of remaining in Ciudad Bolívar, and it is proved that the voyage of the steamers and shipment of cattle continued without interruption, Battistini himself carrying out said shipment for the account and by order of Lalanne. The injury suffered by Battistini, who is the owner of pasture lands on the banks of the Orinoco, was nothing but his returning these cattle to the pastures or their sale in Ciudad Bolívar at a price not so high as the transaction of Lalanne assured him. Estimating this expense or loss conservatively, the sum of 5,000 bolivars is allowed in this respect. 2. For the matter of Caliman, civil chief of Ciudad Bolívar, who (according to the record) has committed injustices in detriment to his interests, 20,000 bolivars. From the record it appears only that the civil chief, Caliman, ordered the withdrawal from public market of Ciudad Bolívar of a quantity of raw meat, which Battistini had sent there for its sale, disobeying positive orders not to do so, because this act was contrary to a contract made with certain persons for the furnishing of meat in the market. The meat withdrawn was attached and sold at public auction by the police officer. There exists no other proof referring to the action of the civil authority against the interests of claimants, and no claim against the nation can be founded upon this procedure of municipal regulation. 3. For the claim of Pereira Alvarez, judge of the first instance at Ciudad Bolívar, who, as Battistini says, has committed abominable injustices against his person and against his interests, for which he has not been able to obtain any reparation before the tribunals, 40,000 bolivars. It is proven that because Battistini had protested against the action of the civil chief, Caliman, in withdrawing from the market his raw meat, a protest which the subtreasurer of Ciudad Bolívar did not wish to record, because he considered it offensive to the authority, Judge Pereira Alvarez rendered judgment for calumny and injuries against Battistini, and issued an order of arrest against him and a mandate to all the authorities to carry it into effect. Battistini fled from the locality and came to the capital of the Republic seeking protection. The son of Battistini complained to the judge, and the latter revoked the order of detention, because the offense had not been proven; that is, because there was nothing injurious or calumnious in Battistini's protest. Battistini sued the judge, Pereira Alvarez, before the court for neglect in the exercise of his duties, but the court could not move because Battistini was not able to obtain the necessary copies of documents which the judge in question ought to have ordered to be issued to him, and his solicitations in this regard before the president of the State and other local officials were futile. These facts proved the denial of justice, because the local authorities deprived Battistini of the legal means of instituting before the competent tribunals the actions which the laws would authorize him in case he might improperly have been condemned to a criminal judgment. In this respect the Venezuelan commissioner believes that Battistini is entitled to an indemnity which, in relation to the offense and the injuries which the arbitrary order of detention of the judge caused him, he estimates at 25,000 bolivars. 4. This item of the claim is a demand for indemnity amounting to 75,000 bolivars for principal and interests for a certain number of coupons or bonds of the debt of the State of Guayana, of which Battistini says he is the owner, and that by decree of President-General Fonseca, it was ordered that they should not be admitted as had been the custom in payment in the tax offices of the State unless they had been redeemed up to date. The claimant has not presented the original bonds or any part of them which he may have in his possession. The failure to present said bonds makes an appreciation regarding the legitimacy of the claim impossible, because its essential foundation, which is the ownership or existence under the control of Battistini of such certificates or bonds and the exact ascertainment of their amount, is wanting. Besides this circumstance, which by itself alone nullifies the claim, it appears from the claim of Battistini himself that these bonds are nothing else but bonds of a public debt of the State of Guayana extinguishable from the time of their issue in 1878 by 10 per cent of the ordinary receipts of the treasury of the State; that later, in November, 1882, the president of the State suspended the circulation of said bonds, and on December 9 of said year he issued a decree ordering their redemption by means of payments to be made out of an allotment of 25 per cent of the special revenue of the State of Bolívar destined for the section of Guayana on June 7, 1884, and payment was made whereby the value of the bonds was reduced from 104,837 bolivars, the amount of the first issue, to the sum of 49,507 bolivars, which sum Battistini says was completely in his possession; that the effects of the financial crisis that took place at that time and the reduction of 25 per cent in the revenue of the allowance and by the territorial revenues hindered the continuation of the extinguishment, and finally that the legislature of the State by a legislative act of 1888 passed a law concerning the public debt which had as an object to consolidate all the debts of the State. It is to this decree that the judgments of the court in the various grades of jurisdiction of the State of Bolívar have remitted Mr. Battistini in the suit which he instituted against the treasury of the State for the payment of the bonds which were in his possession. In May, 1890, Battistini, the claimant, instituted a proceeding of cassation against this decision in the supreme court of Ciudad Bolívar as a court of last resort, and on the 16th of that month the court of cassation granted the appeal which, as appears from the statement of Battistini, was allowed to lapse. There are, therefore, final judgments which decree that Battistini, like any other holder of the internal debt of the State of Guaiana, is obliged to submit himself to the laws or decrees which govern the extinguishment of said debt. It is a principle of public international law that the internal debt of a state, classified as a public debt, which is subject to speculations current among that sort of values which are acquired freely and spontaneously at very different rates of quotations which mark great fluctuations of their rise and fall, can never be the subject of international claims in order to obtain their immediate payment in cash a just as they can not be the subject of judgments before the tribunals of the country in order that their holders may obtain the payment of their nominal value. To establish such a principle would be to put a premium upon stock jobbing, which would be often possible with this sort of public values, and would place nations at the mercy of speculators who might obtain control of all their internal debt. The certificates or bonds, in question in the matter of the claim of Battistini, in this subdivision, are in the same condition as the internal debt of the nation, which amounts to many millions and bears interest, and it is more than four years since payment for its extinguishment and the payment of interest has been suspended on account of the abnormal condition caused by the war. Could these mixed commissions have jurisdiction to decide claims which the foreign holders of this internal debt might present to them in order to obtain the payment of the principal and interests? This could not be sustained even with respect to the foreign, or as it is called diplomatic debt, of 3 per cent, nor with respect to any public debt which has been put upon the speculative market and may therefore pass from hand to hand by virtue of transactions prompted daily by those who profit from the rise and fall of public securities. This portion of the claim is declared inadmissible, because it can not be prosecuted before this Commission. 5. This portion of the claim arises out of the recovery of a private debt which Mr. Hernandez Lopez contracted in favor of Battistini, amounting to the sum of 12,228 bolivars, and which gave rise to a suit prosecuted before the competent judge of Ciudad Bolívar, in which judgment was rendered and ordered to be executed ordering the attachment of the property of the debtor. This attachment could not be carried into effect because Hernandez disappeared from the place of execution and the property of the debtor could not be found upon which to lay it. Battistini seeks to make the nation responsible for the insolvency of his private debtor, an unsustainable and evidently rash pretension, which only indicates in the petitioner a true monomania for claims. The amount of this portion of the claim therefore is disallowed, which is 25,000 bolivars. 6. The claim of 35,000 bolivars for a certain quantity of sarrapia, which was declared contraband after a formal judgment which was twice appealed and terminated in the full a In the Italian Commission of 1903 (Boccardo case, not reported) judgment was given on internal bonds on authority of Aspinwall case, Moore's International Arbitrations, p. 3616. Federal court confirming the judgments of the first and second instances, which condemned Battistini to lose the sacks of sarrapia, a contraband article, and to the payment of double duties, lacks all foundation, because there is upon this matter res judicata, and it ought therefore to be disallowed. (Items 7, 8, and 9 dismissed for want of proof.) 10. For the value of a certificate issued in favor of Domingo María Battistini April 29, 1891, by the general internal treasurer of the State of Bolívar, recognizing the debt against the old State of Guayana, amounting to 13,780 bolivars, for supplies made to the State of Guayana and by order of the citizen president of the same State, No. 2307. This is admitted for said sum. For interests upon this receipt and other general injuries there is allowed by the arbitrators the sum of 6,220 bolivars. (This claim was allowed for 50,000 bolivars.) PITON CASE.a Prescription unless pleaded by the debtor will not be taken into consideration by the Commission. PAUL, Commissioner: The claimants, in their capacity of French citizens, and sole and legitimate children of P. Claudius Piton and Augustina Piton, née Lemoine, as appears from the public documents which have been presented before this commission, demand from the Government of Venezuela the payment of the sum of 489,468.64 bolivars for capital and interest accrued since the date of their claim, arising out of the acknowledgment made by the minister of interior and justice on January 7, 1868, and by a resolution of the same date marked No. 5, in favor of Messrs. A. Lemoine & Co., for the following amounts: For the balance due on a credit of $50,000, to which they have a right by the contract of July 20, 1856, made with the honorable municipal council of La Guaira, and approved by the government of the former province of Caracas on August 28 of the same year, said contract having as an object the furnishing of drinkable water to the city of La Guaira by means of an iron pipe, the construction of various public fountains, the building of a reservoir for the storage of the waters, and the repairing of the aqueduct in various places, $38,411.16. For interest accrued upon this balance at the rate of 6 per cent per annum from June 1, 1860, until December 31, 1867.. For damages and injuries which A. Lemoine & Co. claim for the breach of the contract (it being remembered that this amount is much less than what the profit of 1 per cent per month would have been which was indicated as simple interest in the original contract) $16, 751. 50 7,500.00 62, 662. 66 It was moreover resolved that this sum of $62,662.66 should be paid by the administration of the revenues of the department of Vargas by the receipts from the public market of said city of La Guaira, and by the tariff for pure water which should be collected at that place, the payments having to be made monthly and the account to bear interest at said rate of 6 per cent per annum only upon the balance of $38,411.16, since in no case could interest be paid upon interest. As appears from the documents registered at La Guaira on January 28, 1868, under No. 4, protocol 8, the collector of revenues of the municipal council of the department of Vargas, Mr. G. Quevedo, by virtue of the special authorization of said body, by said instrument, put Messrs. A. Lemoine & Co. into possession of the receipts of the market and of pure water which might be collected by the administration of municipal revenues of the department of Vargas, its product to be delivered monthly, without any other reduction except what might be caused by its collection. a Reported in Venezuelan Arbitrations of 1903, p. 507, as "Daniel" case. It appears from the documents presented that the administrative council of the department of Vargas carried on with A. Lemoine & Co. an open account in fulfillment of the resolution of the ministry of the interior and justice, under the division of districts until November 1, 1871, when the change of application of the funds destined for the extinction of the capital acknowledged to be due A. Lemoine & Co., and the interest on said capital at one-half per cent per month. From this last account it appears that upon the above date, November 1, 1871, the municipal council of the department of Vargas owed A. Lemoine & Co. the following: For capital Interest.. Damages and injuries acknowledged. $31, 944. C4 25, 234. 62 7,500.00 64, 678.66 An account has been presented bearing date April 17, 1882, showing an amount due of $84,643.66 as the balance of the capital and interest in favor of A. Lemoine & Co., and a note addressed by the president of the municipal council of the district of Vargas, dated June 1, 1883, No. 188, to Mr. Daniel Dibble, in order that he might transmit it to the heirs of A. Lemoine, deceased, wherein he announced to them that said municipal council at its session of June 7, 1883, had resolved with reference to the claim presented by said heirs upon March 31 of said year, to approve the opinion of representative Manuel F. Sojo couched in the following terms: “That it being a matter of the greatest importance, and his many duties not permitting him to examine it, he returned it, indicating that he thought it would be well to have the advice of a lawyer." The president of the council in said communication also announced that the body had postponed until another session the choice of the lawyer to be consulted. Under letters D and E two plain copies of the two communications, the first addressed in July, 1895, by Cárlos Piton in his own right, and Santiago Carias as the representative of Amelia and Isabel Piton to the municipal council of the department of Vargas, in which they requested that order be given that a liquidation might be made showing the indebtedness of said council to the heirs of Augusto Lemoine on account of the iron pipe line at La Guaira, in accordance with the contract in the premises which appeared in evi. dence in said record, and they demanded that a certified copy be issued to them of such liquidation. The second communication, dated at Caracas in September, 1896, is written by the same petitioners and was addressed to the president of the State of Miranda, of which State the city of La Guaira then formed a part, asking said official that he examine the documents which the demand mentioned and that he might signify that he considered it just, and that he might fix upon a fortnightly payment for the gradual extinguishment of the debt. It is not proved that these two demands have reached their destination, and that consequently any determination with respect to them was reached. From the facts stated, it appears that an agreement duly recorded existed by which the National Government through its official, the minister of the interior and justice, acknowledged an indebtedness in favor of Messrs. A. Lemoine & Co. of $66,682.66, as capital, interest, and damages, and injuries in January, 1868, ordering the gradual extinction of this debt by means of the receipts of the rents of the market and pure water of the eity of La Guaira; that this agreement was performed for the space of three years and ten months, Messrs. A. Lemoine & Co. receiving from the municipal rents of the district of Vargas various sums from said rents, which extinguished in part the balance owed upon the capital, and that portion owed for interest increased, whereby, by November 1, 1871, the general balance of the running account in favor of A. Lemoine & Co. amounted to $64,678.66; that from this last date it does not appear that there has ever been any action taken by the owner of the debt directly, nor by their legitimate successors in interest, before the competent tribunals or officials of the country, demanding the fulfillment of the agreement made with the municipal corporation of La Guaira. It is not possible to leave It is a notorious fact that the district of Vargas has since the year 1871 passed through a The liability which might attach to the National Government to-day for a debt which was Upon the date of this session the debt due the successors in interest of A. Lemoine hac for SUMMARY OF CLAIMS ADJUDICATED BY THE COMMISSIONERS AT CARACAS IN 1903. |