ZITTMAN v. McGRATH, ATTORNEY GENERAL, SUCCESSOR TO THE ALIEN PROPERTY CUSTODIAN (341 U.S. 446)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 28, 1951 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 341 U.S. 446 · 71 S. Ct. 832
- Decided
- May 28, 1951
- Term
- October Term 1950
- Vote
- 6–2
- Majority author
- Justice Jackson (R.H.)
- Issue area
- Federal Taxation
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Jackson delivered the opinion of the Court. On December 11, 1941, petitioner Zittman, holder of claims against the Deutsche Reichsbank and the Deutsche Golddiskontbank, caused attachment warrants to be issued by the appropriate New York court and levied on accounts maintained by the debtors in New York City with the Chase National Bank. On January 21, 1942, petitioner McCarthy, holder of a claim against the Reichsbank, also attached its accounts with the Chase Bank. Both attachments were followed by state court actions which were pursued to default judgments. The judgments remain unsatisfied because the attached funds were and are “frozen” by federal government foreign funds controls. The New York courts have repeatedly extended the ninety-day limitation provided for the sheriff to reduce the accounts to his possession or commence an action to do so, so that the attachments, like the judgments, are outstanding. The accounts were frozen June 14, 1941, by Executive Order No. 8785, which extended to assets of German nationals freezing controls initiated by Executive Order No. 8389, issued April 10, 1940, by the President, pursuant to the powers vested in him by § 5 (b) of the Trading With the Enemy Act. The general effect of the basic order was to forbid “transactions” in the assets of blocked nationals, including all “transfers” of such funds. In October, 1946, more…
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