United States v. Saunders

• Decision Date: 24 January 1887
• Citation: 30 L.Ed. 594,120 U.S. 126,7 S.Ct. 467
• Parties: UNITED STATES v. SAUNDERS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

120 U.S. 126

7 S.Ct. 467

30 L.Ed. 594

UNITED STATES v. SAUNDERS.

January 24, 1887.

Atty. Gen. Garland and H. J. May, for appellant.

Van H. Manning, for ppellee.

MILLER, J.

Saunders, the appellee in this case, recovered against the United States in the court of claims a judgment for $1,627, from which the United States appealed. The recovery was for the salary of the claimant as clerk of the committee on commerce of the house of representatives, from the fourteenth day of March, 1885, to the seventh day of January, 1886, at the rate of $2,000 per annum. Mr. Saunders held this place from the first day of July, 1884, when he was appointed, up to the seventh day of January, 1886, when his successor was appointed. He was paid the compensation up to the fourteenth of March, 1885, and for the time between that and the seventh of January, 1886, the comptroller refused to pay him. The various appropriation acts, including the one which would cover the period now in question, had all made appropriations for compensation for the clerk of the committee on commerce. The ground upon which payment is resisted by the United States is that the claimant was, on the fourteenth day of March, 1885, appointed a clerk in the office of the president of the United States, since which time he has continued to perform the duties of that office, and receive its salary. The comptroller, in his decision refusing to allow the claim, places his objection upon section 1765, Rev. St. U. S., and upon the opinion of Atty. Gen. Black, in regard to extra pay and double compensation, delivered in 1857. 9 Op. Attys. Gen. 123. Section 1765 is found in immediate connection whth several other sections on the same subject, of which the two immediately preceding may be considered to some extent in pari materia. They are as follows:

'Sec. 1763. No person who holds an office, the salary or annual compensation attached to which amounts to the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars, shall receive compensation for discharging the duties of any other office, unless expressly authorized by law.

'Sec. 1764. No allowance or compensation shall be made to any officer or clerk, by reason of the discharge of duties which belong to any other officer or clerk in the same or any other department; and no allowance or compensation shall be made for any extra services whatever, which any officer or clerk may be required to perform, unless expressly authorized by law.

'Sec. 1765. 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, or compensation, in any form whatever, for the disbursement of public money, or for any other service or duty 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.'

Some stress is laid in the letter of the comptroller on the proposition that the clerkship to the committee is not an office in contemplation of the constitution of the United States and the law, and the decision in U. S. v. Germaine, 99 U. S. 508, is relied upon in support of that proposition. We do not think it important to decide in this case whether such a clerkship is an office within the meaning of these sections of the law and the constitution, because sections 1764 and 1765 both include in their prohibition officers, clerks, and other persons. The...