Adams v. Clifford

294 F. Supp. 1318, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10681
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedJanuary 7, 1969
DocketCiv. No. 2878
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 294 F. Supp. 1318 (Adams v. Clifford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Adams v. Clifford, 294 F. Supp. 1318, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10681 (D. Haw. 1969).

Opinion

DECISION

PENCE, Chief Judge.

This action was brought by 283 members of the United States Army Reserve who had enlisted therein prior to October 1966, and who, in April-May 1968, were ordered and entered into active duty. All are now in the 29th Infantry Brigade, United States Army, and stationed in Hawaii, allegedly against their will and without their consent. The named defendants are the Honorable Clark Clifford, Secretary of Defense, and other Secretaries, Generals, commanding officers, etc., and the United States.

Upon enlistment, each plaintiff signed an enlistment contract entitled “Reserve Component Service Agreement” 1 which set forth various requirements and duties the enlistee was to fulfill but which contained no explicit provision as to the circumstances under which the Ready Reserve could be called to active duty. Plaintiffs maintain that at the time they were ordered and entered into active duty, no war nor national emergency had been declared by Congress, nor had the President declared that a national emergency existed, and that therefore their orders to active duty were in violation of the contracts between the plaintiffs and the United States. Petitioners in their last amended complaint urge that the enlistment contracts were entered into pursuant to Title 10 United States Code §§ 262, 263, 672, and 673; 2 [1320]*1320that Public Law 89-687 3 was passed by Congress subsequent to their enlistment; that the defendants’ order that plaintiffs should enter into “involuntary active duty” is void and invalid as being retroactive and depriving each plaintiff “of his valuable contract rights under his said enlistment contract;4 that the issuance of the unlawful orders breached each enlistment contract, and prevented each enlistee “from transacting * * [his] business and [each has] suffered great financial loss” 5 in a sum of less than $10,000, and asked compensatory damages therefore.

The defendants moved to dismiss on the ground that plaintiffs failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, maintaining the provisions of 10 U.S.C. §§ 262, 263, 672 and 673 were incorporated into plaintiffs1 enlistment contracts, that since Public Law 89-687 implemented and is in furtherance of the above sections, it did not violate the enlistment contracts, and when the plaintiffs were ordered to active duty pursuant to subsection (e) of section 101 of Public Law 89-687, the enlistment contracts were not breached.

Plaintiffs maintain that the government is bound upon each initial enlistment contract in the same manner as a private citizen; that the only contracts executed by the plaintiffs were based upon the law as it stood before enactment of Public Law 89-687; and that when the President chose to exercise his power under that law to call the Reservists into active duty, the use of that power breached the contract between the Government and the several reservists and that compensation is due each Reservist for such breach.

The basic contention of plaintiffs is that the enlistment contract is to be treated in precisely the same manner as if it were a contract between two private citizens, and in support of that proposition cites United States v. 85.11 Acres of Land, 243 F.Supp. 423 (N.D. Okl.1965). Unfortunately plaintiffs’ contention is not the law. While Bell v. United States, 366 U.S. 393, 81 S.Ct. 1230, 6 L.Ed.2d 365 (1960), also cited by the plaintiffs, does state (at 402, 81 S.Ct. at 1235) that “ ‘enlistment is a contract”, that phrase is followed by a significant reservation: “[B]ut it is one of those contracts which changes the status * * *. By enlistment the citizen becomes a soldier. His relations to the State and the public are changed. He acquires a new status, with correlative rights and duties * * *.’ ”, citing In re Grimley, 137 U.S. 147, 151-152, 11 S.Ct. 54, 34 L.Ed. 636. Grimley was 40 years of age at the time he enlisted, although he represented himself to be 28; and under section 1116 of the Revised Statutes (1890) recruits enlisting in the Army were not to be over 35 years at the time of their enlistment. Sometime after enlistment, Grimley was found guilty of desertion and sentenced to six months imprisonment. From that sentence he sued out a writ of habeas corpus and pled his “age disability” as making the contract of enlistment void. The court stated:

“But in this transaction something more is involved than the making of a contract, whose breach exposes to an action for damages. Enlistment is a contract; but it is one of those contracts which changes the status; and where that is changed, no breach of the contract destroys the new status or relieves from the obligations which its existence imposes. * * *
“By enlistment the citizen becomes a soldier. His relations to the State and the public are changed. He acquires a new status, with correlative rights and duties * * *. The [1321]*1321government has the right to the military service of all its able-bodied citizens ; and may, when emergency arises, justly exact that service from all. * * * ” 137 U.S. at 151, 152, 153, 11 S.Ct. at 55.

In fully reviewing the historical background of this change of status resulting from enlistment, the Court in Tyler v. Pomeroy, 8 Allen 480 (Mass.1864) observed :

“The government thus appeals directly to the patriotism of the people, relying upon the fundamental principle of society, the mutual obligation of protection and support, which is expressed in the simplest words and the closest connection in our own Declaration of Rights. ‘Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of life, liberty and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary.’ Declaration of Rights, art. 10.” Tyler, supra, at 495.

In determining the meaning of “enlist” and “enlistment”, i. e., whether Tyler had actually become a soldier by virtue of signing an enlistment paper but without thereafter going to the military camp, the Massachusetts Supreme Court said:

“The question before us is no ordinary one of the force, construction or validity of a contract — whether the plaintiff has made an agreement and broken it, and is liable in damages for the breach; but of a change of status — • whether by signing a particular paper, or by any other act, the plaintiff has changed his condition, given up some of the rights of a private citizen, and become amenable to military discipline * * Tyler, supra, at 485-486.

All the powers of war and peace, including the power to raise, support and regulate armies have been granted by the Constitution to the national government.6

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
294 F. Supp. 1318, 1969 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/adams-v-clifford-hid-1969.