Thomas v. United States

39 Ct. Cl. 1, 1903 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 177, 1903 WL 789
CourtUnited States Court of Claims
DecidedJanuary 5, 1903
DocketNo. 22790
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 39 Ct. Cl. 1 (Thomas 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
Thomas v. United States, 39 Ct. Cl. 1, 1903 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 177, 1903 WL 789 (cc 1903).

Opinion

Peelle, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The claimant, a lieutenant-commander in the United States Navy, of more than .twenty years’service, was, on July 7,1899, by order of the commander in chief of the naval forces of the Asiatic Station, detached from the U. S. battle ship Oregon and ordered to duty, as executive officer, as such in temporary command of the U. S. S. Monadnock, a vessel of the second rate, then serving in the Philippine waters.

The claimant, in compliance with the order aforesaid, reported for duty and assumed command of the Monadnock, July 11,1899, and continued in command thereof until relieved by Captain McGowan, August 15, 1899.

By regulations of the Navy Department then in force, as recited in finding m, it is provided that “ a lieutenant-commander may command a ship of the fourth rate; serve as [4]*4executive officer of a naval station or ship commanded bj*- an officer of superior grade; or pei'form such shore duty as may be assigned to him. ”

By the same regulation a captain in the Nav}r ma}'-, among other things, command “ a ship of th § first or second rate” and a commander “a ship of the-third rate.”

By the assignment of the claimant, a lieutenant-commander, to the command of a ship of the second rate, he contends that in the performance of said duty, during the period stated, he thereby exercised the rank of a captain, and he claims the difference between the pay he received as lieutenant-commander, at the rate of $3,500 per year, and the pay of a captain, at the rate of $4,500 per year, being $97.22.

The claimant grounds his. right to recover under section 7, act of April 26,1898 (30 Stat. L., 365), entitled “An act for the better organization of the line of the Army of the United States,” which reads:

“SeotioN 7. That in time of war every officer serving with troops operating against an enemy who shall exercise, under assignment in orders issued by competent authority, a command above that pertaining to his grade, shall be entitled to receive the pay and allowances of the grade appropriate to the command so exercised.” * * *

Though that act was by its terms intended to apply only to the officers of the United States Army, the claimant contends that it is made applicable to the commissioned officers of the Navy by virtue of section 13, act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 1007), which, so far as pertains to the present case, reads:

“Section 13. That, after June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, commissioned officers of, the line of the Navy and of the medical and pay corps shall receive the same pay and allowances, except forage, as are or may be provided!by or in pursuance of law for the officers of corresponding rank in the Army.”

Two questions are presented: First, is the act of 1898 applicable to naval officers? And second: If so, was the exercise of the command of the Monadnock by the claimant “in time of war ? ”

As regards the first question, the accounting officers of the Treasury Department disallowed the claim on the ground that there was no law authorizing a higher rate of pajr than that [5]*5attached to the claimant’s grade or rank as lieutenant-commander, and this is now the contention of the defendants.

The language of section 13 providing that the officers therein referred to “shall receive the same pay and allowances, except forage, as are or may be provided by or in pursuance of law for the officers of corresponding rank in the Army,” is broad enough, we think, to include the prior act, which grants to an officer in the Army exercising a command above that pertaining to his grade “the pay and allowances of the grade appropriate to the command so exercised.”

The act defines the grant as “pay and allowances,” not of the regular paj’ of the grade or rank of the officer, but “of the grade appropriate to the command so exercised.”

Hence we conclude that by section 13, act of March 3,1899, the act of April 26, 1898 (supra), is made applicable to the commissioned officers of the line of the Nav3r and of the medical and pay corps.

The second question is: Was the command so exercised from July 11 to August 15, 1899, by the claimant “in time of war?”

By the act of April 25, 1898 (30 Stat. L., 364), it is -provided:

“First. That war be, and the same is hereby, declared to exist, and that war has existed since the twenty-first day of April, anno Domini eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, including said day, between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain;
“Second. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry this act into effect.”

The war thus declared to exist since April 21, 1898, continued until the treaty of peace between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain, signed at Paris December 10, 1898, was promulgated (after ratification) by the President of the United States, April 11, 1899 (30 Stat. L., 1754).

The services herein claimed for were rendered by the claimant after the date of that proclamation and consequently after the termination of hostilities between the two countries.

[6]*6The act of April 26, 1898, granting the-pay and allowances appropriate to the command exercised by an officer of the Army above that pertaining to his grade was passed the next da3>" after the act declaring the existence of war between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain, and was therefore certainly intended to apply to such services during that war.

In the recent case of Glenn v. The United States (37 C. Cls. R., 254), where the claimant, a colonel in the Army, had commanded a brigade between September and December, 1898, and claimed the difference between the pay of his grade and the command ho had exercised above that grade, he was allowed to recover. But it will be noted that the services rendered in that case were during the existence of the war between the United States and the Kingdom of Spain, and therefore the claimant brought himself in that respect clearly within the provisions of the act.

But was the act intended to apply to such service thereafter rendered while the United States were engaged in suppressing the insurrection in the Philippine Islands ?

The war with Spain ended when the treaty of peace was proclaimed by the President April 11, 1899, but prior thereto and after the signing of the treaty of peace, we know historically, as well as from the réports of the War Department, that insurrection existed in the Philippine Islands against the forces of the United States, growing out of dissatisfaction on the part of some of the leaders of the Philippine people over the purchase by the United States from Spain of the Philippine Islands, and that such dissatisfaction resulted in the battle of Manila February 4, 1899, between the insurrectionists and the military forces of the United States.

. This engagement, as shown by the reports in the War Department, marks the beginning of hostilities between the forces of the United States and the insurrectionists in those islands.

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Related

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51 Ct. Cl. 221 (Court of Claims, 1916)
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43 Ct. Cl. 19 (Court of Claims, 1907)
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41 Ct. Cl. 256 (Court of Claims, 1906)

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Bluebook (online)
39 Ct. Cl. 1, 1903 U.S. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 177, 1903 WL 789, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-united-states-cc-1903.