Morris Keim v. United States
Decision Date | 09 April 1900 |
Docket Number | No. 57,57 |
Parties | MORRIS KEIM, Appt. , v. UNITED STATES |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
This case comes on appeal from a decree of the court of claims dismissing appellant's petition. 33 Ct. Cl. 174. The findings of that court show that petitioner was on April 17, 1865, honorably discharged from the military service of the United States by reason of disability resulting from injuries received in such service. He passed the civil service examination, and on May 7, 1888, was appointed to a clerkship in the Post Office Department. On March 16, 1893, at his own request and on the certificate of the civil service commission, he was trans- ferred to the Department of the Interior, and assigned to a clerkship in class 1 in the Pension Bureau, with a salary of $1,200 per year. On March 1, 1894, his salary was reduced to $1,000 per annum, at which salary he continued to serve to July 31, 1894, when he was discharged, and has not since been permitted to perform the duties of his clerkship, although ready and willing to do so. The discharge by the Secretary of the Interior was made upon this recommendation from the Commissioner of Pensions: The fourth and sixth findings are as follows:
The petitioner requested additional findings, of which the only portions material to this inquiry are in the latter part of finding 3, that 'he was formally discharged from said service, without any fault of his own, and without just cause, and has not since said last-named date been permitted to discharge the duties of said clerkship, although he has at all times, since said last-named date, stood ready and willing to discharge the duties thereof.' And finding 5: 'That petitioner was at the time of his so-called discharge an efficient clerk, and discharged his duties faithfully and efficiently, and at the time of his said discharge he possessed and now possesses the necessary business capacity for the proper discharge of the duties of said clerkship.'
These findings the court declined to make, 'deeming said requested findings, if true, to be irrelevant to the issue presented.'
Mr. John C. Chaney for appellant.
Assistant Attorney General Boyd for appellee.
Mr. John C. Chaney for appellant.
Assistant Attorney General Boyd for appellee.
Upon these facts we are asked to decide whether the courts may supervise the action of the head of a department in discharging one of the clerks therein.
It has been repeatedly adjudged that the courts have no general supervising power over the proceedings and action of the various administrative departments of government. Thus, in Decatur v. Paulding, 14 Pet. 497, 515, 10 L. ed. 559, 568, in which was presented the question of the right of the circuit court of the District of Columbia to issue a writ of mandamus to the Secretary of the Navy to perform an executive act not merely ministerial, but involving the exercise of judgment, it was said by Chief Justice Taney:
The same proposition was reaffirmed in United States ex rel. Dunlap v. Black, 128 U. S. 40, 32 L. ed. 354, 9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 12, in an elaborate opinion by Mr. Justice Bradley. See also United States ex rel. Redfield v. Windom, 137 U. S. 636, 34 L. ed. 811...
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