William Strong

“ And certainly the holder of a mere equitable right can have no standing as a plaintiff in the Court of Claims. Apart from the fact that there is no privity between the United States and an equitable holder of a claim against the government, obtained by him through an assignment, the Court of Claims is without power to adjudicate upon merely equitable rights. ”

“ We discover nothing in reason, nothing in the mischief the act was plainly intended to remedy, and nothing in the language employed tending to warrant the admission of any exceptions from the comprehensive provisions made; nothing that can justify our holding that, when Congress said all transfers or assignments, partial or entire, absolute or conditional, of claims against the United States shall be null and void, they meant they should be in operation only when presented to the accounting officers of the treasury, but effective when presented everywhere else. ”

“ Not every person is permitted to sue for such proceeds. The act declares that 'any person claiming to have been the owner of any such abandoned or captured property may, at any time within two years after the suppression of the rebellion, prefer his claim to the proceeds thereof in the Court of Claims, and on proof to the satisfaction of the court of his ownership of said property, & c., receive the residue of such proceeds. It is thus plain that only he who can claim as an owner of the property captured or abandoned, and who can prove such ownership, is permitted to sue and recover. ”