5 Ct. Cl. 658 | SCOTUS | 1874
delivered the opinion of the court: ,
Whether the contract under which the appellant claims to have become the owner of the sugar, molasses, and rum was so far executed that, without more, it would have passed the property, had it been legal, it is unnecessary to consider; for we are of opinion that, whether executed or executory, it was illegal and void. It was a clear case of trading with apublic enemy. The subject of the contract was personal property within the Confederate lines. It was a crop at the time on the plantation of Leo. L. Johnson, in the parish of La Fourche, near La Fourche crossings. It belonged also to Johnson, who was then domiciled in the enemy’s territory, and who was himself an enemy. This is expressly stated in the contract itself. The appellant’s right, therefore, is founded upon an attempted purchase, during the war, from an enemy, of enemy’s property, in direct violation not only of the laws which always prevail in a state of war, but also in violation of the acts of Congress. It is vain to contend that any right can be acquired under such a contract.
It¡is true the sale was negotiated by agents of Johnson living-outside of the enemy’s territory, but it was not the less his act because it was done by those acting- under-his authority. Nothing is clearer, says President Woolsey, than that all commercial transactions of whatever kind (except ransom contracts) with the subjects or in the territory of the enemy, whether direct or indirect, as through an agent or partner who is neutral, are illegal and void. (Woolsey’s International Law, sec. 117.) This
It has been argued that because Burbridge.& Co., the agents, had a lien upon the property for advances made by them, and had also a power to sell for the repayment of their advances, the sale which was made ought not to be regarded as a sale by Johnson. Yet the only authority they had to sell at all, resulted either from express power given to them by the owner, or from the relation to him in which they then stood. They might have sold their lien, or the debt secured’by it; and had they done so, the sale would have involved no trading with the enemy. But they undertook to sell Johnson’s property, describing it as such in the instrument of sale, and describing themselves as Johnson’s agents. Yery clearly, in effect, the parties to the transaction were the appellant and a public enemy.
For this reason the judgment is affirmed.