New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad v. United States

Citations

• 53 Ct. Cl. 222
• 1918 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 202
• 1918 WL 1019

Syllabus

<p>On Defendants’ Demurer.</p> <p>Statutory construction; officers’ discretionary powers. — Section 4002, Revised Statutes, lodges in the Postmaster General the discretion of determining the details to be followed in the weighing of the mails “ not less than once in every four years,” and he alone was to determine the average weight of the mails carried and how such average should be obtained.</p> <p>Contracts; protests, when unavailing. — Where a railroad executes a distance circular and contemporaneously refuses to accept the amount there stated as full compensation and the Postmaster General then informed the railroad that said compensation was all that would be paid, and the railroad continues to carry the mails, there was a “ meeting of the minds ” and said road is bound by the terms offered for such service.</p> <p>Estoppel. — Plaintiff having continued to carry the mails with the increased weights occasioned by the institution of the parcel-post service under the act of August 12, 1912, 37 Stat., 539, 557, and by its failure to avail itself of the privilege of refusing to perform its contract thus further reaffirmed its contract and can not now claim an additional allowance for such service.</p> <p>Common carriers not obligated to carry mails vn absence of contract.— No claim for the taking of private property under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution can be predicated upon a eon-tract to carry tlie mails, even though it appear that the compensation received was unreasonable and to that extent confiscatory, when the contract was entered into voluntarily and the railroad was under no duress to continue the service.</p>