Childs v. United States, 96-53.

• Decision Date: 02 February 1954
• Docket Number: No. 96-53.,96-53.
• Citation: 118 F. Supp. 364
• Parties: CHILDS v. UNITED STATES.
• Court: U.S. Claims Court

118 F. Supp. 364

CHILDS v. UNITED STATES.

No. 96-53.

United States Court of Claims.

February 2, 1954.

Harry B. Childs, pro se.

Lawrence S. Smith, Washington, D. C., with whom was Warren E. Burger, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant.

Before JONES, Chief Judge, and LITTLETON, WHITAKER and MADDEN, Judges.

JONES, Chief Judge.

The plaintiff, a railway postal transportation clerk, sues for overtime pay because of four extra trips which he made in December 1952. These trips aggregate 29 hours for which he claims overtime pay in the sum of $91.35.

The pay of railway postal clerks is regulated by statute, the pertinent part of which is as follows:

"* * * Provided further, That the service of railway postal clerks assigned to road duty shall be based on an average of not exceeding eight hours daily for two hundred and fifty-three days per annum, including allowances for all service required on lay-off periods, and such allowances shall be not less than fifty minutes per day for two hundred and fifty-three days per annum for clerks assigned to class A runs and not less than one hour and thirty-five minutes per day for two hundred and fifty-three days per annum for clerks assigned to class B runs, and railway postal clerks assigned to road duty required to perform service in excess of an average of eight hours daily for two hundred and fifty-three days shall be paid for such overtime service on the basis of 150 per centum of the annual rate of pay received by such employees. In computing compensation for such overtime employment, the annual salary or compensation for such employees shall be divided by two thousand and twenty-four, the number of working hours in a year. The quotient thus obtained will be the base hourly compensation and one and one-half times that amount will be the hourly rate of overtime pay." 39 U.S.C.A. § 866.

All of plaintiff's service was performed on a class B run, as to which the statute provides a layoff-period allowance of 1 hour and 35 minutes per day, leaving a working schedule of the remaining 6 hours and 25 minutes which constitutes the working time.

In practical operation a record is kept by the Post Office Department, and when the daily average time on a trip is less than 6 hours and 25 minutes a deficiency is noted. When a sufficient deficiency is accumulated the clerk is assigned to an extra trip to make up the deficiency. If at the end of any month the overtime credit exceeds the deficiency, the clerk is paid one and...