
    PHELPS v. UNITED STATES
    [61 C. Cls. 1044; 274 U. S. 341]
    Judgment was rendered in the court below in part in favor of and in part against the United States. Upon certiorari the judgment was
    
      reversed,
    
    the Supreme Court deciding:
    1. A claim for just compensation for the use of property taken by the Government is “ founded upon the Constitution,” within the meaning of Judicial Code, section 146.
    2. A claim for just compensation for property taken for public use by officers or agents of the United States pursuant to an act of Congress, is a claim founded upon an implied contract. Judicial Code, section 145.
    3. Where the use of private property is taken by eminent domain and paid for later, the owner is entitled to the value at the time of taking and such additional amount that the whole may be equivalent to the value of such use at the time of the taking paid contemporaneously with the taking.
    4. Such additional allowance may be measured by a reasonable rate of interest, but is not properly interest, and is not within the prohibition of interest before judgment found in Judicial Code, section 177.
   Mr. Justice Butler

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court May 16, 1927.  