Jakway v. United States

178 F. Supp. 307, 146 Ct. Cl. 482, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 167
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 13, 1959
DocketNo. 51-58
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 178 F. Supp. 307 (Jakway v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Court of Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jakway v. United States, 178 F. Supp. 307, 146 Ct. Cl. 482, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 167 (cc 1959).

Opinion

Jones, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff sues for the difference between military disability retired pay computed on the basis of 75 percent of the active duty pay of a colonel with over 30 years’ service to which he claims he is entitled, and such pay computed on the basis of 50 percent of the active duty pay of a colonel with over 30 years’ service which he has been receiving since his retirement on February 29, 1956. Plaintiff bases his right to the higher percentage on paragraph 4 of section 15 of the Pay Readjustment Act of 1942,56 Stat. 359,368.

Prior to November 12, 1918, plaintiff served first in an enlisted capacity and later as a commissioned officer in the Army of the United States and in the Air Corps. In 1940, after approximately 16 years’ service in components of the Army of the United States, he was inducted into Federal service in the Air Corps, National Guard of the United States as a captain.

At some time prior to November 1947, plaintiff accepted a temporary appointment as colonel, Army of the United States, and performed active duty under such temporary commission until May 26, 1950. In the meantime, on November 10, 1947, plaintiff accepted a permanent commission as colonel, Air Corps, Officers Reserve Corps. This permanent commission he held until November 14,1952, when he accepted a commission in the same grade in the Air Force Reserve which he held continuously thereafter to the date of the petition in this case. Plaintiff did not perform any active duty under his permanent commission as colonel iq. the Air Force Reserve,

[484]*484On May 26,1950, when plaintiff was performing active duty under Ms temporary appointment as colonel, Army of tbe United States, be was released from active duty under tbe provisions of section 515(d), Officer Personnel Act of 1947, 61 Stat. 795, 907, and on tbe following day be accepted an appointment as a warrant officer in tbe United States Air Force. He served in this rank on active duty in tbe Air Force from May 27,1950, to February 29,1956, when he was retired for physical disability pursuant to the provisions of section 402(b), Title IY, Career Compensation Act of 1949, 63 Stat. 802, 817. Plaintiff was retired in the rank of colonel and bis retired pay was based on tbe active duty pay of a colonel with over 30 years of service.

The primary dispute in this case concerns the applicability to plaintiff’s retired pay of paragraph 4 of section 15 of the Pay Readjustment Act of 1942, sufra. That provision reads in pertinent part as follows:

The retired pay of any officer of any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act who served in any capacity as a member of the military or naval forces of the United States prior to November 12, 1918, hereafter retired under any provision of law, shall, unless such officer is entitled to retired pay of a higher grade, be 75 per centum of his active duty pay at the time of Ms retirement.

It is undisputed that plaintiff served as a member of the military forces of the Urnted States prior to November 12, 1918, and that he was “hereafter retired” in 1956 under the provisions of the Career Compensation Act of 1949. There is also no dispute that plaintiff was retired in the proper rank, i.e., that of full colonel, and that his disability retired pay was properly based on the active duty pay of the rank of colonel with more than 30 years’ service.

The dispute narrows to the question of whether plaintiff was an “ officer * * * hereafter retired” within the meaning of that phrase in paragraph 4 of section 15 of the Pay Readjustment Act of 1942. Defendant contends that he does not meet this requirement since for the last six years of his more than 30 years of service plaintiff was serving on active duty as a noncommissioned warrant officer and could not, therefore, have been an “officer * * * hereafter retired un[485]*485der any provision of law.” In addition, defendant relies on the decision of this court in Walton v. United States, 89 C. Cls. 28 (1939). Plaintiff urges that his active duty service in a noncommissioned warrant rank at the time of his retirement in 1956 is immaterial as long as he was retired as a commissioned officer and not as an enlisted man, and that the Walton case relied on by defendant is inapplicable both on the law and the facts.

In the Walton case, supra, Walton, like the plaintiff herein, was serving on active duty as a Regular Army noncom-missioned warrant officer at the time of his retirement for physical disability. The similarity between the two cases stops at this point. Walton was retired under a statute applicable only to warrant officers and providing that retired warrant officers who had performed satisfactory wartime service in temporary commissioned rank might be advanced on the warrant officers retired list to such temporary commissioned rank but that no increase in retired pay should result from such advancement on the retired list.

Plaintiff herein was not “advanced” on the retired list from noncommissioned to commissioned grade, but was placed on the retired list in the commissioned rank of colonel in which rank he had served satisfactorily for more than sis years as a temporary colonel and which rank he also held under a permanent Reserve appointment at the time of his retirement although he was not then serving under such permanent appointment. Walton based his claim for increased retired pay on a 1935 statute which was a retirement as well as a pay statute.

The Pay Readjustment Act of 1942, under which the plaintiff herein claims, is not a retirement statute but merely a pay statute. The 1935 statute relied on by Walton provided that officers of the Regular Army who had served as commissioned officers below the grade of major in the Army of the United States prior to November 12, 1918, should be retired in the grade of major and receive retirement pay based on such grade. The court held that Walton, a warrant officer, was properly retired under the 1932 warrant officer statute and was not a Regular Army officer entitled to retirement under the provisions of the 1935 act.

[486]*486Plaintiff herein was retired under the provisions of title IV of the Career Compensation Act of 1949 as an officer and with the retired pay of an officer. He is not asserting, as did Walton, that he was retired under the wrong statute. He takes the position that under the Career Compensation Act of 1949, by the terms of which he concedes he was properly retired, he is entitled to certain additional pay benefits provided for in the 1942 Pay Beadjustment Act, a pay statute, not a retirement statute.

We are of the opinion that plaintiff herein was retired as an officer and was therefore an “officer * * * hereafter retired” within the meaning of paragraph 4 of section 15 of the Pay Beadjustment Act of 1942. His retirement for physical disability was authorized by section 402(b) of the Career Compensation Act of 1949. Section 402(d) provides that the retirement pay of anyone retired under title IV of that act should be based upon the pay of the rank held by him at the time of his retirement unless he had previously held a higher temporary rank in which he had served satisfactorily.

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Bluebook (online)
178 F. Supp. 307, 146 Ct. Cl. 482, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 167, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jakway-v-united-states-cc-1959.