Stanley Matthews

“ In computing the amount of compensation to which it claimed to be entitled, under its contract for the services performed, the appellant insisted upon the adoption of the rates charged by it to private parties, for goods carried in express cars, as being the only service of the same kind, and so furnishing the criterion of its compensation. ”

“ The legislation referred to furnishes, therefore, no evidence of any intention on the part of Congress to alter the relation between the appellant and the government, established by the sixth section of the act of 1862, and we are of the opinion that the company is entitled, under its provisions, for the services rendered during the period covered by the present claim, to fair and reasonable rates of compensation, not to exceed the amounts paid by private parties for the same kind of services. ”

“ Stat., fixes a scale of maximum rates, graded according to the average weight of the mails carried, according to which the Postmaster-General is authorized and directed to readjust the compensation thereafter to be paid for the transportation of mails on said railroad routes. And it was in accordance with a readjustment based on these rates that, in the present case, the government insisted that the appellant was bound to conform its claims, and the Court of Claims so adjudged. ”