U.S. to Get Piece of Iran Settlement, High Court Rules : Courts: The justices upheld a law that allows the government to claim a percentage of recovered funds.

The U.S. government is entitled to some of the money American companies are awarded by an international tribunal created as part of the settlement of the 1981 Iran hostage crisis, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

The justices said the companies’ rights are not violated by requiring them--rather than all U.S. taxpayers--to help defray the costs of the claims settlement process.

The court upheld a 1985 law that allows the U.S. government to deduct 1.5% of the first $5 million recovered by any company and 1% of anything exceeding that amount.

Justice Byron R. White, writing for the court, said the deductions are reasonable even if they do not equal the amount of money the government expended to help the companies win their claims.

“This court has never held that the amount of a user fee must be precisely calibrated to the use that a party makes of government services,” he said. “Nor does the government need to record invoices and billable hours to justify the costs of its services.”

White rejected arguments by Sperry Corp., which has since merged with Burroughs Corp. to form Unisys Corp., that forcing companies to pay the fees is an unconstitutional confiscation of their property and that any costs to the government should be borne by the nation as a whole.

“As we see it, Sperry has not identified any of its property that was taken without just compensation,” he said.

The Bush Administration said tens of millions of dollars were at stake, including about $12.7 million already deducted by the U.S. government from claims paid to companies.

The financial deal that freed the 52 American hostages from Iran in 1981 included the U.S. government’s release of billions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets and creation of an international tribunal to resolve claims against Iran.

The Supreme Court in 1981 upheld the power of former President Jimmy Carter to approve the settlement, and that was not at issue in Tuesday’s ruling.

Sperry Corp., which leased computer systems to Iran before the 1979 hostage crisis severed relations between the United States and that country, was awarded $2.8 million by the international claims tribunal.

The U.S. government deducted $42,000 for its expenses in helping Sperry.

Tuesday’s decision overturned a federal appeals court ruling last year that the deduction was an unconstitutional seizure of private property.

The high court ruling is not related directly to recent developments suggesting eased tensions between Iran and the United States.

The Bush Administration announced three weeks ago that the United States is returning $567 million in frozen assets to Iran, a move President Bush said he hopes will prompt Tehran to push for freedom for American hostages in Lebanon.

The $567 million was being held in a fund to back up claims by American banks against Iran.

In another case, the high court ruled 9-0 that a federal law aimed primarily at compensating injured dockworkers also applies to railroad employees who clean and repair dockside loading equipment.

It ruled that three injured railroad workers from Virginia are limited to receiving benefits under the Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. They had sought potentially greater compensation under a disability law covering the railroad industry, the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.