McLean v. United States

8 Ct. Cl. 217
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedDecember 15, 1872
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 8 Ct. Cl. 217 (McLean 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
McLean v. United States, 8 Ct. Cl. 217 (cc 1872).

Opinion

Loüxng-, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

In the able arguments at the bar it was correctly said that the first question in the case was, “Whatmaximum compensation is fixed by law for the office of which the claimant was in commission 9”

The record shows that on this question there have been for years at the Treasury Department doubts not yet solved; and the question requires the construction of the many statutes relating to the subject.

The ninth section of the Act of May 7,1822, (3 Stat. L;, p. 695,) specified the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans, and hence those ports are called enumerated ports, and for these ports the act fixed the maximum compensation of collectors at $4,000; of naval officers, at $3,000; of surveyors, at $2,500 per year.

The tenth section of the act for “all other ports,” which are hence called non-enumerated ports, fixed the maximum com[229]*229pensation of collectors at $3,000 •, of naval officers, at $2,500 j of surveyors, at $2,000 per year.

The act of 1831, ch. 87, (4 Stat. L., p. 480,) allowed foreign merchandise to be imported 'into Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and other places specified in the act, and the duties to be received and paid in such places of importation. And the act charged surveyors in those ports with performance of prescribed services in collecting the duties, and gave to such surveyors for the performance of such services “ an annual salary of $350.” And thus, under these acts, the maximum compensation receivable by a surveyor at Pittsburgh for performing the duties of a collector was $2,350.

Then the fifth section of the act of 1841, ch, 35, (5 Stat.L., p. 432,) allowed “ every collector of customs, naval officer, and surveyor of ports,'” to retain $2,000 (if received) from rents and storage, and at the same time limited the maximum compensation of collectors to $8,000; of naval officers, to $5,000; of surveyors, to $4,500.

The words in this section, u every collector of customs, naval officer, and surveyor of ports, ” in their ordinary meaning, include those officers in the non-enumerated as well as in the enumerated ports. But the sums specified in it, of $8,000, $5,000, and $4,500, are the maximum compensations of collectors, naval officers, and surveyors in the enumerated ports only.

And the section has been construed by the Supreme Court in the case of The United States v. Walker, (22 How., 299,) A. D. 1859. "Walker was a collector in a non-enumerated port, and he claimed the maximum of $8,000 specified in the act for collectors and the $2,000 allowed from rents and storage; and the court held that the maximum of $8,000, as specified in the act, applied only to collectors in the enumerated ports, and that Walker, as the collector of a non-enumerated port, was entitled to only $3,000 under the act of 1822, and to $2,000 when received from rents and storage, under the fifth section of the act of 1841, which allowed that sum to all the officers mentioned in it.

Under this decision of the Supreme Court, the fifth section of the act of 1841 added $2,000, if received from rents and storage, to the $3,350 prescribed by previous statutes cited, as a compensation for surveyors of non-enumerated ports perform[230]*230ing tbe duties of collectors, tlius making the maximum compensation receivable by them $4,350.

Then the eighth section of the act of 1857 (11 Stat. L., p. 229) amended the fifth section of the act of 1841, and provided that it should be construed “ to apply to surveyors performing or having’ performed the duties of collectors, who shall be entitled to the same compensation as is allowed to collectors for like services in the settlement of their accounts.”

As collectors of non-enumerated ports were entitled io $3,000, that sum became, under the act of 1857, the compensation of surveyors of non-enumerated ports performing the duties of collectors.

But the act of 1857 necessarily repealed the provision for a salary of $350 for such surveyors in the act of 1831, for otherwise their compensation would have been more than that of collectors, instead of the same, as the act of 1857 prescribed.

And thus, under the acts of 1841 and 1857, the maximum compensation receivable by surveyors of non-enumerated ports performing the duties of collectors was $5,000, viz: $2,000 if received from rents and storage, and $3,000 as such surveyors.

And we think the acts referred to are all the acts affecting the compensation of the claimant as surveyor.

The eighth section of the act of 1870 amends the fifth section of the act of 1841, and is retroactive in its operation; and it provides that the said fifth section “ shall be construed to have authorized and to authorize the naval officers and surveyors therein mentioned to receive the maximum compensation of $5,000 and .$4,500, respectively, as therein named, out of any and all fees and emoluments by them received.”

These sums of $5,000 and $4,500 are the maximum compensation of naval officers and surveyors in the enumerated ports. And this eighth section of the. act of 1870, in amending the fifth section of the act of 1841, specifies those described sums as “ therein mentioned,” that is, as mentioned in the fifth section of the act of 1841; and it has been said that the Supreme Court decided in the case before cited that those sums mentioned in the fifth section of the act of 1841 were applicable only to officers in the enumerated ports. And for the reasons and on the authority of that decision we hold that those sums [231]*231in' the eighth section of the act of 1870 are applicable only to naval officers and surveyors in the enumerated ports.

We have thus reached our solution of the first question made. The claimant was in commission of the office of a surveyor at Pittsburgh, and under the act of 1831 the duties of a collector prescribed in it belonged to that office by law. And under the acts of 1841 and 1857 $3,000 and $2,000 (if received from rents and storage) were the emoluments belonging by law to that office, and making its maximum compensation $5,000 per year when received from all its sources of emolument.

Put the claimant held another office, viz, that of depositary of public moneys, for which he was not commissioned, but to which he was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury under the Act 6th August, 1846, (9 Stat. L., p. 59.) This act prescribes the duties of depositaries but did not fix their compensation, and this was done by the act of 1853, (10 Stat. L., p. 172.) The title of this act is, “ An act to provide compensation to such persons as may he designated by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive and Iceep the public money, tender the eighteenth section of the act of the 6th of August, 1846, for the additional services required tender that act.” The enacting clause prescribes the compensation in the form of a specified commission upon the amounts received, and then follows these provisos: “Provided,

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Related

Boughton v. United States
12 Ct. Cl. 330 (Court of Claims, 1876)
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10 Ct. Cl. 229 (Court of Claims, 1874)

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8 Ct. Cl. 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclean-v-united-states-cc-1872.