Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/98

86 FBDEBAIi BEPOBTEB. �the treasury not otherwise appropriated, "to refund to the several persons indebted thereto such sums of money as have been iliegally exacted by collectors of customs, under the sanction of the treasury department, for duties on imported merehandise" since March 3, 1833; "provided, that before any such refunding the secretary shall be satisfied, by decisions of the courts of the United States upon the principle involved, that such duties were iliegally exacted ; and provided, also, that such decisions of the courts shall have. been adopted or acquiesced in by the treasury department as its rule of construction." �In this section 2 nothing is said about paying the amounts of judg- raents or about paying interest on judgments or about paying inter- est on sums illegally exacted, but it is the sums iliegally exacted which are to be refunded, and the refunding is made to depend on the adoption of, or aoquiescenoe in, the decision of the court by the treasury department. There is nothing in this section 2 to indicate that it was limitad to cases of duties paid under protest, while under ' the act of February 26, 1845, suits could be brought against a ool- lector only where duties had been paid under protest. On the tenth pf August, 1846, an act was passed (9 St. at Large, 677) directing the refunding to a party named of "the balance remaining unpaid, and interest thereon, " of a judgment recovered by him in this court against the collector of this port for the recovery of duties iliegally exacted, "a part of which judgment has been heretofore paid. " This general and special legislation indicates an intention in congress to specify interest when it is to be paid, Like instances of refunding to parties named duties iliegally or erroneously collected on imports, but without mentioning interest, are found in acts passed June 28, 1848, and March 3, 1849, (9 St. at Large, 720, 780.) �The act of March 3, 1857, § 5, (11 St. at Large, 195,) provided for an appeal to the secretary of the treasury, after protcst, from the decision of a collector as to the liability of imported goods to or their exemption from duty, and made the decision on such appeal final, unless suit should be brought within 30 days after such de- cision. �By the act of April 11, 1860, (12 St. at Large, 837,) provision is made for the repayment, with interest at 6 per cent, per annum from the date of exaction, of certain duties iliegally exacted as tonnage and light duties; while by the act of March 2, 1861, (Id. 890,) provision is made for the repayment of a certain amount erroneously paid as ��� �