Opinion of the Court.

BUSHNELL v. LELAND.

ERROR TO THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE DISTRICT OF CONNECTICUT.

No. 497. Argued December 14, 15, 1896. — Decided January 4, 1897.

It has been repeatedly settled by this court that the Comptroller of the Currency has power to appoint a receiver to a defaulting or insolvent national bank, and to call for a ratable assessment upon the stockholders of such bank, without a previous judicial ascertainment of the necessity for such action; and the contention that there is presented in this case a constitutional question not considered in the prior cases is an assumption with no foundation in fact.

THE case is stated in the opinion.

Mr. John J. Crawford for plaintiff in errror.

Mr. Frederick W. Holden and Mr. Edward Winslow Paige for defendant in error.

MR. JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the court.

The plaintiff in error being a stockholder in the State National Bank of Wichita, Kansas, was sued to enforce payment of the double liability imposed by law. The pleadings aver the existence of the legal prerequisites to the stockholder's liability, viz., the subscription by defendant to the stock, the due organization of and the authority conferred on the bank to engage in business, the suspension, the valid appointment of a receiver, and a ratable assessment made by the Comptroller on the stockholders in conformity to law. Revised Statutes, §§ 5151, 5234.

At the trial objection was taken and reserved to the offering in evidence of the assessment made by the Comptroller of the Currency, and upon the close of the testimony, the ground of this objection was reiterated by way of exception to the refusal of the court to give the following instruction :

"Counsel for the defendant then moved the court to in

Opinion of the Court.

struct the jury to return a verdict for the defendant, upon the ground that there is no evidence in the case to show that the action is brought for the purpose of enforcing any claim or lien of the United States; that, so far as appears from the evidence, the individual liability of the defendant as a stockholder of the State National Bank of Wichita is sought to be enforced merely for the purpose of paying the claims of private parties; that there is no evidence in this case to show that such parties are creditors of the State National Bank of Wichita, and there is no evidence to show that the fact that these parties are creditors of the State National Bank of Wichita has ever been established by any decision or order of a court of competent jurisdiction; that, so far as appears, the only decision on this point is that of the Comptroller of the Currency, and that his decision is of no force, for the reason that it is an attempt of an executive officer to exercise judicial functions."

A verdict was returned in favor of the plaintiff, and to the judgment thereon this writ of error is prosecuted.

The assignments of error are based solely on the grounds covered by the exception taken to the introduction of testimony, the refusal to charge, as above stated, and to an asserted want of jurisdiction in the court below. All these alleged errors may be reduced to the single contention that under the national banking law the Comptroller of the Currency is without power to appoint a receiver to a defaulting or insolvent national bank, or to call for a ratable assessment upon the stockholders of such bank, without a previous judicial ascertainment of the necessity for the appointment of the receiver and of the existence of the liabilities of the bank, and that the lodgment of authority in the Comptroller, empowering him either to appoint a receiver or to make a ratable call upon the stockholders, is tantamount to vesting that officer with judicial power in violation of the Constitution. All of these contentions have been long since settled, and are not open to further discussion. Kennedy v. Gibson, 8 Wall. 498; Casey v. Galli, 94 U. S. 673; United States v. Knox, 102 U. S. 422. When, after the adjudication in Kennedy v. Gib

Opinion of the Court.

son, the questions were for a second time pressed in argument, the court contented itself with calling attention to the fact that they had been affirmatively adjudicated upon and were concluded. We see no reason now to reopen controversies which were then treated as concluded and have since been approved and in all respects fully affirmed. The contention. that there is now presented in argument a grave constitutional question, which was not pressed or considered in the prior cases, is a mere assumption which has no foundation in fact. A casual inspection of the points pressed by counsel in Casey v. Galli makes evident the fact that the very arguments now advanced were then urged upon the court and held to be untenable.

Judgment affirmed.

UNITED STATES AND THE SIOUX NATION v. NORTHWESTERN EXPRESS STAGE AND TRANSPORTATION COMPANY.

APPEAL FROM THE COURT OF CLAIMS.

No. 213. Submitted December 7, 1896. Decided January 4, 1897.

A corporation organized under the laws of a State is a citizen of the United States within the meaning of that term as used in the act of March 3, 1891, c. 538, concerning claims arising from Indian depredations.

THE case is stated in the opinion.

Mr. Assistant Attorney General Howry and Mr. Alexander Porter Morse for appellants.

Mr. John B. Sanborn, Mr. Charles King and Mr. William B. King for appellees.

MR. JUSTICE WHITE delivered the opinion of the court

This appeal was taken from a judgment of the Court of Claims awarding to the appellees the sum of seven hundred

Opinion of the Court.

and fifty dollars upon the following state of facts found by the court, to wit:

"I. The claimant is and was at the time of the depredation hereinafter mentioned a corporation created under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Minnesota, and was transacting the business of a common carrier in conveying passengers and freight at the time referred to.

"II. The claimant during the year 1879 was engaged in carrying the mails and doing the business of a common carrier from Bismarck, Dakota, to Deadwood and the Black Hills upon the Territorial road from Bismarck to Cook station, in part through the Great Sioux reservation.

"III. On the 5th of February, 1879, near Cedar Canyon, property belonging to the claimant, consisting of four horses and their harness, was taken or destroyed by Indians of the defendant's tribe, the same being of the value of $750. The defendant Indians were at the time in amity with the United States, and the depredation was committed without just cause or provocation on the part of the claimant or its agents, and the property has not been returned or paid for. The claim has not been approved or allowed by the Secretary of the Interior."

The Court of Claims decided on the facts so found as a conclusion of law, that the claimant, by reason of its incorporation by a State of the Union, must be conclusively presumed to be a citizen of the United States for the purposes of this action.

The act of March 3, 1891, c. 538, 26 Stat. 851, is entitled "An act to provide for the adjudication and payment of claims arising from Indian depredations." By the first section of the act jurisdiction and authority was conferred upon the Court of Claims, in addition to the jurisdiction already possessed by the court, to inquire into and finally adjudicate “all claims for property of citizens of the United States" taken or destroyed by Indians, under circumstances specified in the act. The sole question presented by the appeal, therefore, is as to whether, under a proper construction of the act referred to, a corporation of a State for the purpose of the act is embraced within the designation "citizens of the United States."

Opinion of the Court.

The act was considered in Johnson v. United States, 160 U. S. 546, and we there held that a person who was not a citizen of the United States at the time of an alleged appropriation of his property by a tribe of Indians was not entitled to maintain an action in the Court of Claims under the act in question. There was not in that case, however, any assertion that the claimant was a citizen of a State as distinguished from a citizen of the United States. It was also declared that as the Court of Claims had no general jurisdiction over claims against the United States, it could take cognizance only of such matters as by the terms of the act of Congress were committed to it. Whilst undoubtedly in a purely technical and abstract sense citizenship of one of the States may not include citizenship of the United States, this does not meet the question which we are to construe, which is, what is the meaning of the words "citizens of the United States " as used in the statute. Unquestionably, in the general and common acceptation, a citizen of the State is considered as synonymous with citizen of the United States, and the one is therefore treated as expressive of the other. This flows from the fact that the one is normally and usually the other, and where such is not the case, it is purely exceptional and uncommon. These considerations give rise to an ambiguity which we must solve, not by reference to a mere abstract technicality, but by that cardinal rule which commands that we seek out and apply the evident purpose intended to be accomplished by the law-making power.

Congress has frequently in its legislation, as also the treatymaking power, used the words "citizens of the United States" in the broadest sense, and as embracing corporations created by state law. Thus, in section 2319 of the Revised Statutes, the right to purchase mineral deposits in the public lands was conferred upon "citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such." Section 2321, however, in regulating the mode by which the fact of citizenship should be established, provided that, "in the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof," the fact should be evidenced