3 F. 513 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Southern New York | 1880
This is a suit in equity for the infringement of a patent. A final decree has been entered in it
The first question which arises is whether the defendant James, as such postmaster, was such an officer of the revenue as is meant by the expression, “other officer of the revenue,” in the section. The section is taken from section 12 of the act of March 3, 1863, (12 U. S. St. at Large, 741.) Such section, 12 was in these words: “In all suits or proceedings against collectors or other officers of the revenue for any act done by them, or for the recovery of any money exacted by or paid to such officer and by him paid into the treasury of the United States, in the performance of his official duty, in which any district or other attorney shall be ordered to appear on behalf of such officer by the secretary or solicitor of the treasury or by any other proper officer of the government, such attorney shall be allowed such compensation for his services
The above section 989 is found in title 13 of the Revised Statutes, entitled “The Judiciary,” and in chapter 15 thereof, entitled “Procedure.” It is provided by section 5575 of the Revised Statutes that the 73 titles thereof embrace the statutes of the United States, general and permanent in their nature, in force on the first day of December, 1873, as revised and consolidated by commissioners appointed under the act of June 27, 1866, (14 U. S. St. at Large, 74.) Section 5600 of the Revised Statutes provides that “the arrangement and classification of the several sections of the Revision have been made for the purpose of a more convenient and orderly arrangement of the same, and therefore no inference or presumption of a legislative construction is to be drawn by reason of the title under which any particular section is placed.”
The act of March 3, 1863, is entitled “An act to prevent and punish frauds upon the revenue, to provide for the more speedy and certain collection of claims in favor of the United States, and for other purposes.” In section 2 are found the words “frauds upon the revenue;” in sections 3,1 and 6 the words “any officer of the revenue;” in section 5 the words “the revenue laws;” in section 7 the words “arty fraud on the revenue;” in section 11 the words “the revenue laws;” and in sections 12 and 13 the words “collectors or other officers of the revenue.”
This is the view held by the post-office department itself ; for, in the report of the postmaster general to the president, of November 8, 1879, reference is made to this suit, and to the decision on it, by the interlocutory decree, adverse to the defendant James, and it is stated that “there is no provision of federal law to secure ‘certificates of probable cause’ to United States officials, other than treasury officials, in cases of adverse judgments for acts done in their official capacity.”
This is, unquestionably, a correct view. For what acts done in their official capacity “treasury officials ” may have certificates granted to them, under the statute, and whether such acts can ever include the act of infringing a patent, are questions not involved in this case.
The motion is denied, on the ground above stated.
See Campbell v. James, 1 Fed. Rep. 338.