United States v. James Wickersham
| Decision Date | 02 April 1906 |
| Docket Number | No. 185,185 |
| Citation | 201 U.S. 390,26 S.Ct. 469,50 L.Ed. 798 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES, Appt ., v. JAMES H. WICKERSHAM, Jr |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Assistant Attorney General Pradt and Mr. Felix Brannigan for appellant.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 390-391 intentionally omitted] Messrs. William R. Andrews and S. D. Luckett for appellee.
[Argument of Counsel from pages 391-392 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice Day delivered the opinion of the court:
The appellee brought suit in the court of claims to recover upon an alleged claim for compensation at the rate of $1,100 per annum, from November 1, 1897, to July 1, 1902, and averred that he was a clerk in the office of the United States surveyor general in Bois e, Idaho, in the classified civil service, from which employment, on said first-mentioned date, he was suspended without fault of his own or just cause. He stated his readiness to discharge the duties of the office, and set forth in detail what he claimed amounted to a wrongful suspension therefrom by the United States surveyor general of the state of Idaho. The finding of facts is quite voluminous, and it is unnecessary to set it all out in detail. The facts pertinent to the dicision of this case may be summarized as follows: Several years prior to May 6, 1896, claimant was employed as a clerk, stenographer, and typewriter in the office of the surveyor general of the United States for the state of Idaho, at a salary of $1,100 per annum. On that date the President of the United States made and promulgated an order relating to the civil service, which provided, among other things:
'Rule III.
'1. All that part of the executive civil service of the United States which has been, or may hereafter be, classified under the civil service act, shall be arranged as follows: The Departmental Service. . . .
'2. The Departmental Service shall include officers and employees as follows:
* * * * * *
'(b) All executive officers and employees outside of the District of Columbia not covered in (a), of whatever designation, whether compensated by fixed salary or otherwise —
'Who are serving in a clerical capacity, or whose duties are in whole or in part of a clerical nature.'
On June 9, 1896, the Secretary of the Interior issued the following order:
Civil Service Classification of Officers and Employees.
Department of the Interior,
Washington, June 9, 1896.
By direction of the President of the United States, and in accordance with the third clause of § 6 of the act entitled 'An Act to Regulate and Improve the Civil Service of the United States,' approved January 16, 1883 [22 Stat. at L. 406, chap. 27, U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 1222]:
It is ordered, That the officers and employees in or under this Department included within the provisions of the civil service law and rules be, and they are hereby, arranged in the following classes:
Class E, all persons receiving an annual salary of $1,000 or more, or a compensation at the rate of $1,000 or more, but less than $1,200 per annum . . .
On September 22, 1896, the Acting Secretary of the Interior communicated to the Civil Service Commission the names of the incumbents, with their legal residences and the dates of appointment, added to the classified departmental service by the extension of May 6, 1896, also inclosing a similar list of such positions and employees in the offices of the surveyor general, which contained the name of the appellee, with his title, 'stenographer and typewriter,' date of appointment, salary, residence, and class. The appellee was verbally informed by the surveyor general of his selection, and, after executing the prescribed oath, entered upon his duties. At the time of his employment the custom was to allow the surveyor general to select the clerical force of his office. Appellee was continuously employed as such stenographer and typewriter until November 1, 1897, on which date he was suspended from service by the surveyor general. No charges in writing or orally were preferred against him, the surveyor general basing the suspension on the ground that appellee's services were not needed on account of lack of work to be done. On November 15, 1897, the surveyor general reported to the Commissioner of the General Land Office an accumulation of mineral work, the employment of certain clerks by himself, with the request for additional clerical force. On November 22, 1897, the Commissioner of the General Land Office advised the surveyor general that the ground taken that certain persons were dismissed because there was no further occasion for their services, and the appointment of other persons in their places, could not be sustained. On February 24, 1898, the Commissioner of the General Land Office, in reply to a letter from the surveyor general under date of February 21, 1898, in which he had asked authority to employ two additional draftsmen and four transcribing clerks, to be paid from the funds reported as available, said: On May 14, 1898, the Commissioner advised the Civil Service Commission as follows: 'Referring to my request of the 20th ult., for a certificate of a list of eligibles for appointment as stenographer and typewriter, at $900, in the office of the surveyor general of Idaho, I have been informed that an examination was recently held by your Commission in said state for persons possessing the required qualifications, and it is urgently requested that as soon as possible this office may be furnished with a certificate from those citizens of Idaho who are eligible for the place desired to be filled under my call of the 20th ult., as the surveyor general reports that his work is much impeded and embarrassed for the lack of a competent stenographer.' On June 15, 1898, the president of the Civil Service Commission addressed a communication to the Secretary of the Interior, in which he said: 'In this connection the Commission invites your attention to the fact that although Surveyor General Perrault suspended the above-named employees (Lellman and Wickersham) and three others (D. J. Cohen, Joseph P. Chinn, and Alice S. Howey) over seven months ago, on the alleged ground of lack of work (which has been effectually disproved), these persons still remain, separated from the service, while others occupy the positions to which they are properly entitled.' Since November 1, 1897, claimant has not been permitted to...
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