United States v. Insurance Companies, 89 U.S. 99

                                      U.S. Supreme Court

         United States v. Insurance Companies, 89 U.S. 22 Wall. 99 99 (1874)

                                              United States v. Insurance Companies
                                                             89 U.S. (22 Wall.) 99
                                                                        Syllabus

 
1. Corporations created by the legislature of a rebel state while the state was in armed rebellion against the government of the United States have power since the suppression of the rebellion to sue in the federal courts if the acts of incorporation had no relation to anything else than the domestic concerns of the state and they were neither in their apparent purpose nor in their operation hostile to the Union or in conflict with the Constitution, but were mere ordinary legislation, such as might have been had there been no war or no attempted secession, and such as is of yearly occurrence in all the states.
2. Such corporations may in proper cases sue under the Captured and Abandoned Property Act.
The Home Insurance Company and the Southern Insurance and Trust Company, both being corporations created by the Legislature of Georgia in 1861 and 1863, while the state was in armed rebellion against the government of the United States, brought suit in the court below against the United States under the Captured and Abandoned Property Act (an act which, by its terms, gives a right to sue only to persons who have borne true faith and allegiance to the government and have never voluntarily aided, abetted, or given encouragement to rebellion) to recover the proceeds of the sale of cotton captured at Savannah, in 1864, and now in the Treasury of the United States. The United States pleaded the general issue and statute of limitations, but no other plea.