Jalbert v. United States

147 Ct. Cl. 439, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 124, 1959 WL 7612
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJuly 15, 1959
DocketNo 297-58
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 147 Ct. Cl. 439 (Jalbert 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
Jalbert v. United States, 147 Ct. Cl. 439, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 124, 1959 WL 7612 (cc 1959).

Opinions

JoNes, Chief Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff seeks to recover the difference between the disability retired pay of a captain in the United States Naval Reserve with more than 16 years of cumulative service, which [441]*441be is now receiving, and the pay of such officer with more than 18 years of cumulative service. The additional years of service credit which plaintiff claims represent service as a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy.

Plaintiff served as a midshipman at the Naval Academy from May 5,1910, until June 5,1914, under an appointment made prior to March 4,1913.1 On June 6,1914, he received a commission in the Regular Navy and served as a commissioned naval officer until December 24, 1920, at which time he resigned under honorable conditions. At the time of his resignation, his active duty pay was based upon length of service including longevity credit for four years and one month at the Naval Academy. On August 28,1940, plaintiff was commissioned as a lieutenant commander in the United States Naval Reserve, and served continuously until he was retired by reason of permanent physical disability on January 1, 1951. His retirement was effected under section 402(a) of the Career Compensation Act of 1949, 63 Stat. 802, 816, 37 U.S.C. § 272(a), now codified as 10 U.S.C. §1201.

Both parties have moved for summary judgment. The Government takes the position that plaintiff cannot include his midshipman service in the computation of his service credit, because he was not in the service on June 30, 1922. The significance of that date will be discussed below.

Section 202 of the Career Compensation Act of 1949, supra, prescribes the service which can be counted in computing cumulative years of service. Section 202 (a) (3), upon which the Government relies, reads as follows: [442]*442Plaintiff says Ms situation does not fall within that category, but comes within the purview of section 202(a)(6), which provides:

[441]*441(3) for commissioned officers in service on June 30, 1922, all service which was then counted in computing longevity pay, * * *
[442]*442(6) all service wMch, under any provision of law in effect on the effective date of this section is authorized to be credited for the purpose of computing longevity pay.

The question before the court is whether or not there was “any provision of law in effect on the effective date” of the Career Compensation Act, wMch permitted midsMpman service to be credited to persons such as plaintiff for the purpose of computing longevity pay.

The Act of March 3,1883, 22 Stat. 472, 473, permitted all officers of the Navy to credit “the actual time they may have served as officers or enlisted men in the regular or volunteer Army or Navy, or both, * * The Supreme Court subsequently interpreted this language to allow the inclusion of midshipman service for the purpose of computing longevity pay under the 1883 statute. United States v. Cook, 128 U.S. 254 (1888); United States v. Baker, 125 U.S. 646 (1888). The Act of March 4, 1913, sufra, denied that right to all midshipmen thereafter appointed to the Naval Academy.

The next statute dealing with the inclusion of midsMpman service was the Act of June 10,1922, 42 Stat. 625, 627, which in pertinent part provided as follows:

For officers appointed on and after July 1, 1922, no service shall be counted for purposes of pay except active commissioned service under a Federal appointment and commissioned service in the National Guard when called out by order of the President. For officers in the service on June 30,1922, there shall be included in the computation all service which is now counted in computing longevity pay, and service as a contract surgeon serving full time; * * *

The Pay Readjustment Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 359, 360, repeated the above language and added:

Longevity pay for officers in any of the services mentioned in the title of this Act shall be based on the total of all service in any or all of said services which is authorized to be counted for longevity pay purposes [443]*443under tbe provisions of tbis Act or as may otherwise be provided by law.

Whatever right plaintiff retained after the enactment of the 1922 act was saved to him by the 1942 act, and section 202 (a) (6) of the Career Compensation Act of 1949, quoted above, continued to preserve his right, if any.

The question then becomes whether the 1922 act preserved the right to count midshipman service to all those men who had attended the Naval Academy under pre-1913 appointments, or only to those men who served as midshipmen under pre-1913 appointments and, in addition, were in the service on June 30, 1922. It is the Government’s position that the latter interpretation is the proper one, and in support of that position, the Government cites Williams v. United States, 136 C. Cls. 582 (1956); Brownell v. United States, and Foster v. United States, both cited as Broyderick, et al. v. United States, 140 C. Cls. 427 (1957). We are of the opinion that these cases are not dispositive of the issue now before the court.

In Williams, petitioner urged that section 202(a) (6) of the Career Compensation Act of 1949, supra, preserved his right to count his service as a cadet at the Coast Guard Academy. The Government relies upon certain language used in that case at pages 585-586, quoted in a footnote below.2 Williams attended the Coast Guard Academy from August 10, 1945, to June 3, 1949, on which latter date he received his commission as an ensign in the Coast Guard. The 1922 act provided that for purposes of pay for officers appointed on and after July 1, 1922, only active commissioned service under a Federal appointment could be counted. Williams was an officer appointed after July 1, 1922, and [444]*444the court did not consider Coast Guard cadet service to be “active commissioned service.” Until 1922 the right to count Coast Guard Academy service had not been expressly taken away by statute, as had the right to count Naval or Military Academy service in the 1912 and 1913 acts cited above. The date June 30, 1922, was significant in that case, because it was the last date on which Williams could have acquired the right to credit his Coast Guard Academy service. There the 1922 date was analogous to the cutoff date in the 1912 and 1913 statutes.

In the Foster and Brownell cases, supra, petitioners had attended the Naval Academy under pre-1913 appointments, were serving as commissioned naval officers in the service on June 30, 1922, but subsequently had breaks in service before accepting commissions in the Naval Reserve in which they served until their retirement. The Government there urged that petitioners could not count their midshipmen service, because their service was not continuous after June 30, 1922.

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Related

Friedman v. United States
310 F.2d 381 (Court of Claims, 1962)
Palmer v. United States
156 Ct. Cl. 521 (Court of Claims, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
147 Ct. Cl. 439, 1959 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 124, 1959 WL 7612, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jalbert-v-united-states-cc-1959.