Reynolds v. United States

95 Ct. Cl. 160, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 13, 1941 WL 4550
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedDecember 1, 1941
DocketNo. 45055
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 95 Ct. Cl. 160 (Reynolds 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
Reynolds v. United States, 95 Ct. Cl. 160, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 13, 1941 WL 4550 (cc 1941).

Opinion

LittletoN, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff claims that under section 3 of the Act of January 12,1923, 42 Stat. 1130, when that section is interpreted in the light of the entire act and in the light of other relevant statutes, he was and is entitled to additional retired pay of $1,500 per annum inasmuch as that section provided that when a commissioned officer of the Coast Guard who has had forty years’ service shall retire he shall be placed on the retired list with the rank and retired pay of one grade above that actually held by him at the time of retirement. Plaintiff insists that this was a special provision for the benefit of all commissioned officers of the Coast Guard who had long service and is consistent with the provisions in section 2 of the same act, upon which the defendant relies, which relate generally, and without reference to length of service, to the retired rank and pay of a commandant of the Coast Guard.

On the other hand counsel for defendant insists that section 2 of the Act of January 12, 1923, supra, was a special provision governing the rank and retired pay of any commissioned officer of the Coast Guard, including one who had more than forty years’ service who, at the time of retirement, held a commission and was serving as commandant of the Coast Guard, having the rank and receiving the active-duty pay of a rear admiral (lower half) of the Navy. And it is argued by defendant that section 3 was a general provision relating to all commissioned officers other than commandant who had more than forty years’ service prior to retiring.

The parties are not in disagreement with reference to the well-established rule relating to the interpretation, of the statutes, as stated in Rodgers v. United States, 185 U. S. 83, that “* * * where there are two statutes, the earlier special and the later general — the terms of the general broad enough to include the matter provided for in the special — the fact that the one is special and the other is general creates a presumption that the special is to be considered as remaining an exception to the general, and the general will not be understood as repealing the special, unless a repeal is expressly named, or unless the provisions of the general are [165]*165manifestly inconsistent with those of the special.” And also as stated in Mutual Life Insurance Company v. Hill, 193 U. S. 551, 558, in which the court said:

* * *. The ordinary rule in respect to the construction of contracts is this: that where there are two clauses in any respect conflicting, that which is specially directed to a particular matter controls in respect thereto over one which is general in its terms, although within its general terms the particular may be included. Because when the parties express themselves in reference to a particular matter the attention is directed to that, and it must be assumed that it expresses their intent, whereas a reference to some general matter, within which the particular may be included, does not necessarily indicate that the parties had the particular matter in thought. * * * The special controlled the general; that which must have been in the minds of the contracting parties controls that which may not have been, although included within the language of the latter stipulation. This is the general rule in the construction of all documents — contracts as well as statutes.

It is also the rule of statutory interpretation that where there are two provisions in the same statute relating to the same matter and the language of the two sections or provisions gives rise to a doubt, or is in any way conflicting, the doubt will be resolved in favor of the later expression in the statute for the reason that it must be presumed that the Congress had the earlier provision in mind when writing the later provision and would, if it had intended that the earlier provision be an exception to the later one, have inserted an exception or so provided to that effect.

We are of opinion, as we shall hereinafter attempt to show, that section 3 of the Act of January 12, 1923, supra, was a special provision and related to a special class of officers which included plaintiff, notwithstanding plaintiff was serving as commandant at the time of his retirement, and that section 2 of the act was a general provision relating to the retirement of any officer while serving as commandant, which, except for the provisions of section 3, would have applied to any officer upon reaching 64 years of age whether he had served forty years or not.

[166]*166A ratber detailed statement with, reference to the provisions of sections 1, 2, and 3 of the Act of January 12, 1923, is necessary to a clear understanding of the question presented. The Act of January 12,1923, supra, was entitled “An Act To distribute the commissioned line and engineer officers of the Coast Guard in grades, and for other purposes.”

Section 1 provided that the number of permanent commissioned line officers of the Coast Guard authorized by law should be distributed in grades of one commandant, seven captains, twelve commanders, thirty-five lieutenant commanders, thirty-seven lieutenants, and seventy-seven lieutenants (junior grade) and ensigns; that the number of permanent commissioned engineer officers authorized by law should be distributed in grades of one engineer in chief, three captains (engineering), sis commanders (engineering), twelve lieutenant commanders (engineering), twenty-two lieutenants (engineering), and forty-two lieutenants (junior grade) (engineering) and ensigns (engineering); that promotions to the grades created by that act, namely, captain, captain (engineering), and commander (engineering) should be made from the nest lower grade by seniority. Then followed a proviso that lieutenants and lieutenants (junior grade), both line and engineering, might be promoted, subject to esamination as provided by law, without regard to the number or length of service in grade, to such grades in the Coast Guard not above lieutenant commander or lieutenant commander (engineering) as correspond to the permanent ranks and grades that may be attained in accordance with law by line officers of the Regular Navy of the same length of total commissioned service, and officers thus promoted should be estra numbers in their respective grades, which estra numbers should not at any one time esceed twenty lieutenant commanders, fifteen lieutenants, fifteen lieutenant commanders (engineering) and eight lieutenants (engineering), but that no officer should be promoted under this proviso who would thereby be advanced in rank ahead of an officer in the same grade and corps whose name stood above his on the official precedence list. There was a further proviso that captains and captains (engineering) should have the rank of, and be of corresponding grade to, captains in the Navy, and com[167]*167manders (engineering) should have the rank óf, and be of the corresponding grade to, commanders in the Navy.

Section 2 upon which defendant relies, is quoted in full:

That the title of captain commandant in the Coast Guard is hereby changed to commandant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
95 Ct. Cl. 160, 1941 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 13, 1941 WL 4550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-united-states-cc-1941.