Kelly v. United States

41 Ct. Cl. 246, 1906 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 135, 1906 WL 891
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedMarch 12, 1906
DocketNo. 28559
StatusPublished

This text of 41 Ct. Cl. 246 (Kelly 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
Kelly v. United States, 41 Ct. Cl. 246, 1906 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 135, 1906 WL 891 (cc 1906).

Opinions

Booth, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court: .

The claimants in this case are seeking payment of per diem’s alleged to be due them as crier and bailiffs of the United States District and Circiut Courts for the district of Oregon, from February 6, 1899, to October 22, 1900. Section 715 of the Revised Statutes, page 136, provides as follows:

“The Circuit and District Courts máy appoint criers for their courts, to be allowed the sum of two dollars per day; and the marshals may appoint such a number of persons, not. exceeding five, as the judges of their respective courts may determine, to attend upon the grand and other juries, and for other necessary purposes, who shall be allowed for their services the sum of two dollars per clay, to be paid by and included in the accounts of the marshal, out of any money of the United States in his hands. Such compensation shall be paid only for actual attendance, and, when both courts are in session at the same time, only for attendance on one court.”

The act of March 2, 1895 (28 Stat. L., 958), amending the. foregoing act, provides as follows:

“ For pay of bailiffs and criers, not exceeding three bailiffs and one crier in each court * * *. Provided, That all persons employed under section seven hundred and fifteen of the Revised Statutes shall be deemed to be in actual attendance when they attend upon the crcler of the courts.”

[250]*250No question is raised as to the regularity of their appointment under the above statute, nor as to any of the facts set forth in the findings.

Objection to the claims arises from the fact that on the day and dates for which compensation is claimed the courts were opened and adjourned by the marshal in pursuance of written authority directing him so to do by the judge thereof, under section 6'72 of the Revised Statutes; that the services of the claimants under these circumstances were not required, and were wholly unnecessary, no court business having been actually transacted.

The statute creating the offices and allowing a stated per diem compensation for each of them would of itself seem a sufficient answer to this contention. The limitation placed by section 715 of the Revised Statutes upon the officers’ right to compensation is actual attendance. The Congress, in the act of March 2, 1895, construes the words “ actual attendance ” to mean when the officer is actually present, “ upon the order of the courts.” Therefore, if the officer is actually present upon the order of the court he brings himself within the statute, and compensation therefor can not be denied him. The mischief sought do be remedied by the 'words “ order of courts ” was to preclude an allowance for days during the regular term of the court when the same was not in session, and when the session had been adjourned by the judge to a day certain during the regular term, thus limiting their right to compensation to days when the court was actually in session during the regular term and the officers were personally present ready to or performing their respective duties. The statute does not contemplate the issuing of a personal order from the court directed to the officers in question to bo present upon the convening of court. The ■words of the enactment negative the contention. The crier is the creature of the court, with certain well-defined duties; the bailiffs are the creatures of the marshal, whose duties are defined bjr the statute to be an attendance upon the grand and petit juries and for other necessary fury oses. They are officers of the court (Ricketts v. Mayor, etc., of New York, 67 Howard, 320; Rowland v. Mayor, etc., City of New York, [251]*25183 N. Y., 372; Adam Moser v. Mayor, etc., of New York, 21 Hun., 163), and-as such bound to take judicial notice of their duties, obligated under the law to a proper discharge of the same, and equally liable with any other officer of the court for a dereliction or omission in the performance of the same. In Rowland v. Mayor, etc. (supra), the court said:

“ He not only owes a duty to it (the court), and is to perform such duties as are by it required to be performed, but, as we have already .said, those duties are in aid of the proper business of the court, and therefore, among others, to be present at its sittings, to execute its commands, secure due order in its proceeding's, and attend upon juries, and all are as necessary as the duties intrusted to its clerks or crier.”

The words “ order of the courts ” refer to the manner of convening the court; they express an intent to discriminate between actual open and regular terms of the court, publicly held, when grand and petit juries are impaneled, witnesses examined, and the trial of cases proceeds, and the sessions or terms of the same when judicial business is lawfully transacted in chambers or during vacation, when grand and petit juries are not required, and the business of the judge is largely, if not wholly, limited to the consideration of orders, decrees; etc., in equity, admiralty, and bankruptcy. An officer will be deemed in actual attendance upon the order of the court if he is personally present when the same is regularly convened by the order of the judge in pur sanee of law and the duties of his office command his attendance.

Section 672 of the Revised Statutes, page 124, provides as follows:

“ If neither of the judges of a Circuit Court be present to open and adjourn any regular or adjourned or special session, either of them may, by a written order, directed alternately to the marshal and, in his absence, to the clerk, adjourn the court from time to time,-as the case may require, to any time before the next regular term.”

The Supreme Court in construing the above section uses this language:

“Attendance upon the days when the court is opened under the provisions of these numbered sections (including section 672) is put by Congress upon the same footing as if the [252]*252judge were actually present and business were actually transacted.” (United States v. Pitman, 147 U. S., 671.)

Thus it will be seen that a regular, adjourned, or special session of the court, opened in pursuance of section .672 of the Revised Statutes, is placed upon the same footing as a public session duly opened by the judge of the court in person and actually transacting the business of the term. It is in legal contemplation such a session of court as requires the attendance of all the officers of the court, the same as if the current business of the term was actually proceeded with, and when so attending they are there by the order of the court. ■

Clerks and marshals in attendance under similar circumstances have been allowed their per diem compensation. (Jones v. United States, 21 C. Cls. R., 1; Finnell v. United States, 185 U. S., 236.) This court, in Robert W. Butler et al. v. United States, No. 23547, and Thomas J. Doyle v. United States, No. 26933, cases exactly similar to this, awarded judgments in favor of the claimants, from which no appeal was taken.

It is to be observed that the statute nowhere predicates the officers’ right to compensation upon an affirmative showing of the necessity of their actual attendance.

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Related

United States v. Pitman
147 U.S. 669 (Supreme Court, 1893)
United States v. Finnell
185 U.S. 236 (Supreme Court, 1902)
Rowland v. . Mayor, Etc., City of New York
83 N.Y. 372 (New York Court of Appeals, 1880)
Jones v. United States
21 Ct. Cl. 1 (Court of Claims, 1885)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
41 Ct. Cl. 246, 1906 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 135, 1906 WL 891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kelly-v-united-states-cc-1906.