The French Spoliation Claims

Extract

From time to time the cases known by the generic name of French Spoliation Claims come up for discussion in Congress and in the press and are often debated without any very definite conception of their origin or basis. It may seem strange that claims against the government whose inception is connected with the very beginning of our national existence should still be the subject of consideration as present demands against the government, both before the courts and in the legislative forum.

But dilatoriness in dealing with matters of private right between the citizen and the government seems to have become traditional. Not until 1885 was there any tribunal before which these claims could be prosecuted. Even under the Act of 1885, as will be seen hereafter, a decision of the court has not the legal effect of a final judgment. Hence, it is that the liability of the government for the payment of these claims settled by unanimous judicial decision a quarter of a century ago is often reopened in Congress and the press and the subject threshed out anew, often in apparent ignorance of the laborious investigation long since made by the Court of Claims into the history and basis of these claims, and the result of that investigation as announced in a number of thorough and well-reasoned opinions.