An Act Directing the Custodian of the Silver and Other Metal Seized from the Steamer Don Juan by Officers of the Spanish Government in the Month of July, Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-Three, to Deliver to the Respective Claimants and Owners Thereof the Portion of the Same, Adjudged to be theirs by the Courts of the Philippine Islands

January 2, 1903

ACT NO. 573

AN ACT DIRECTING THE CUSTODIAN OF THE SILVER AND OTHER METAL SEIZED FROM THE STEAMER DON JUAN BY OFFICERS OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN THE MONTH OF JULY, EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND NINETY-THREE, TO DELIVER TO THE RESPECTIVE CLAIMANTS AND OWNERS THEREOF THE PORTION OF THE SAME, ADJUDGED TO BE THEIRS BY THE COURTS OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

SECTION 1. The Insular Treasurer, the custodian of the silver and other metal seized from the steamer Don Juan and discovered from some source by officers of the Spanish Government in the month of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, be and he is hereby directed to deliver to the persons hereinafter mentioned, or to their legal representatives, eighty per cent of all the silver and other metal now in his custody seized from the ship Don Juan and discovered from the same source by officers of the Spanish Government in the Bay of Manila in the month of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-three, in accordance with the judgment and decree of the "Intendencia General de Hacienda" rendered on the twenty-first day of August, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, at the city of Manila, and the decision of the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands rendered on the seventh day of March, nineteen hundred and two, in the proportions respectively belonging to the persons following, to wit: Baltazar Marti, as manager of the firm of Millat, Marti and Mitjans, Demetrio Inchausti, Jose Aristequi, Andres Abrisqueta, Santiago Blanco, Arturo Barra, and Domingo C. Orlac, as in such judgment and decree declared.

SECTION 2. The Insular Treasurer is authorized to pay to Francisco Escudero, the fiscal officer, or his representatives, from the twenty per cent remaining of the total silver before mentioned now in the Treasury, the amount adjudged to be due him under the decree of the Intendencia.

SECTION 3. Whereas a portion of the silver which is the subject of this Act has lost its character as a circulating medium, and the decree of the Intendencia provides that it should be turned over to the mint for melting down and an expert appraisement of its value, and the twenty per cent fine should be calculated upon said appraisement and the interested parties should pay the same in current money, and whereas, owing to the want of a mint in these Islands there is no way at present to carry out this part of the decree, this Act shall become operative to authorize the payment and distribution in the first two sections hereof only on condition that the parties shall agree that the silver which has lost its character as a circulating medium may be weighed, that its value in current money shall be determined by the Insular Treasurer, that the distributees under the first section shall pay the twenty per cent required by them to be paid in current money, and that all the distributees hereunder shall agree, before this Act shall become operative, that in case of any disagreement as to the proper construction of the decrees of the Intendencia and the Supreme Court the same shall be finally construed by the Secretary of Finance and Justice.

SECTION 4. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred. cDCEIA

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

ENACTED, January 2, 1903.