United States v. De Goer

Citations

• 38 F. 80
• 1889 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43

Syllabus

<p>1. Abatement and Revival — Forfeitures under Revenue Laws— State Statutes. Actions for forfeitures under tile revenue laws arise solely under the statutes of the United States, and are in no way subject to state legislation; and the question of the survival of such actions is not affected by the statutes of the state where the cause of action arose.</p> <p>2. Same — Revenue Oases — Common-Law Rule. Section 955, Rev. St. U. S., refers to the course of procedure only where actions survive, and, in the absence of any United States statute prescribing what actions do survive, the question in revenue cases must be determined by the common law, by which all such actions abate upon the death of the wrong-doer, except only where the acts are divisible, and the wrong-doer’s estate has derived benefit from the tort.</p> <p>3. Same — Revenue Oases — Death oe Party. ' Suit having been brought in 1862 for forfeiture of the value of an importation of gloves for fraudulent under-valuation, under section 66 of the act of 1799, (1. St. at Large, 677.) and, upon defendant’s default, an assessment of damages being made, and a judgment entered after his death, which was set aside on motion as irregular, upon scire facias to revive the action against his administrator, held,, that the act of 1799, though in part remedial, was mainly punitive, and in this case highly penal; and the action for forfeiture, not being divisible, as respects the actual pecuniary loss to the government, was subject to the general rule, and abated by the defendant’s death.</p>