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Heirs of William Emerson, Plaintiffs in Error, vs. Charles H. Hall, Defendant in Error, The 409 (1839)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0089 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY TERM, 1839. THE HEIRS OF WILLIAM EMERSON, PLAINTIFFS IN ERROR, vs. CHARLES H. HALL, DEFENDANT IN ERROR. The Josepha Secunda, was condemned for a violation of the laws of the United States, prohibiting the slave trade; and by a decree, the District Court of Louisiana allov~ed the claim of the collector, the surveyor, and naval officer, who had prosecuted for the forfeiture, to a portion of the proceeds of the sale of the property condemned. This decree was afterwards reversed, and the whole proceeds adjudged to the United States, on an appeal to the Supreme Court. William Emerson, the surveyor, afterwards died; and in 1831, Congress passed an act for the relief of the collector, the heirs'of William Emerson, and the heirs of the naval officer; under the authority of which the sums which bad been adjudged to those officers, and which had remained in the District Court of Louisiana, were by an order of the Court paid to them according to the provisions of the law. One of the creditors of William Emerson claimed the sum so paid to his legal representatives, as assets for the payment of his debt. Held, that the payment made by order of the District Court, to the minor children of William Emerson, as hilt legal heirs, was rightfully made: and that the same cannot be considered in their hands as assets for the payment of the debts of their father. The prosecution of the Josepha Secunda by the officers of the customs of Louisiana, was not done under the authority of any law, or by any authority; and these sets imposed no obligation, either in law or equity, on the government to compensate them. 'The claim for those services could not hav4e been set up either as an equitable or a legal offset to any demand of the government against them, or either of them; while, under the rules of law, any specific demand on the government which imposed on, it even an equitable obligation, might be set up as an offset. Services rendered under the requirements of law, or of contract, for which a compensation is fixed, constitute a legal demand on the government. Services rendered under an au- thority which is casual, or in some degree discretionary, may constitute an equitable claim. N'o individual can be made a debtor against his will. Voluntary benefits may be conferred on him, which may excite his gratitude; or vhich in the exercise, of his ge- nerosity he may suitably rewa'd. But this depends on his own volition. It would con- stitute a singular item undel the law of assets, to raise a charge against an individual for a benefit conferred by some voluntary act of kindness. The rule ;s the same, whether the benefit be conferred on the government or an individual. A claim against a foreign government for spoliations is not of this, character The de- mand in such a case is founded on the law'of nations, and the obligation is perfect on. the offending government. IN error from the Supreme Court of the eastern district of Louis- iana. In 1829, Charles H. Hall, residing in New York, presented a pe- tition to the Court of Probates of the city and parish of New Or- leans, stating. that the estate of William Emerson, deceased, was indebted to him, in the sum of 'seventeen hundred dollars and up- wards, with interest; and he prayed the Court, that Charles Byrne, the tutor and ourator of the children of William Emerson, should be decreed to allow the debt, and to pay the same. Mr. Byrne, as tutor and curator of the minor heirs of William Em- erson, by his answer, denied that the estate of Emerson was in any wise indebted to the petitioner: and on the 8th of February, 1830, a decree was given in the Court of Probates against the estate of Emerson for the amount of the debt claimed in the petition. Afterwards a case was submitted to the Court of Probates by the VOL. XIII.-2 M 52

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