855–1976. Washington, D.C.: Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Cowen, Wilson, Philip Nichols, Jr., and Marion T. Bennett (1978). The United States Court of Claims: A History; Part II: Origin, Development, Jurisdiction, 1855–1978. Committee on the Bicentennial of Independence and the Constitution of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Journals