Shuey v. United States
Shuey v. United States
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court:
We agree with the Court of Claims that the service rendered by the plaintiff’s testator was not the apprehension of John H. Surratt, for which the War Department had offered a reward of $25,000, but giving information that conduced to the arrest. These are quite distinct things, though one may have been a, consequence of the other. The proclamation of the Secretary of War treated them as different, and while a reward of $25,000' was offered for the apprehension, the offer for information was only a “ liberal reward.” The findings of the Court of Claims also exhibit a clear distinction between making the arrest and giving the information that led to it. It is found as a fact that the arrest was not made by the claimant, though the discovery and arrest was due entirely to the diclosures made by him. The plain meaning of this is that Surratt’s apprehension was a consequence of the disclosures made. But the consequence of a man’s act are not his acts. Between the consequence and the disclosure that leads to it there may be, and in this case there were, intermediate agencies. Other’persons than the claimant made the arrest, persons who were not his agents, and who themselves were entitled to the proffered reward for his arrest, if any persons were. We think, therefore, that at most the claimant was entitled to the “ liberal reward” promised for information conducing to the arrest, and that reward he has received.
But if this were not so, the judgment given by the Court of." Claims is correct.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.