Citation Numbers: 76 Ct. Cl. 334, 1932 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 312
Judges: Booth, Gbeen, Green, Littleton, Whaley, Williams
Filed Date: 11/14/1932
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
delivered the opinion of the court:
This case has experienced an unusual course. We need not repeat in detail its history for the facts are set forth in a preliminary statement. The present proceedings result from the enactment by Congress of the following legislation:
“ The case of the Pocono Pines Assembly Hotels Company against United States of America, Number J-543 be, and hereby is, remanded to the United States Court of Claims with complete authority, the statute of limitations or rule of procedure to the contrary notwithstanding, to hear testimony as to the actual facts involved in the litigation and with instructions to report its finding of facts to Congress at the earliest practicable moment.”
See also opinion of this court announced January 18,1932 (73 C.CIs. 447).
The record from which the facts now reported to Congress were obtained was brought into being by the introduction of proof upon the part of the defendant and the examination of witnesses and introduction of papers by the commissioner of this court to whom the matter was referred for the taking of testimony. Ample opportunity was accorded the parties to produce all or whatever evidence they desire to offer, a wide and liberal latitude was accorded in the reception of evidence, and the record discloses a minimum of technical objections to the evidence offered. The plaintiff entered a limited appearance, as noted in the findings, and did no more than seek to protect its asserted and claimed legal rights.
Th defendant examined eight witnesses, two of whom held responsible positions in the vocational school being conducted at the inn; three trainees, two on the premises when the garage burned and one when the inn burned; and one
One witness whose statement was taken as above was called to testify on April 5, 1928, before the commissioner, and three only were called to testify before the commissioner in this proceeding. The statements, as we have previously noted, are made a part of the present record, and we have not hesitated to accord them such probative effect as they deserve. It is signally significant that in many vital and important respects the statements made by the witnesses on the day of the fire when subsequently examined in this proceeding, coincide as to facts. Bongianni, the'trainee, who first discovered the fire in the inn, was not called as a witness at any hearing. This trainee’s version of existing conditions at the time of the fire is to be found in a statement given by him on the day of the fire, elicited by Government officials by way of propounding interrogatories. There is nothing in the statement indicating a lack of intelligence, bias, or prejudice upon the part of the witness; on the contrary, it was he who gave the alarm and proceeded expe
The majority opinion of the court rendered January 18, 1932, involving the challenge to the constitutionality of the act under which the proceedings narrated above took place, predicated the judgment of the court upon the following statement:
“ Therefore, we are of the opinion that the act of reference in this case is susceptible of a construction as congressional intention by special legislation to procure certain facts to aid Congress in the exercise of a legislative function, which does not in any manner effect the finality of this court’s judgment in case No. J-543, and the motion to vacate and set aside this court’s reference of the matter to a commissioner of this court will be overruled. It is so ordered.”
In keeping with this announced principle we have considered the proceedings as akin in matter of procedure to congressional reference under section 151 of the Judicial Code, i.e., what we are to report to Congress is a finding of authenticated and established facts with reference to the whole case of “ Pocono Pines Assembly Hotels Company against the United States, No. J-543,” facts which Congress desires in the exercise of a legislative function, and what we say herein is to be confined to the findings to be reported, the court having heretofore expressed its opinion of the legal issues involved.
The record from which the findings have been made is not of great volume. It obviously represents the exhaustion of the matter from the standpoint of facts. It differs in some particulars from the statements made in the motions for new trial, but in its general aspect it clearly and unmis- j takably establishes the fact that the fire did not originatej from faulty electric wiring and that its origin is not to be\ attributed to any carelessness or negligence upon the part
A copy of the foregoing findings and opinion, together with copy of the findings and opinion of February 10, 1930, and opinion of January 18, 1932, will be certified to Congress.