Bengzon v. Secretary of Justice of the Philippine Islands

• Decision Date: 04 January 1937
• Docket Number: No. 214,214
• Parties: BENGZON v. SECRETARY OF JUSTICE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

299 U.S. 410

57 S.Ct. 252

81 L.Ed. 312

BENGZON

v SECRETARY OF JUSTICE OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS et al.

No. 214.

Argued and Submitted Dec. 18, 1936.

Decided Jan. 4, 1937.

Mr. Pedro G. Glagen, of Manila, P.I., for petitioner.

Mr. Eugene M. Caffey, of Washington, D.C., for respondents.

Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

This suit was brought by petitioner against respondents in the Court of First Instance of Manila, for a writ of mandamus commanding respondents to approve and order payment of a gratuity awarded to him by section 7 of the Retirement Gratuity Law (Act 4051, Laws of the Philippines), notwithstanding the veto of that section by the Governor-General. The Court of First Instance, upon respondents' demurrer, dismissed the action. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court of the Commonwealth of the Philippines affirmed that decision, holding that the veto by the Governor-General of section 7 was authorized by section 19 of the Organic Act of August 29, 1916, 39 Stat. 545, 551 (48 U.S.C.A. §§ 1052, 1053). 28 Phil. —-. Because of the importance of the question, we granted certiorari. 299 U.S. 526, 57 S.Ct. 29, 81 L.Ed. —-.

The Retirement Gratuity Law contains twelve sections. It is entitled, 'An Act to provide for the payment of retirement gratuities to officers and employees of the Insular Government retired from the service as a result of the reorganization or reduction of personnel thereof, including the justices of the peace who must relinquish office in accordance with the provisions of Act numbered Thirty-eight Hundred and Ninety-nine, and for other purposes.'

Section 1 classifies the officers and employees, separated or retired from the service, who shall be entitled to a gratuity, and provides a method for ascertaining the amount. Section 2 accords preferences in the case of certain officers and employees; section 3 fixes the basis for the computation of the gratuity; section 4 allows an officer or employee to choose between the gratuity granted by the act and gratuities conferred by other acts; section 5 provides for succession in respect of unpaid gratuities in case of death; and section 6 authorizes a conditional reappointment of persons separated or retired under the act.

Section 8—passing for the present section 7—abolishes the offices and positions vacated by the separation or retirement of officers and employees, with certain exceptions. Section 9 excepts from the benefits of the act designated officers and employees. Section 10 provides: 'The necessary sum to carry out the purposes of this Act is hereby appropriated out of any funds in the Insular Treasury not otherwise appropriated.' Section 11 fixes the effective date of the act; and section 12 provides that, if any provision of the act be disapproved by the Governor-General or be held unconstitutional or invalid by a competent court, none of the other sections or provisions of the act shall be affected thereby.

The Governor-General returned the act with the indorsement, 'Approved, section 7 excepted, February 21, 1933.' Section 7, thus vetoed, reads:

'The Justices of the Peace who must relinquish office during the year nineteen hundred and thirty-three in accordance with the provisions of Act Numbered Thirty-eight hundred and ninety-nine, shall also be entitled to the gratuities provided for in this Act.'

Section 19 of the Organic Act, supra, confers upon the Governor-General the usual and general veto power. That is to say, it authorizes him, if he does not approve a bill or joint resolution passed by both houses of the Legislature, to 'return it with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated'; and it then can become law only if upon reconsideration two-thirds of the members elected to each house shall agree to pass it. This general power requires the veto to include the whole bill. But the section contains an exception, namely:

'The Governor General shall have the power to veto any particular item or items of an appropriation bill, but the veto shall not affect the item or items to which he does not object.'

This exceptional power, it will be seen, is limited to appropriation bills; any other kind of legislation being controlled by the general rule. And its exercise is restricted to the disapproval of a particular item or particular items of such a bill. The precise question for consideration, therefore, is, Did the bill which became Act 4051 constitute an appropriation bill; and, if so, was section 7, within the meaning of the foregoing provision of the Organic Act, an item of such bill'

It first is to be observed that the title of the act in no wise suggests that what follows is an appropriation bill; and an examination of the act itself discloses that, with the exception of section 10, the bill itself proposed only general legislation. Eliminating section 10, the remaining eleven sections could stand as a generic act of legislation, leaving the specific matter of appropriation to be dealt with by later enactment. The term 'appropriation act' obviously would not include an act of general legislation; and a bill proposing such an act is not converted into an appropriation bill simply because it has had engrafted upon it a section making an appropriation. An appropriation bill is one the primary and specific aim of which is to make appropriations of money from the public treasury. To say otherwise would be to confuse an appropriation bill proposing sundry appropriations of money with a bill proposing sundry provisions of general law and carrying an appropriation as an incident. The Supreme Court of Texas in Fulmore v. Lane, 104 Tex. 499, 512, 140 S.W. 405, 412, 1082, clearly pointed out the distinction between the veto power in respect of a bill in the general sense and an appropriation bill. 'Nowhere in the Constitution,' the court said, 'is the authority given the Governor to approve in part and disapprove in part a bill. The only additional authority to disapproving a bill in whole is that given to object to an item or items, where a bill contains several items of appropriation. It follows conclusively that where the veto power is attempted to be exercised to object to a paragraph or portion of a bill other than an item or items, or to language qualifying an appropriation or directing the method of its uses, he exceeds the constitutional authority...