Edward Douglass White

“ Thus, in the argument, it is said: 'If the officers of the United States have since the act . . . used or shall hereafter use complainant's patented design, it is possible or probable that complainant may receive reasonable compensation under the act in the court of claims,'-this statement being followed by an insistance that even although this be the case, the statute is not controlling, because it was enacted after the bill was filed, and did not, therefore, retroactively deprive the court below of the power to afford relief under the conditions existing when the suit was commenced. ”

“ In substance, therefore, in this case, in view of the public nature of the subjects with which the patents in question are concerned and the undoubted authority of the United States as to such subjects to exert the power of eminent domain, the statute, looking at the substance of things, provides for the appropriation of a license to use the inventions, the appropriation thus made being sanctioned by the means of compensation for which the statute provides. ”

“ Indisputably the duty to make compensation does not inflexibly, in the absence of constitutional provisions requiring it, exact, first, that compensation should be made previous to the taking,-that is, that the amount should be ascertained and paid in advance of the appropriation,-it being sufficient, having relation to the nature and character of the property taken, that adequate means be provided for a reasonably just and prompt ascertainment and payment of the compensation ”

“ The conclusion of the argument on this subject was thus stated:
'The general rule is that, where jurisdiction in equity has been established, a subsequent statute creating a remedy at law or removing the obstacle at law upon which the existence of the equity jurisdiction was originally founded does not oust equity of that jurisdiction unless the statute affirmatively discloses the legislative intent to make the legal remedy exclusive . . . ”