Landram v. United States

16 Ct. Cl. 74
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedDecember 15, 1880
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Ct. Cl. 74 (Landram 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
Landram v. United States, 16 Ct. Cl. 74 (cc 1880).

Opinion

Dayis, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

In Herndon’s Case (15 C. Cls. R., 446), decided at the last term, it appeared that Landram, tlie present claimant, an internal-revenue collector, being authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury to employ a deputy at $1,200 a year, appointed Herndon a deputy at that salary; that Herndon was at the same-time acting as distillery surveyor with a per diem pay of $5 while employed, and expenses; and that the Comptroller had refused to allow double pay to Herndon, and had, in. settling Landram’s accounts, deducted from the allowance of $1,200 the sums paid Herndon as distillery surveyor. In that case the court held that there was no privity of contract between Herndon and the United States, and that he could not recover. Landram now brings this suit to recover the same sum, and it is admitted that if he recovers the money will go to Herndon.

The Attorney-General meets the claim here in the present, form, as the Comptroller met it at the Treasury, by setting up the statutes in regard to dual pay. He also puts forward a counter-claim, which, as he disregarded- it in his brief, and virtually abandoned it in his argument, it is unnecessary to consider further.

The traditions and usages of the United States recognize the policy and propriety of employing, when necessary, the same person at the same time in two distinct capacities. Not to mention other familiar cases, there are the prominent examples of the diplomatic mission of Mr. Jay, to England, under President Washington, while he was still Chief Justice of the United States; of the mission of Mr. Gallatin, to London and Peters-burg, to negotiate a peace, while Secretary of the Treasury under President Madison; and of Mr. Justice Nelson sitting as a member of the commission which concluded the treaty of Washington under President Grant.

On the other hand, it is the undoubted aim of general legislation respecting salaries to gauge the work so as to give full employment to the capacities of the man likely to be appointed to do it, and to measure the pay according to the work.

In construing statutes restraining the executive from giving dual or extra compensation, courts have aimed to carry out the legislative intent, by giving them sufficient flexibility not to [83]*83injure tbe jiublic service and sufficient rigidity to prevent executive abuse.

A portion of the payments to Herndon as distillery surveyor were made prior to the date when the Revised Statutes took effect; the remainder after that time. For the purposes of this opinion we shall treat the Revised Statutes as codifying and containing the previous statutory provisions in this respect, and shall refer only to the codification. •

The provisions in the Revised Statutes are found in sections 1763,1764, and 1765. Section 1763 relates to the discharge of the duties of an office by a person holding another office. In Herndon’s Case we held that, as deputy collector, he was not an employe of the government, for the payment of whose services the United States were liable to him. If not an employé he certainly was not an officer; and therefore Landram is not now seeking compensation for discharging the duties of another office, and section 1763 does not apply to this case.

Section 1764 relates to allowances or compensation to officers or clerks in a department for the discharge of duties belonging to other officers or clerks in a department; also to allowances or compensation to officers or clerks for extra services. Hern-don was not an officer, or a clerk in a department, and therefore the first portion of section 1764 is not applicable. As to the second, it may be inferred from the context that the clerks who are forbidden by this section to receive compensation for extra services are the clerks in the executive departments — that large class of clerks who are specially recognized by statute, and whose compensation and duties are specially marked out. (Rev. Stat., §§ 158-183.) The Revised Statutes contain provisions relating to clerks of courts, to clerks of Congressional committees, to clerks of the House of Representatives, to executive clerks, to Admiral’s clerks, to consular clerks, and to customhouse clerks; but as the work “ clerk” is us9d in section 1764, it is evidently the intent of Congress to confine it to departmental clerks. Neither Landram nor Herndon was a clerk of this class.

The Attorney-General mainly relies upon the provisions of section 1765, which are as follows:

“No officer in any branch of the public service, or any other person whose salary, pay, or emoluments are fixed by law or regulations, shall receive any additional pay, extra allowance, [84]*84or compensation in any form whatever, unless the same is authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly states that it is for such additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation.”

Landram was undoubtedly an officer in a branch of the public service, with a salary fixed by law. (Rev. Stat., § 3145.) But it is equally true that the extra allowance now in dispute is authorized by. law, and that the provision for such extra allowances (ib.), taken in connection with the appropriation for salaries and expenses of collectors (18 Stat. L., 93, 352), explicitly states that the appropriations are for the extra allowance. This is denied, but on insufficient ground. When. Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to make such allowances from time to time to collectors as might be reasonable or seem just for certain purposes, it parted with its own discretion to fix the amount of the appropriations for those purposes and conferred it upon the Secretary. To hold that after the exercise of the power by the Secretary he had no authority to pay the allowances, for want of a fixed appropriation, would defeat the will of Congress. If, therefore, this claim is to be-treated as Landram’s claim only, and if the Comptroller has no power to go behind the voucher which Landram brings to the Treasury, and to inquire whether hisemployé, who received the money as deputy collector, had a right to receive it in that capacity, it would seem that Landram is entitled to judgment.

This brings us to the real issue in this case, viz, whether Herndon could lawfully take pay for his services in the two capacities. If he could, the Treasury must take his voucher as Landram’s warrant for the payment, and Landram is entitled to recover the sum withheld.

It is to be observed, in the first place, that there is no element of turpitude or concealment or fraud in this case. It is found that Herndon was a good officer, who was employed in the two capacities because of his fitness for each, and that the Commissioner of Internal Eevenue was duly informed of his .appointment in each case when it was made. That officer does not appear to have made any objection to it until the payments allowed and paid to Herndon as distillery surveyor amounted to $990. Even then he did not doubt the propriety of the appointment, but objected only “ because the Comptroller had decided that employés of the government cannot draw pay for two services at the same time.”

[85]*85Section 1765 of tlie Revised Statutes relates, in tbe first place,, to any officer in any branch of tbe public service. But Herndon was not an officer, and therefore this provision does not affect him. In tbe next place, it relates to any other person-whose salary, pay, or emolument is fixed by law or regulation.

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Related

Herndon v. United States
15 Ct. Cl. 446 (Court of Claims, 1879)

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Bluebook (online)
16 Ct. Cl. 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landram-v-united-states-cc-1880.