[435] Louisiana v. McAdoo, 234 U.S. 627, 628 (1914).
[436] 162 U.S. 255 (1896). At page 271 Justice Gray endeavors to distinguish between this and the Lee Case. It was Justice Gray who spoke for the dissenters in the Lee Case.
[437] Land v. Dollar, 330 U.S. 731, 737 (1947). Justice Douglas cites for this proposition Cunningham v. Macon & B.R. Co., 109 U.S. 446, 452 (1883); Tindal v. Wesley, 167 U.S. 204 (1897); Smith v. Reeves, 178 U.S. 436, 439 (1900); Scranton v. Wheeler, 179 U.S. 141, 152, 153 (1900); Philadelphia Co. v. Stimson, 223 U.S. 605, 619, 620 (1912); Goltra v. Weeks, 271 U.S. 536 (1926). This last case actually extended the rule of the Lee Case and was virtually overruled in Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Corp., 337 U.S. 682 (1949).
[438] Oregon v. Hitchcock, 202 U.S. 60 (1906); Louisiana v. Garfield, 211 U.S. 70 (1908); New Mexico v. Lane, 243 U.S. 52 (1917); Wells v. Roper, 246 U.S. 335 (1918); Morrison v. Work, 266 U.S. 481 (1925); Minnesota v. United States, 305 U.S. 382 (1939); Mine Safety Appliances Co. v. Forrestal, 326 U.S. 371 (1945). See also Minnesota v. Hitchcock, 185 U.S. 373 (1902). For a review of the cases dealing with sovereign immunity see Joseph D. Block, Suits Against Government Officers and the Sovereign Immunity Doctrine, 59 Harv. L. Rev. 1060 (1946).
[439] Cunningham v. Macon & B.R. Co., 109 U.S. 446, 451 (1883), quoted by Chief Justice Vinson in the opinion of the Court in Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Corp., 337 U.S. 682, 698 (1949).
[440] Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Corp., supra, 708. Justice Frankfurter's dissent also contains a useful classification of immunity cases and an appendix listing them.
[441] 330 U.S. 731, 735 (1947). The italics are added.
[442] 337 U.S. 682 (1949).
[443] Ibid. 689-697.
[444] Ibid. 701-702. This rule was applied in United States ex rel. Goldberg v. Daniels, 231 U.S. 218 (1914), which also involved a sale of government surplus property. After the Secretary of the Navy rejected the highest bid, plaintiff sought mandamus to compel delivery. The suit was held to be against the United States. See also Perkins, Secretary of Labor v. Lukens Steel Co., 310 U.S. 113 (1940), which held that prospective bidders for contracts derive no enforceable rights against a federal official for an alleged misinterpretation of his government's authority on the ground that an agent is answerable only to his principal for misconstruction of instructions, given for the sole benefit of the principal. In the Larson Case the Court not only refused to follow Goltra v. Weeks, 271 U.S. 536 (1926), but in effect overruled it. The Goltra Case involved an attempt of the Government to repossess barges which it had leased under a contract reserving the right to repossess in certain circumstances. A suit to enjoin repossession was held not to be a suit against the United States on the ground that the actions were personal and in the nature of a trespass.