Brown v. United States

• Decision Date: 01 October 1884
• Citation: 113 U.S. 568,28 L.Ed. 1079,5 S.Ct. 648
• Parties: BROWN, Adm'x, etc., v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

113 U.S. 568

5 S.Ct. 648

28 L.Ed. 1079

BROWN, Adm'x, etc., v. UNITED STATES.

October Term, 1884.

James Brown, the intestate of the appellant, was a boatswain in the United States navy. The petition in this case was filed against the United States by the administratrix of his estate in the court of claims to recover a balance of pay which she alleged was due to Brown at his death. The court of claims found the following facts: Brown, the decedent, was appointed a boatswain in the navy of the United States, January 4, 1862. On October 22, 1872, the naval retiring board, before which he had been ordered by the secretary of the navy under the provisions of section 23 of the act of August 3, 1861, (12 St. 291,) reported that he was incapacitated from performing the duties of his office, and that there was no evidence that such incapacity was the result of any incident of the service. He was accordingly, upon the day last mentioned, by order of the president, retired on furlough pay. From October 22, 1872, to June 30, 1875, Brown received pay at the rate of $900 per annum; and from July 1, 1875, to June 6, 1879, at the rate of $500 per annum. On the day last named he died. The court further found that the acts of August 3, 1861, (12 St. 290,) and of December 21, 1861, (12 St. 329,) were soon after their enactment construed by the president and navy department to include warrant officers, and under that construction it had been the uniform practice of the president to place warrant officers on the retired list, and large numbers of these officers had been so retired. No protest or objection was made y Brown during his life-time, either to his retirement or rate of pay. The accounting officers of the treasury had uniformly held that longevity pay to retired officers was not authorized by section 1593 of the Revised Statutes.

From these findings of fact the court of claims deduced, as a conclusion of law, that Brown was legally placed on the retired list, and had received the full amount of pay allowed him by law, and was not entitled to recover, and entered judgment dismissing the petition. The appeal of the petitioner brings that judgment under review.

John Paul Jones and Robert B. Lines, for appellant.

Sol. Gen. Phillips, for appellee.

Mr. Justice Woods delivered the opinion of the court. He recited the facts in the foregoing language.

It is not denied that up to July 1, 1875, Brown received all the pay to which he was entitled. The first contention of the appellant is that the placing of Brown on the retired list was unauthorized by law, and that he was therefore entitled to the full pay of a boatswain from July 1, 1875, up to the time of his death. Section 23 of the act of August 3, 1861, (12 St. 291,) by authority of which the president assumed to retire Brown, reads as follows: 'That whenever any officer of the navy, on being ordered to perform the duties appropriate to his commission, shall report himself unable to comply with such order, or whenever, in the judgment of the president of the United States, an officer of the navy shall be in any way incapacitated from performing the duties of his office, the president, at his discretion, shall direct the secretary of the navy to refer the case of such officer to a board. * * * The board, whenever it finds an officer incapacitated for active service, will report whether, in its judgment, the incapacity result from long and faithful service, from wounds or injuries received in the line of duty, from sickness or exposure therein, or from any other incident of the service; if so, and the president approve of such judgment, the disabled officer shall thereupon be placed upon the list of retired officers according to the provisions of this act. But if such disability or incompetency proceed from other causes, and the president concur in opinion with the board, the officer may be retired upon furlough pay, or he shall be wholly retired from the service with one year's pay, at the discretion of the president, and in this last case his name shall be wholly omitted from the navy register. * * *'

The appellant asserts that this section applies only to commissioned officers and not to warrant officers, to which latter class Brown belonged. It must be conceded that were the question a new one the true construction of the section would be open to doubt. But the findings of the court of claims show that soon after the enactment of the act the president and the navy department construed the section to include warrant as well as commissioned offi- cers, and that they have since that time uniformly adhered to that construction, and that under its provisions large numbers of warrant officers have been retired. This contemporaneous and uniform interpretation is entitled to weight in the construction of the law, and in a case of doubt ought to turn the scale.

In Edwards v. Darby, 12 Wheat. 206, it was said by this court that 'in the construction of a doubtful and ambiguous law the contemporaneous construction of those who were called upon to act under the law, and were appointed to carry its provisions into effect, is entitled to great respect.' This case is cited upon this point with approval in Atkins v. Disintegrating Co. 18 Wall. 301; Smythe v. Fiske, 23 Wall. 382; U. S. v. Pugh, 99 U. S. 265; and in U. S. v. Moore, 95 U. S. 763. In the case last mentioned the court said that 'the construction given to a statute by those charged with the duty of executing it ought not to be overruled without cogent reasons. The officers concerned are usually able men and masters of the subject. Not unfrequently they are the draughtsmen of the laws they are afterwards called upon to interpret.' And in the case of U. S. v. Pugh the court said: 'While, ther fore, the question,' the construction of the abandoned and captured property act, 'is one by no means free from doubt, we are not inclined to interfere at this late day with a rule which has been acted on by the court of claims and the executive for so long a time.' See, also, U. S. v. State Bank of N. C. 6 Pet. 29; U. S. v. Alexander, 12 Wall. 177; Peabody v. Stark, 16 Wall. 240; Hahn v. U. S. 107 U. S. 402; S. C. 2 SUP. CT. REP. 494. These authorities justify us in adhering to the construction of the law under consideration, adopted by the executive...