Joseph P. Bradley

“ Whilst we concede that this may be the law of California as it regards private citizens who are landlords, we are not satisfied that the same law can be applied to the government of the United States. We consider it to be a fundamental principle that the government cannot be sued except by its own consent; and certainly no State can pass a law, which would have any validity, for making the government suable in its courts. ”

“ Now, it is too evident to require discussion that the city of San Francisco could not, in 1855, make a valid grant of property which it had already granted in 1852; and which the grantee (in this case the United States) constantly claimed as part and parcel of premises which were in its undoubted possession. The weight of the evidence in the case is, that the government was in actual possession of lots 3 and 4 as appendant to the hospital, from 1852 to the passage of the ordinance. ”

“ In England it is usual, in the admiralty courts, in proceedings in rem, when it is made to appear that property of the government ought, in justice, to contribute to a general average, or to salvage, for the proper officer of the government to consent in court that it may take jurisdiction of the matter. ”