Opinion of the Court.

States should demand it. At most, it only provides for receiving and distributing the sums paid without a protest or reservation, such as, in the opinion of the President, is entitled to further consideration. It does not undertake to set any new limits on the powers of the Executive." As to the fifth section of that act, it was observed: "From the beginning to the end, it is, in form even, only a request from Congress to the Executive. This is far from making the President for the time being a quasi judicial tribunal to hear Mexico and the implicated claimants and deterinine once for all as between them, whether the charges which Mexico makes have been judicially established."

And it was added that, "as between the United States and the claimants, the honesty of the claims is always open to inquiry for the purposes of fair dealing with the government against which, through the United States, a claim has been made."

The new convention was then pending in the Senate, and it was clear that the discretion of the executive department of the government to withhold all further payments to the relators until the diplomatic negotiations between the two governments on the subject were finally concluded, could not be controlled by the judiciary.

This is conceded by the relator, and such a concession is inconsistent with the contention that the award was a final and conclusive adjudication in Weil's favor, as an individual, against Mexico. As between nations, the proprietary right in respect to those things belonging to private individuals or bodies corporate within a nation's territorial limits is absolute, and the rights of Weil cannot be regarded as distinct from those of his government. The government assumed the responsibility of presenting his claim, and made it its own in seeking redress in respect to it. Under this convention it was the balance that was to be paid, after deducting from what was found in favor of one government that which was found in favor of the other. So that the moneys paid in liquidation of that balance belonged to the United States, to be increased by appropriation to the extent of the amounts allowed Mexico,

Opinion of the Court.

and the aggregate to be distributed to the claimants as might be provided.

In United States ex rel. Angarica v. Bayard, 127 U. S. 251, 259, where a sum of money had been received by the Secretary of State as part of an award made by the Spanish-American Claims Commission, which sum of money had been eventually paid to the petitioner, but had in the meantime. been invested and earned interest, it was held that the Secretary was not liable to pay such interest to the petitioner, because the sum in question was withheld by the United States and the petitioner's claim based on the withholding was a claim against the United States, and the case fell within the settled principle that interest is not allowed on claims against the United States, unless the government has stipulated to pay interest or it is given by express statutory provision. There, under the agreement for arbitration, as here, under the convention, the claim was laid before the arbitrators and umpire "on the part of the government of the United States," and was presented with the testimony in its favor "only through the government of the United States," and "by the government of the United States." So the two advocates were spoken of as "representing respectively the two governments," and it was stated that "the two governments will accept the awards." "Thus by the plain terms of the agree ment,” remarked Mr. Justice Blatchford, delivering the opinion of the court, "the amount of the award in the case of Angarica was to be paid by the Spanish government to the government of the United States. It was paid by the Spanish government to the Secretary of State of the United States, representing the government of the United States. If there was any unlawful withholding from the petitioner of the $41,129.74, the money was withheld by the government of the United States, acting through the Secretary of State, and any claim of the petitioner, based upon an unlawful withholding, was a claim against the government of the United States."

Congress in furnishing the auxiliary legislation needed to carry the results of the convention under consideration into fect, requested the President to so far investigate certain

Opinion of the Court.

charges of fraud as to determine whether a retrial ought to be had. This inquiry might have resulted in reopening the awards as between the two nations, or in such reëxamination in a domestic forum as would demonstrate whether the honor of the United States required a different disposition of the particular amounts in question. The validity and conclusiveness of the awards remained unimpugned so long as they were permitted to stand, and the principle of res adjudicata could not be invoked against the United States by individual claimants while the controversy raised as to them remained in fieri.

In Frelinghuysen v. Key, while conceding the essential value of international arbitration to be dependent upon the certainty and finality of the decision, the court adjudged that this government need not therefore close its doors against an investigation into the question whether its influence had been lent in favor of a fraudulent claim. It was held that no applicable rule was so rigid as not to be sufficiently flexible to do justice, and that the extent and character of any obligation to individuals, growing out of a treaty, an award and the receipt of money thereon, were necessarily subject to such modification as circumstances might require.

So long as the political branch of the government had not lost its control over the subject matter by final action, the claimant was not in a position, as between himself and his government, to insist on the conclusiveness of the award as to him. And while it is true that for the disposition of the case of Frelinghuysen v. Key it was sufficient that it appeared that diplomatic negotiations were pending which, as the court demonstrated, the act of 1878 in no manner circumscribed, it does not follow that the political department of the government lost its control because those negotiations failed.

On the contrary, that control was expressly reserved, for it was made the duty of the President, if of opinion that the cases named should be retried, to withhold payment until such retrial could be had in an international tribunal, if the two governments so agreed, or in a domestic tribunal if Congress so directed, and, at all events, until Congress should

Statement of the Case.

otherwise direct. The fact that a difference of view as to whether the retrial should be international or domestic may have arisen and led to delay, or that such difference may have existed on the merits, does not affect the conclusion. The inaction of Congress is not equivalent to a direction by Congress. The political department has not parted with its power over the matter, and the intervention of the judicial department cannot now be invoked.

The judgment of the Supreme Court of the District is

Affirmed.

HOFF v. IRON CLAD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.

APPEAL FROM THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK.

No. 225. Argued March 18, 1891. - Decided March 30, 1891.

In view of the previous state of the art, the first claim in letters patent No. 279,871, issued June 19, 1883, to Charles Hoff of Cincinnati, for an improvement in coal-hods, must be limited to the entire bottom of the crimped material and the resultant increase in its thickness; and, being so limited, it is not infringed by a coal-hod made after letters patent No. 304,033, granted August 26, 1884, to Henry S. Reynolds. Whether both patents were not void for want of novelty, quære.

THIS was a bill in equity to recover damages for the infringement of letters patent No. 279,871, issued June 19, 1883, to Charles Hoff of Cincinnati, Ohio, for an improvement in coalhods. In his specifications the patentee stated that his invention related" to coal-hods and similar sheet-metal vessels," and its object "to produce a stronger and better article than those in common use at a less cost of labor and material." He stated his invention to consist "in forming the bucket from a blank so shaped as to be bent into a cone or funnel-shaped body, then folding the cone end of said body in crimps to form the bottom." There were two claims to the patent, namely:

"1. The method of forming the body of a coal-hod or other similar vessel, which consists, substantially, as before set forth,

Opinion of the Court.

in first forming a cone-shaped body from a suitable blank, then folding in the cone end of said body in crimps to form the bottom."

"2. As a new article of manufacture, a coal-hod formed of a single piece, and having its bottom crimped or folded to form a series of annular ribs or rings of progressively-increasing diameter, substantially as shown and described."

The defences were in substance

1. That in view of the prior state of the art, as disclosed by various patents and devices, there was no novelty in the invention;

2. That defendant did not infringe.

The Circuit Court at first rendered a decree for the plaintiff, (27 Fed. Rep. 307,) and subsequently, upon a rehearing, dismissed the bill, (31 Fed. Rep. 45.)

Mr. George J. Murray for appellants.

Mr. J. E. H. Hyde for appellee. Mr. Frederic Betts and Mr. Ernest C. Webb were on the brief.

MR. JUSTICE BROWN delivered the opinion of the court.

The essence of the Hoff patent consists in his method of manufacture, by taking a blank sheet of metal of the proper size and shape, folding it in the form of a cone, and then crimping the smaller end to form the bottom, which is thus made much thicker and more durable than the sides. The bottom shown in his drawings is composed of a series of concentric rings, but he states in his specifications that he does not desire to limit himself to any particular form of crimp or fold for the bottom of the hod, since it is evident that the form of the fold may be changed and still have the tapering end of the blank compressed to force the surplus metal to fold over and strengthen the bottom, and it is also evident that the blank may be varied to suit different shapes of hods.

To ascertain the exact scope of this patent it is necessary to examine the state of the art at the time it was issued.

The