Miller v. United States

24 F. Supp. 958, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1814
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Illinois
DecidedOctober 25, 1938
DocketNo. 389-D
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 24 F. Supp. 958 (Miller v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Miller v. United States, 24 F. Supp. 958, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1814 (illinoised 1938).

Opinion

LINDLEY, District Judge.

Plaintiff enlisted voluntarily in the United States Army on July 10, 1917, remaining in the service until December 20, 1917 when he was discharged. He made no application for insurance, received no policy and paid no premiums, but claims to have been totally and permanently disabled while in service and to be entitled, therefore, to recover automatic insurance as provided by the Act of Congress of October 6, 1917, 40 Stat. 398, as amended.

Plaintiff’s claim for benefits for such insurance, filed June 11, 1931, was denied November 8, 1932. He' filed suit on November 14, 1932.

Plaintiff’s A-G-O record shows at the time of his discharge because of goitre, exophthalmic, dyspnoea and general weakness, he was incapable of performing the duties of a soldier. The other evidence can be reconciled with only one conclusion,— that he was at the time of his discharge, totally and permanently disabled. Recognizing this, the government has paid him something like $19,000 in compensation. True, the evidence indicates that he was congenitally nervous, and, as a physician for the government testified, incapable of meeting successfully and solving the problems of life, and that under proper treatment in proper institutions, he might have been' able to do some light casual work. But it is undisputed that he is. neurasthenic ; affected by a very pronounced [959]*959shaking of his head and hands; writes his name with great difficulty and is absolutely incapable of sustained effort physically or mentally. Moreover, this condition existed at the time of his discharge. Obviously, with the wisdom gained from past history, we can safely say he should not have been accepted as a soldier. But the evidence is conclusive that the sustained effort required in military drilling even for a few weeks brought about an accentuation of his constitutional defects and diseases, and caused to progress rapidly his disability, making it total and permanent.

However, a serious question arises as to his right to recover. At the time of trial he sought recovery of only such installments as have accrued subsequent to six years preceding the date of filing his claim on June 11, 1931, namely, such installments as have accrued since June 11, 1925, but in his brief filed since then he insists that he recover for all installments maturing since 1917. The government claims, however, that he is barred from right to recover any of the installments.

The original provision for the payment of automatic insurance was enacted October 6, 1917, in Section 401 of the War Risk Insurance Act, '(40 Stat. 409) under which, after providing for contracts of insurance, Congress declared that any person in the active service who, after the sixth day of April, 1917, while in such service and before the expiration of 120 days from and after the date of enactment, should become totally disabled or die, without having applied for insurance,’ should be deemed to have applied for and to have been granted such insurance, payable in monthly installments, and in case of his death, to his wife, children or widowed mother, provided, however, that not more than 240 of such monthly installments should be paid. On June 25,1918, an amendment, 40 Stat. 614 (Sec. 401, as am.) added to the previously designated beneficiaries, the soldier’s father.

This legislation remained a part of the War Risk Insurance Act until omitted from the Act of June 7, 1924, 43 Stat. 607. In the latter mentioned Act, Sections 600 and 601 repealed a large part of the War Risk Insurance Act, but it was provided in Section 602, 38 U.S.C.A. § 571, that such repeal would not affect any right or liability accrued but that such should continue and be enforced in the same manner as if the repeal had not been made. Section 604, 38 U.S.C.A. § 573, provided that all suits for causes arising or acts done prior to said repeal, should be commenced and prosecuted at the same time and in the same manner “as if said repeal had not been made.”

At the time of the original enactment it was provided in Section 405 that the government might be sued under certain specified conditions and this provision was retained in Section 13 of the later act by the amendment of May 20, 1918 and in Section 19 of the act of June 7, 1924, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445 note. The latter section was subsequently amended by the act of March 4, 1925, the act of May 29, 1928 and the act of July 3, 1930, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445. The amendment of the act of May 29, 1928, 45 Stat. 964, provided that no suit should be allowed unless it should be brought within six years after the right accrued for which the claim was made or within one year from the date of the approval of the amendatory act, whichever should be the later date, with a provision for extension of the period by the time during which a claim should be pending. The later act of July 3, 1930, 38 U.S.C.A. § 445, extended further the time within which suits might be brought, saying that “no suit on yearly renewable term insurance shall be allowed under this section unless the same shall have been brought within six years after the right accrued for which the claim is made.” This later act included the same provision as the act of May 29, 1928, relative to the time when rights shall be deemed to have áccrued.

Plaintiff’s cause of action arose in 1917. He filed his claim June 11, 1931 for all installments accruing after he became totally and permanently disabled. He explains his failure to file a claim earlier by his lack of knowledge of the provision in the act of Congress for automatic insurance, and testifies that he had no knowledge thereof until his first consultation with his counsel in June, 1931, and that immediately after such conference, his claim was prepared and filed.

Under the act of 1928, it seems apparent, plaintiff was entitled to bring suit upon a cause of action accruing within six years of the time in which he asserted his right, and the government insists that by the failure upon the part of Congress to include automatic insurance in the act of 1930, it thereby excluded future actions for automatic insurance within the time provided in the act. The government relies [960]*960upon three cases: United States v. Howard Preece, 10 Cir., 85 F.2d 952; United States v. Pastell, 4 Cir., 91 F.2d 575, 112 A.L.R. 1125; United States v. Oliver, 6 Cir., 86 F.2d 1018. In each of these cases the court held that automatic insurance is neither renewable term insurance nor converted insurance, and can become effective only if the soldier dies or becomes totally and permanently disabled within the time mentioned, in which event it is automatically a matured claim at the time it is issued and cannot be renewed or converted ; that the act of Congress extending the time within which suits could be brought against the United States on renewable term insurance and converted insurance excluded suits for automatic insurance and that where a right of action accrued in 1917 and suit was not filed until August, 1932, after the claim was presented to the Board in 1931 and rejected in 1932, plaintiff could not recover. With those decisions, so far as they go, I do not disagree.

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Related

Miller v. United States
117 F.2d 256 (Seventh Circuit, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
24 F. Supp. 958, 1938 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1814, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-united-states-illinoised-1938.