Kinkead v. United States

Citations

• 150 U.S. 483
• 14 S. Ct. 172
• 37 L. Ed. 1152
• 1893 U.S. LEXIS 2399
• 1 Alaska Fed. 340

Syllabus

<p>The court of claims was not estopped by the recitals in the act of January 17,1887, 24 Stat. 358, e. 21, referring this case to it, from considering the question of the title of the claimants to the property whose value is sought to be recovered.</p> <p>The commissioners appointed by the governments of the United States and of Russia for the transfer of Alaska under the treaty of March 30, 1SG7, 15 Stat. 539, had no power to vary the language of the treaty or to determine questions of title or ownership.</p> <p>The building constructed by the-Russian-American Company in 1845 on land ’belonging to Russia became thereby, so far as disclosed by the facts in this case, the property of the Russian government, and, being transferred to the United States by the treaty of March 30, 1867, no property or ownership in it remained in the Russian-American Company, which it could transfer to a private person adversely to the United States.</p>