United States v. Alabama Great Southern Railroad

Citations

• 142 U.S. 615
• 12 S. Ct. 306
• 35 L. Ed. 1134
• 1892 U.S. LEXIS 1995

Syllabus

<p>When tlie Executive Department charged with the execution of a statute gives a construction to it, and acts upon that construction for a series of'years, the court looks with disfavor upon a change whereby parties who have contracted with the government on the faith of the old construction may be injured; especially when it is attempted to make- the change retroactive, and to require from the contractor repayment of moneys paid to him under the former construction.</p> <p>The postal appropriation act of July 12, 1876, c. 179, fixed a rate of pay to railroads for carrying the mails, and provided that roads constructed in whole or in part by a land grant, conditipned that mails should be transported at a rate to be fixed by Congress, should receive only 80 per cent of that rate. As applied to aline of road a part of which only was constructed with such aid, the department held, and acted in accordance therewith for' many years, that it was entitled to the percentage pay for the portion of the line so constructed, and to full pay for the remainder. Subsequently, the Department reversed this construction, and claimed that the mails should be carried over the whole lino at the reduced rate, and it accordingly withheld from sums due for current transportation not only the 20 per cent thereon, but a sufficient amount to settle claims for past transportation on that basis. The railroad company sued to, recover the pay withhold. The Court of Claims gave judgment in its favor, and this court affirms that judgment.</p>