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the said court might, under existing laws, take jurisdiction of on such voluntary action of the claimant."

It is clear that under this section no claim against an Executive Department, not otherwise described than as one "involving disputed facts or controverted questions of law," could be transmitted to the Court of Claims for adjudication unless the amount in controversy exceeded three thousand dollars. It is equally clear that that section did not make the amount jurisdictional where a claim of that class is transmitted as one the decision of which would affect a class of cases, or furnish a precedent for the action of the Executive Department in adjusting a class of cases, nor where any authority, right, privilege, or exemption was claimed or denied under the Constitution of the United States. But, as bearing on the inquiry to be presently made whether that section was superseded by subsequent enactments, it should be here noted that there might be claims in the hands of an Auditor or of the Comptroller of the Treasury for examination, which in the first instance were to be passed on by some other Department than that of the Treasury. Claims of that special class could not be transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Court of Claims, under section 1063 of the Revised Statutes, for adjudication, except "upon the certificate of the Auditor or Comptroller of the Treasury," having it under examination. This is indicated not only by the words of that section, but by sections 1064 and 1065, the first of which sections provides that "all cases transmitted by the head of any Department, or upon the certificate of any Auditor or Comptroller, according to the provisions of the preceding section, shall be proceeded in as other cases pending in the Court of Claims, and shall, in all respects, be subject to the same rules and regulations;" and the latter, that "the amount of any final judgment or decree rendered in favor of the claimant, in any case transmitted to the Court of Claims under the two preceding sections, shall be paid out of any specific appropriation applicable to the case, if any such there be; and where no such appropriation exists, the judgment or decree shall be paid in the same manner as other judgments of the said court."

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We come now to what is known as the Bowman act of March 3, 1883, c. 116, entitled "An act to afford assistance and relief to Congress and the Executive Departments in the investigation of claims and demands against the Government." 22 Stat. 485.

By the first section of that act it is provided: "Sec. 1. Whenever a claim or matter is pending before any committee of the Senate or House of Representatives, or before either House of Congress, which involves the investigation and determination of facts, the committee or House may cause the same, with the vouchers, papers, proofs, and documents pertaining thereto, to be transmitted to the Court of Claims of the United States, and the same shall there be proceeded in under such rules as the court may adopt. When the facts shall have been found, the court shall not enter judgment thereon, but shall report the same to the committee or to the House by which the case was transmitted for its consideration."

The second section is in these words: "Sec. 2. When a claim or matter is pending in any of the Executive Departments which may involve controverted questions of fact or law, the head of such Department may transmit the same, with the vouchers, papers, proofs, and documents pertaining thereto, to said court, and the same shall be there proceeded in under such rules as the court may adopt. When the facts and conclusions of law shall have been found, the court shall not enter judgment thereon, but shall report its findings and opinions to the Department by which it was transmitted for its guidance and action."

As the Bowman act contains no words of express repeal, the question arises whether, by necessary implication, its second section superseded section 1063 of the Revised Statutes, in respect of claims transmitted by an Executive Department to the Court of Claims.

The Court of Claims was required by section 1063 of the Revised Statutes to adjudicate any claim, properly transmitted from an Executive Department, by a final judgment, while the Bowman act prohibited any judgment being entered for

Opinion of the Court.

or against a claim transmitted under that act; the duty of the court, in cases involving controverted questions of fact or law, transmitted to and heard by it under the Bowman act, being only to report its findings of fact and conclusions of law to the proper Department, for "its guidance and action."

It is, nevertheless, suggested that the Bowman act, although without words of repeal, covers the entire subject of claims involving controverted questions of fact or law that may be transmitted to the Court of Claims from an Executive Department, and, it is argued, that we must apply the rule that a prior statute is to be regarded as repealed or modified where "the last statute is so broad in its terms and so clear and explicit in its words as to show that it was intended to cover the whole subject, and, therefore, to displace the prior statute." Frost v. Wenie, 157 U. S. 46, 58.

If that act be held to have displaced the whole of section 1063 of the Revised Statutes (except the clause relating to claims transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the certificate of an Auditor or of the Comptroller of the Treasury) the result would be that after its passage the Court of Claims was wholly without jurisdiction to render judgment on any claim for money transmitted from an Executive Department, whatever its nature or amount. Such a construction would exclude from judicial cognizance by that court not only claims exceeding $3000 in amount, and specifically designated as claims involving controverted questions of law and fact, but even claims the determination of which would affect a class of cases, or furnish a precedent for the future action of an Executive Department, and claims that involved an authority, right, privilege, or exemption asserted or denied under the Constitution of the United States. Congress, when it passed the Bowman act, must have had in view the provisions of section 1063 of the Revised Statutes under which the Court of Claims had so long exercised jurisdiction of claims for money made against an Executive Department and transmitted to that court for final adjudication. As the Bowman act makes no reference to that section, and contains no words of repeal, we cannot suppose that Congress intended to take from the

VOL. CLX-39

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Court of Claims jurisdiction to render judgment in cases coming before it under the Revised Statutes. The object of that act is expressed in its title, and was to afford assistance and relief to Congress and the Executive Departments in the investigation of claims and demands against the Government. To that end, and in respect of claims and demands involving controverted questions of fact or law and pending in the Executive Departments, authority was given to the heads of such Departments upon their own motion, and whether the claimant desired it or not, to obtain, for their "guidance and action," findings of fact and conclusions of law, without regard to the amount involved. Billings v. United States, 23 C. Cl. 166, 174. Neither expressly nor by necessary implication did that act take from an Executive Department the right to send to the Court of Claims, for final adjudication, any claim made against it that was embraced by section 1063 of the Revised Statutes. So far as the Bowman act related to claims for money pending in an Executive Department, it only authorized the head of the Department to send them to that court for a report of facts and conclusions that would not have the force of a judgment reviewable by this court. In this view, there is no conflict between the Bowman act and the Revised Statutes. As there are no words of repeal in the Bowman act, we have given it such construction as will make it consistent with previous legislation, and thus avoid the abrogation of existing statutes which Congress had not repealed either expressly or by necessary implication. The second section of the Bowman act should be construed as if it were a proviso to section 1063 of the Revised Statutes. Thus construed the later statute is not in conflict with the earlier

one.

We turn now to the act of March 3, 1887, c. 359, known as the Tucker act, entitled "An act to provide for the bringing of suits against the Government of the United States." 24 Stat. 505.

The first section of that act gives the Court of Claims original jurisdiction to hear and determine all claims founded upon the Constitution of the United States or any law of Congress,

Opinion of the Court.

except for pensions, or upon any regulation of an Executive Department, or upon any contract, expressed or implied, with the Government of the United States, or for damages, liquidated or unliquidated, in cases not sounding in tort, in respect of which claims the party would be entitled to redress against the United States either in a court of law, equity, or admiralty if the United States were suable: nothing, however, in that section to be construed as giving to any of the courts mentioned in the act jurisdiction to hear and determine claims growing out of the late Civil War, and commonly known as war claims," nor other claims theretofore rejected, or reported on adversely by any court, Department, or commission authorized to hear and determine the same. Jurisdiction was also given of all set-offs, counterclaims, claims for damages, whether liquidated or unliquidated, or other demands whatsoever on the part of the Government of the United States against any claimant. It also provided that no suit against the Government of the United States should be allowed under that act unless the same was brought within six years after the right accrued for which the claim is made.

Other sections of that act are as follows:

"SEC. 12. That when any claim or matter may be pending in any of the Executive Departments which involves controverted questions of fact or law, the head of such Department, with the consent of the claimant, may transmit the same, with the vouchers, papers, proofs, and documents pertaining thereto, to said Court of Claims, and the same shall be there proceeded in under such rules as the court may adopt. When the facts and conclusions of law shall have been found, the court shall report its findings to the Department by which it was transmitted.

"SEC. 13. That in every case which shall come before the Court of Claims, or is now pending therein, under the provisions of an act entitled 'An act to afford assistance and relief to Congress and the Executive Departments in the investigation of claims and demands against the Government,' approved March third, eighteen hundred and eighty-three [the Bowman act], if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the court,