SEC. 170.. The commissioner taking testimony to be used in the Court of Claims shall administer an oath or affirmation to the witness brought before him for examination. SEC. 171. When testimony is taken for the claimant, the fees of the commissioner before whom it is taken, and the cost of the commission and notice, shall be paid by such claimant; and when it is taken at the instance of the Government, such fees shall be paid out of the contingent fund provided for the Court of Claims, or other appropriation made by Congress for that purpose. SEC. 172. Any person who corruptly practices or attempts to practice any fraud against the United States in the proof, statement, establishment, or allowance of any claim or of any part of any claim against the United States shall, ipso facto, forfeit the same to the Government; and it shall be the duty of the Court of Claims, in such cases, to find specifically that such fraud was practiced or attempted to be practiced, and thereupon to give judgment that such claim is forfeited to the Government, and that the claimant be forever barred from prosecuting the same. SEC. 173. No claim shall be allowed by the accounting officers under the provisions of the act of Congress approved June sixteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, or by the Court of Claims, or by Congress, to any person where such claimant, or those under whom he claims, shall willfully, knowingly, and with intent to defraud the United States, have claimed more than was justly due in respect to such claim, or presented any false evidence to Congress, or to any department or court, in support thereof. SEC. 174. When judgment is rendered against any claimant, the court may grant a new trial for any reason which, by the rules of common law or chancery in suits between individuals, would furnish sufficient ground for granting a new trial. SEC. 175. The Court of Claims, at any time while any claim is pending before it, or on appeal from it, or within two years next after the final disposition of such claim, may, on motion, on behalf of the United States, grant a new trial and stay the payment of any judgment therein, upon such evidence, cumulative or otherwise, as shall satisfy the court that any fraud, wrong, or injustice in the premises has been done to the United States; but until an order is made staying the payment of a judgment, the same shall be payable and paid as now provided by law. SEC. 176. There shall be taxed against the losing party in each and every cause pending in the Court of Claims the cost of printing the record in such case, which shall be collected, except when the judgment is against the United States, by the clerk of said court and paid into the Treasury of the United States. SEO. 177. No interest shall be allowed on any claim up to the time of the rendition of judgment thereon by the Court of Claims, unless upon a contract expressly stipulating for the payment of interest. SEC. 178. The payment of the amount due by any judgment of the Court of Claims, and of any interest thereon allowed by law, as provided by law, shall be a full discharge to the United States of all claim and demand touching any of the matters involved in the controversy. SEC. 179. Any final judgment against the claimant on any claim prosecuted as provided in this chapter shall forever bar any further claim or demand against the United States arising out of the matters involved in the controversy. SEC. 180. Whenever any person shall present his petition to the Court of Claims alleging that he is or has been indebted to the United States as an officer or agent thereof, or by virtue of any contract therewith, or that he is the guarantor, or surety, or personal representative of any officer or agent or contractor so indebted, or that he or the person for whom he is such surety, guarantor, or personal representative has held any office or agency under the United States, or entered into any contract therewith, under which it may be or has been claimed that an indebtedness to the United States has arisen and exists, and that he or the person he represents has applied to the proper department of the Government requesting that the account of such office, agency, or indebtedness may be adjusted and settled, and that three years have elapsed from the date of such application, and said account still remains unsettled and unadjusted, and that no suit upon the same has been brought by the United States, said court shall, due notice first being given to the head of said department and to the AttorneyGeneral of the United States, proceed to hear the parties and to ascertain the amount, if any, due the United States on said account. The Attorney-General shall represent the United States at the hearing of said cause. The court may postpone the same from time to time whenever justice shall require. The judgment of said court or the Supreme Court of the United States, to which an appeal shall lie, as in other cases, as to the amount due, shall be binding and conclusive upon the parties. The payment of such amount so found due by the court shall discharge such obligation. An action shall accrue to the United States against such principal, or surety, or representative to recover the amount so found due, which may be brought at any time within three years after the final judgment of said court; and unless suit shall be brought within said time, such claim and the claim on the original indebtedness shall be forever barred. The provisions of section one hundred and sixty-six shall apply to cases under this section. SEC. 181. The plaintiff or the United States, in any suit brought under the provisions of the section last preceding, shall have the same right of appeal as is conferred under sections two hundred and fortytwo and two hundred and forty-three; and such right shall be exercised only within the time and in the manner therein prescribed. SEC. 182. In any case brought in the Court of Claims under any Act of Congress by which that court is authorized to render a judgment or decree against the United States, or against any Indian tribe or any Indians, or against any fund held in trust by the United States for any Indian tribe or for any Indians, the claimant, or the United States, or the tribe of Indians, or other party in interest shall have the same right of appeal as is conferred under sections two hundred and forty-two and two hundred and forty-three; and such right shall be exercised only within the time and in the manner therein prescribed. SEC. 183. The Attorney-General shall report to Congress, at the beginning of each regular session, the suits under section one hundred and eighty, in which a final judgment or decree has been rendered, giving the date of each and a statement of the costs taxed in each case. SEC. 184. In any case of a claim for supplies or stores taken by or furnished to any part of the military or naval forces of the United States for their use during the late Civil War, the petition shall aver that the person who furnished such supplies or stores, or from whom such supplies or stores were taken, did not give any aid or comfort to said rebellion, but was throughout the war loyal to the Government of the United States, and the fact of such loyalty shall be a jurisdictional fact; and unless the said court shall, on a preliminary inquiry, find that the person who furnished such supplies or stores, or from whom the same were taken as aforesaid, was loyal to the Government of the United States throughout said war, the court shall not have jurisdiction of such cause, and the same shall, without further proceedings, be dismissed. SEC. 185. The Attorney-General, or his assistants under his direction, shall appear for the defense and protection of the interests of the United States in all cases which may be transmitted to the Court of Claims under the provisions of this chapter, with the same power to interpose counterclaims, offsets, defenses for fraud practiced or attempted to be practiced by claimants, and other defenses, in like manner as he is required to defend the United States in said court. SEC. 186. (As amended February 5, 1912, 37 Stat. 61.) No person shall be excluded as a witness in the Court of Claims on account of color or because he or she is a party to or interested in the cause or proceeding; and any plaintiff or party in interest may be examined as a witness on the part of the Government. SEC. 187. Reports of the Court of Claims to Congress, under sections one hundred and forty-eight and one hundred and fifty-one, if not finally acted upon during the session at which they are reported, shall be continued from session to session, and from Congress to Congress until the same shall be finally acted upon. CHAPTER EIGHT. THE COURT OF CUSTOMS APPEALS. Sec. 189. Court to be always open for 190. Marshal of the court; ap- 191. Clerk of the court; appointment, salary, and duties. 192. Assistant clerk, stenographic clerks, and reporter; appointment, salary, and duties. 193. Rooms for holding court to be provided; bailiffs and messengers. 194. To be a court of record; to prescribe form and style Sec. of seal, and establish rules and regulations; may affirm, modify, or reverse and remand case, etc. 195. Final decisions of Board of General Appraisers to be reviewed only by customs court. 196. Other courts deprived of jurisdiction in customs cases; pending cases excepted. 197. Transfer to customs court of pending cases; completion of testimony. 198. Appeals from Board of General Appraisers; time within which to be taken; record to be transmitted to customs court. 199. Records filed in customs court to be at once placed on calendar; calendar to be called every sixty days. SEC. 188. There shall be a United States Court of Customs Appeals, which shall consist of a presiding judge and four associate judges, each of whom shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, and shall receive a salary of seven thousand dollars a year. The presiding judge shall be so designated in the order of appointment and in the commission issued to him by the President: and the associate judges shall have precedence according to the date of their commissions. Any three members of said court shall constitute a quorum, and the concurrence of three members shall be necessary to any decision thereof. In case of a vacancy or of the temporary inability or disqualification, for any reason, of one or two of the judges of said court, the President may, upon the request of the presiding judge of said court, designate any qualified United States circuit or district judge or judges to act in his or their place: and such circuit or district judges shall be duly qualified to so act. SEC. 189. The said Court of Customs Appeals shall always be open for the transaction of business, and sessions thereof may, in the discretion of the court, be held in the several judicial circuits, and at such places as said court may from time to time designate. Any judge who, in pursuance of the provisions of this chapter, shall attend a session of said court at any place other than the city of Washington, shall be paid, upon his written and itemized certificate, by the marshal of the district in which the court shall be held, his actual and necessary expenses incurred for travel and attendance, and the actual and necessary expenses of one stenographic clerk who may accompany him; and such payments shall be allowed the marshal in the settlement of his accounts with the United States. SEC. 190. (Provides for a marshal of the court.) SEC. 191. The court shall appoint a clerk, whose office shall be in the city of Washington, District of Columbia, and who shall perform and exercise the same duties and powers in regard to all matters within the jurisdiction of said court as are now exercised and performed by the clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States, so far as the same may be applicable. The salary of the clerk shall be three thousand five hundred dollars per annum, which sum shall be in full payment for all service rendered by such clerk; and all fees of any kind whatever, and all costs shall be by him turned into the United States Treasury. Said clerk shall not be appointed by the court or any judge thereof as a commissioner, master, receiver, or referee. The costs and fees in the said court shall be fixed and established by said court in a table of fees to be adopted and approved by the Supreme Court of the United States within four months after the organization of said court: Provided, That the costs and fees so fixed shall not, with respect to any item, exceed the costs and fees charged in the Supreme Court of the United States; and the same shall be expended, accounted for, and paid over to the Treasury of the United States. SEC. 192. court.) SEC. 193. (Provides for appointment of subordinate officers of the (Provides court rooms.) SEC. 194. The said Court of Customs Appeals shall be a court of record, with jurisdiction as in this chapter established and limited. It shall prescribe the form and style of its seal, and the form of its writs and other process and procedure and exercise such powers conferred by law as may be conformable and necessary to the exercise of its jurisdiction. It shall have power to establish all rules and regulations for the conduct of the business of the court, and as may be needful for the uniformity of decisions within its jurisdiction as conferred by law. It shall have power to review any decision or matter within its jurisdiction, and may affirm, modify, or reverse the same and remand the case with such orders as may seem to it proper in the premises, which shall be executed accordingly. SEC. 195. (As amended by Act of August 22, 1914, 38 Stat. 703.) That the Court of Customs Appeals established by this chapter shall exercise exclusive appellate jurisdiction to review by appeal, as herein provided, final decisions by a board of general appraisers in all cases as to the construction of the law and the facts respecting the classification of merchandise and the rate of duty imposed thereon under such classifica |