United States v. Samuel Dickson

• Decision Date: 01 January 1841
• Citation: 10 L.Ed. 689,40 U.S. 141,15 Pet. 141
• Parties: UNITED STATES, Plaintiffs in error, v. SAMUEL W. DICKSON and others, Defendants in error
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

40 U.S. 141

15 Pet. 141

10 L.Ed. 689

UNITED STATES, Plaintiffs in error, v. SAMUEL W. DICKSON and others, Defendants in error.

January Term, 1841

ERROR to the Circuit Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. Samuel W. Dickson, the defendant, was appointed by the president of the United States, receiver of public money for the Choctaw district, in the state of Mississippi, and entered on the duties of his office on the 22d November 1833, and retained the office, performing the duties thereof, until the 26th July 1836, having on that day resigned the same. The United States claimed a large balance as due to them, and the defendant paid, in Natchez, the whole sum alleged to be due by him, with the exception of the items charged to him in the treasury transcript, which were the subject of controversy in this case.

A suit was instituted by the United States on the official bond of Samuel W. Dickson and his sureties, in May 1839, in the district court of the United States for the southern district of Mississippi, in which the United States claimed certain sums of money received by Samuel W. Dickson, as receiver, and not paid over to the United States. These sums were claimed by the defendant, and had been retained by him, as his official compensation, for the annual period of his service in the office, from the 22d November 1833, and for the fraction of the last year in which he was in office, commencing on the 22d November 1835, and ending on the 26th July 1836; during which latter period he had received public money exceeding in amount $250,000.

On the trial of the cause, the court charged the jury, that the defendant, Dickson, was entitled to credit for $3000 as compensation, including his salary of $500 for the year commencing November 22d, 1833, and ending November 22d, 1834; that he was entitled to the same compensation for the year commencing November 22d, 1834, and ending November 22d, 1835, and for the fraction of the year between the 22d November 1835, and the 26th July 1836, he was entitled to $2500 commissions. To this charge of the court, the United States excepted, and prosecuted this writ of error; a verdict and judgment for the defendants having been given, conformable to the opinion of this court.

The case was argued by Birchard and Gilpin, Attorney-General, for the United States. No counsel appeared for the defendants.

Birchard, for the United States, contended that the court erred—1. In allowing the receiver to calculate his yearly commission on the amount of public money received in a calendar year, commencing with the date of his appointment, instead of the fiscal year fixed by law.

2. In allowing the receiver the whole yearly maximum of $2500 of commissions for the fractional portion of the year in which he resigned.

1. In this case, the accounting officers settled the accounts, as is required by law, quarterly. The last quarter of each year terminating on the 31st day of December, annually. The instruction given to the jury by the court below, makes his first year commence on the 22d day of November 1833, and end twelve months thereafter; aud so of the succeeding years. The fractional period, which it treats as a full year, begins November 22d, 1835, and ends July 26th, 1836. It treats the terms used in the statute, 'any one year,' as any period of time, equal to twelve calendar months, whether it consists of portions of any two fiscal or calendar years. It disregards the beginning of quarters, weeks or months, and has no reference to the accounting days by quarters, or the fiscal year established by law, and recognised by congress, and the department, from the first establishment of the treasury to the present time.

It is respectfully submitted, that the entire legislation of congress shows, that the terms 'any one year,' when used in reference to the subject of accounting, import that portion of time intervening between the 1st day of January and 31st day of December; and that to give the phrase, as used in the act of 20th April 1818 (3 U. S. Stat. 466), any other meaning, or such a meaning as will make it embrace any twelve consecutive months, composing parts of any two years, will subvert the design of congress, introduce perplexity in accounts, and occasion great inconvenience, if it does not produce absurdities. The act of 1818 is not an isolated piece of legislation, to be construed without reference to any other law. There are other statutes, so directly connected with the subject-matter, that they should be considered, if doubts may reasonably be entertained as to its true construction. It is but part and parcel of a code, and must be examined in reference to the system of laws of which it forms a part, in order that from the whole a construction may be given to it, which will lead to no inconvenient results, or defeat the legislative will.

In Pennington v. Coxe, 2 Cranch 35, it was held, that the details of one part of a law or code may contain regulations restricting or modifying the extent of a general expression used in another part of the same act, and that the whole should be taken into view for the purpose of discovering the mind ef the legislature. And in United States v. Fisher, 2 Cranch 399-400, Mr. Justice WASHINGTON (in a dissenting opinion, but on this point agreeing with every member of the court) said, 'that if, from a view of the whole law, or from other laws in pari materi a, the evident intention is different from the literal import of the terms employed to express it, in a particular part of the law, that intention should prevail, for that, in fact, is the will of the legislature.' 'So, if the literal expressions of the law would lead to absurd, unjust or inconvenient consequences, such a construction should be given as to avoid those consequences, if, from the purview of the law, and giving effect to the words used, it may fairly be done.'

It is by these rules that I propose to test the correctness of the opinion of the court below. By reference to the act of 10th May 1800, § 6 (2 U. S. Stat. 75), it will be seen, that receivers were required to render quarterly accounts to the secretary of the treasury. That they were appointed, not for a term of years, but during good behavior, or the pleasure of the president for the time being, and that they were entitled to a commission of one per cent. on the moneys received. The act of March 26th, 1804, § 14 (Ibid. 282), gave them a salary of $500, and a half of one per cent. in addition. The law of compensation thus stood until 1818, when the act in question was passed. At this period, all the operations of the government were well understood. The departments were formed, the days of rendering and settling accounts were established and known. The act of 1817, § 13 (3 Ibid. 368), was in force, making it the duty of the secretary of the treasury to cause all the accounts of his department to be settled within the year. The accounting days had been established for more than a quarter of a century, dividing each year into four quarters, and commencing and terminating the fiscal year on the first day of January, and the 31st of December. There has been no innovation on the part of the executive or congress, in this respect, since the formation of the government.

Looking at the object to be accomplished by the act of 1818 can it be supposed, that the term 'any one year' was ever intended to be so understood as to embrace any other period than that established by usage and recognised by all the laws—any other than the well-known days—the four fixed quarters constituting a year? At each of which the receiver was required to render complete accounts, with the vouchers necessary to a prompt settlement. Especially, when we reflect, that these settlements were to pass at the close of the year from the auditor and comptroller to the register of the treasury, there, with the vouchers, for ever to remain as a finished piece of business. That the balances were to be certified to the secretary of the treasury as the basis of the future action of himself and congress; and that certified copies from the register were made evidence in all legal proceedings. The laws, evidently, as well as the law-makers, contemplated, at that date, that the four quarters of any one year would constitute the entire account of that year, and that the accounts of any two years could not be blended together, without a violation of the legislative will. Such a thing as beginning or terminating an annual a quarterly account in the middle of a quarter, a month or a week (except at the commencement or termination of office, when it arose ex necessitate), was then, as now, alike unknown to the department and the laws, and would effectually break in upon that simplicity and order of keeping accounts, which has been, wisely, and for necessary purposes, established for more than half a century.

If, then, the terms of the act of 1818 were of doubtful import, might it not be claimed, that an exposition contemporaneous with the law itself, and always uniform, is strong, if not conclusive, evidence of its own correctness? May it not be claimed, with propriety, that in all their enactments touching the subject of accounts, congress have legislated in express reference to the existence of this principle, as a fundamental one? If so, the rule is conclusive. It seems to me, there is no doubt upon the point. Yet I will not press it further than to observe, that it behooves us to be cautious in the inquiry, whether, inadvertently or intentionally, a special innovation has been introduced by this act.

It is contended, that the act may receive such a construction as will harmonize with the laws and usages upon the subject of accounts, fully effect the object of its framers, and give to each and every sentence its appropriate meaning, without the least violence to the language employed. To do this, it must be examined here, as it has been by the several...