FIFIY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. Sess. III. Ch. 777. 1905. 809 of officers of the United State Government, reports of committees of both Houses of Congress, and the several deeds from the said Chickasaw Indians conveying said parcels or sections of land to Eli Ayres, deceased, and all papers now on file with the claim in Congress or with the committees of either House relating to such claim, shall be con- Sldéféd by the court, and such weight given thereto as may bedeemed by the court to be right and proper. That jurisdiction is hereby given to the Court of Claims, notwith— 铧j*§{j,f,,g;d““” °“ standing any failure to protest and ap al, to hear and try the claims ` of Bates an Despard, and of Desparmfdirothers, and of the estate of Charles L. Perkins, liquidating partner of Perkins and Choate, and of the Illinois Steel Company as assignee, for refund of import duties paid in excess of the duties imposed by law on steel blooms imported during the years eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, eighteen hundred and eighty, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, and eighteen hundred and eighty-two, and to render judgment, notwithstanding section thirty- four hundred and seventy-seven of the Revised Statutes, in their favor, R·S··S°°·3""»P·“” and in favor of the representatives of said estate, respectively, for such sums as were aid by them and by Perkins and Choate, and by the Union Iron andp Steel Company, in excess of the legal duty: Pro- QQQSQ, ming pw vided, That the petitions shall be filed in said court within one year tionsafter the passagpi of this Act. To John S. osby, of Virginia, the sum of three thousand nine -l<>¤¤ S·M°¤*>Y- hundred and fifty dollars, being for the value of seven thousand nine hundred pounds, more or less, of tobacco taken and used by the United States military forces in the year eighteen hundred and sixty-five. But it is rovided that any portion of such sums representing tobacco beneficially belonging to the father, sister, or other relatives of said Mosby shall be he d in trust by him accordingl . That jurisdiction is hereb conferred on the Court of Claims to ¤f,,,,,’j’,·,,§,l’“!"°“ ""' readjudicate the case of J. E. Simpson and Company against the United States, being numbered eighteen thousand and twenty-eight on the docket of the said court, upon the evidence therein and such further competent evidence as may be adduced by either party within such reasonable time as the court ma tix and determine, and if the said court shall find upon such readjudication that the said firm sustained loss in the construction of a timber dr * dock for the United States at the New York Navy—Yard, during the years eighteen hundred and eighty-seven to eighteen hundred and ninety, by reason of the fact that the soils underlying the site selected and (provided for the said dry dock by the United States were unstable an were not as described by a rotile and report, furnished to the said firm by agents of the Lnited States, rior to the execution of the contract or the said dry dock between dbe said firm and the United States, the said court is umn. hereby authorized and em' wcred to enter judgment in favor of the said firm for the amount ofits loss so found not exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars. _ _ . That the claims of the legal or equitable owners or claimants of the ,%§§’§f*§§P,§t“"'“’ float or lighter known as "Southern Railway Lighter Number Ten," g1}g:>;yj;¤g¥¤¤¤ and cargoes, freight, and personal effects thereon, alleged to have been p° ' sunk, lost,. or greatly damaged by collision with the `United States Army transport Sumner, in the harbor of Norfolk, Virginia, on o1· about the seventeenth day of March, nineteen hundred, be referred to the Court of Claims, with jurisdiction and authority to hear and determine the same to judgment, with the right of appeal as in other cases: [bww5e1e:], That no suit shall be brought under the rovisions of this Act after six months from the date of the passage thereof: And ` pmadded fw-ther, That no judgment shall be rendered against the Judgment. Government unless it shall affirmatively appear from the evidence adduced that such collision was the result of negligence on the part of the United States or its agents.
