Morrison Waite

“ The appellants might have recovered of the provost-marshal-general at New Orleans the money which he received from them to secure the release of their cotton and the indorsement of the permit and executive order. His wrongful and fraudulent extortion of the money which was ultimately taken from him and deposited in the treasury did not divest them of their title to it, nor bar their right to recover it of the United States.
An action may be maintained whenever the defendant, who has received money belonging to the plaintiff, is obliged by the ties of natural justice and equity to refund it. ”

“ Neither did the executive license have upon it the prescribed certificate that the bond had been executed and delivered. Under such circumstances the seizure could not have been wrongful in the first instance. It was the duty of the military authorities at that point to see that nothing passed out from the enemy's country under this authority until the requisite evidence was furnished. New Orleans was a military post, and Congress had seen fit to restrict materially the power of the President to permit commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of the insurgent territory. ”

“ S. Denison, special agent of the Treasury Department at New Orleans, they purchased in the parishes of East and West Feliciana, in the State of Louisiana, 3,435 bales of cotton upon which they advanced the sum of $123,200 in United States currency, as part payment for the same, and became liable to pay the balance of the purchase-money. ”