time of his said transfer shall be transferred with him to said hospital and placed to his credit therein, to be expended as hereinbefore provided; and in case of his return from said hospital to the Home, any balance to his credit at said hospital shall, in like manner, be transferred to said Home, to be expended in accordance with the rules established in regard thereto. This provision shall also be applicable to all unexpended pension money heretofore paid to the officers of the said hospital on account of pensioners who were but are not now inmates thereof."

ACT FEBRUARY 2, 1909, AMENDING SECTION 4839, REVISED STATUTES (35 STAT. L., 592).

"SEC. 4839. * * * During the time that any pensioner shall be an inmate of the Government Hospital for the Insane, all money due or becoming due upon his or her pension shall be paid by the pension agent to the superintendent or disbursing agent of the hospital, upon a certificate by such superintendent that the pensioner is an inmate of the hospital and is living, and such pension money shall be by said superintendent or disbursing agent disbursed and used, under regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the pensioner, and, in case of a male pensioner, his wife, minor children, and dependent parents, or, if a female pensioner, her minor children, if any, in the order named, and to pay his or her board and maintenance in the hospital, the remainder of such pension money, if any, to be placed to the credit of the pensioner and to be paid to the pensioner or the guardian of the pensioner in the event of his or her discharge from the hospital; or, in the event of the death of said pensioner while an inmate of said hospital, shall, if a female pensioner, be paid to her minor children, and, in the case of a male pensioner, be paid to his wife, if living; if no wife survives him, then to his minor children; and in case there is no wife nor minor children, then the said unexpended balance to his or her credit shall be applied to the general uses of said hospital: Provided, That in the case of any pensioner transferred to the hospital from the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, any pension money to his credit at said home at the time of his said transfer shall be transferred with him to said hospital and placed to his credit therein, to be expended as herein before provided, and in case of his return from said hospital to the home any balance to his credit at said hospital shall in like manner be transferred to said home, to be expended in accordance with the rules established in regard thereto, and this provision shall also be applicable to all unexpended pension money heretofore paid to the officers of said hospital on account of pensioners who were but are not now inmates thereof."

SEC. 2. That all provisions of law inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed.

ACCRUED PENSION; TO WHOM PAID; REIMBURSEMENT.

ACT MARCH 2, 1895 (28 STAT. L., 964).

That from and after the twenty-eighth day of September, eighteen hundred and ninety-two, the accrued pension to the date of the

death of any pensioner, or of any person entitled to a pension having an application therefor pending, and whether a certificate therefor shall issue prior or subsequent to the death of such person, shall, in the case of a person pensioned, or applying for pension, on account of his disabilities or service, be paid, first, to his widow; second, if there is no widow, to his child or children under the age of sixteen years at his death; third, in case of a widow, to her minor children under the age of sixteen years at her death. Such accrued pension shall not be considered a part of the assets of the estate of such deceased person, nor be liable for the payment of the debts of said estate in any case whatsoever, but shall inure to the sole and exclusive benefit of the widow or children. And if no widow or child survive such pensioner, and in the case of his last surviving child who was such minor at his death, and in case of a dependent mother, father, sister, or brother, no payment whatsoever of their accrued pension shall be made or allowed except so much as may be necessary to reimburse the person who bore the expense of their last sickness and burial, if they did not leave sufficient assets to meet such expense. And the mailing of a pension check, drawn by a pension agent in payment of a pension due, to the address of a pensioner, shall constitute payment in the event of the death of a pensioner subsequent to the execution of the voucher therefor. And all prior laws relating to the payment of accrued pension are hereby repealed.

COMMISSIONER OF PENSIONS TO SETTLE REIMBURSEMENT CLAIMS.

ACT MARCH 4, 1909 (35 STAT. L., 1058).

That hereafter the settlement of all claims for the reimbursement of expenses of the last sickness and burial of deceased pensioners shall be under the direction of the Commissioner of Pensions.2

NO REIMBURSEMENT TO STATE, COUNTY, OR MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.

*

ACT MARCH 3, 1905 (33 STAT. L., 1169).

and no part of any accrued pension shall hereafter be used to reimburse any State, county, or municipal corporation for expenses incurred by such State, county, or municipal corporation under State law for expenses of the last sickness or burial of a deceased pensioner.

*

FAILURE TO CLAIM PENSION.

SECTION 4719, REVISED STATUTES.

The failure of any pensioner to claim his pension for three years after the same shall have become due shall be deemed presumptive evidence that such pension has legally terminated by reason of the pensioner's death, remarriage, recovery from the disability, or otherwise, and the pensioner's name shall be stricken from the list of

1 In nonvoucher cases the proper delivery of a pension check during the lifetime of the pensioner constitutes payment in the event of the death of the pensioner prior to endorsement thereof. In such cases the check becomes a part of the assets of the estate of the deceased pensioner.

2 Reimbursement claims were formerly settled in the Treasury Department; jurisdiction over them is conferred on the Commissioner of Pensions by this act.

pensioners, subject to the right of restoration to the same on a new application by the pensioner, or, if the pensioner is dead, by the widow or minor children entitled to receive the accrued pension, accompanied by evidence satisfactorily accounting for the failure to claim such pension, and by medical evidence in cases of invalids who were not exempt from biennial examinations as to the continuance of the disability.

PENSION NOT LIABLE TO ATTACHMENT.

SECTION 4747, REVISED STATUTES.

No sum of money due, or to become due, to any pensioner, shall be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure by or under any legal or equitable process whatever, whether the same remains with the Pension-Office, or any officer or agent thereof, or is in course of transmission to the pensioner entitled thereto, but shall inure wholly to the benefit of such pensioner.

NOTE.

See sections 4768 and 4769, Revised Statutes (p. 59), and act July 4, 1884 (p. 59), relative to payment of attorney fee by disbursing clerk when certified for payment by the Commissioner of Pensions.

CHAPTER IX.

MISCELLANEOUS STATUTES AND TABLE OF RATES.

TWO PENSIONS TO SAME PERSON NOT ALLOWABLE,

SECTION 4715, REVISED STATUTES.

Nothing in this Title shall be so construed as to allow more than one pension at the same time to the same person, or to persons entitled jointly; but any pensioner who shall so elect may surrender his certificate, and receive, in lieu thereof, a certificate for any other pension to which he would have been entitled had not the surrendered certificate been issued. But all payments previously made for any period covered by the new certificate shall be deducted from the amount allowed by such certificate.

PENSIONS UNDER SPECIAL ACT; SUSPECTED FRAUD.

SECTION 4720, REVISED STATUTES.

When the rate, commencement, and duration of a pension allowed by special act are fixed by such act, they shall not be subject to be varied by the provisions and limitations of the general pension-laws, but when not thus fixed the rate and continuance of the pension shall be subject to variation in accordance with the general laws, and its commencement shall date from the passage of the special act, and the Commissioner of Pensions shall, upon satisfactory evidence that fraud was perpetrated in obtaining such special act, suspend payment thereupon until the propriety of repealing the same can be considered by Congress.

SPECIAL-ACT PENSIONS EQUALIZED.

ACT JUNE 6, 1874 (18 STAT. L., 61).

That all persons entitled to pensions under special acts fixing the rate of such pensions, and now receiving or entitled to receive a less pension than that allowed by the general pension laws under like circumstances, are, in lieu of their present rate of pension, hereby declared to be entitled to the benefits and subject to the limitations of the general pension-laws, entitled "An act to revise, consolidate, and amend the laws relating to pensions," approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-three; and that this act go into effect from and after its passage: Provided, That this act shall not be construed to reduce any pension granted by special act.

SPECIAL ACT NOT IN ADDITION TO OTHER PENSION.
ACT JULY 25, 1882 (22 STAT. L., 176).

That no person who is now receiving or shall hereafter receive a pension under a special act shall be entitled to receive in addition thereto a pension under the general law, unless the special act expressly states that the pension granted thereby is in addition to the pension which said person is entitled to receive under the general law.

SPECIAL-ACT PENSION ON ACCOUNT OF HELPLESS CHILD.

ACT MARCH 4, 1909 (35 STAT. L., 1058).

That when an additional pension has been, or may hereafter be, granted by special act to a widow or guardian on account of a helpless child, such additional pension shall in no wise affect the rate of pension the widow may be entitled to independent of such additional allowance.

REPORT TO CONGRESS OF CERTAIN CLAIMS.

RESOLUTION MAY 29, 1830 (4 STAT. L., 430).

That the heads of department, who may severally (be) charged with the administration of the pension laws of the United States of America, be, and they hereby are, respectively, directed and required, as soon as may be after the opening of each session of Congress, to present to the Senate and House of Representatives, a several list of such persons, whether revolutionary, invalid, or otherwise, as shall have made application for a pension, or an increase of pension, and as, in their opinion, respectively, ought to be placed upon the pension roll or otherwise provided for, and for doing which they have no sufficient power or authority, with the names and residence of such persons, the capacity in which they served, the degree of relief proposed, and a brief statement of the grounds thereof, to the end that Congress may consider the same.

DETAIL OF CLERKS TO COMMITTEES OF HOUSE.

RESOLUTION FEBRUARY 1, 1884 (23 STAT. L., 266).

That the Secretary of the Interior be, and is hereby, authorized if in his opinion the public interests will not suffer thereby, upon the request of either of the committees hereinafter named, to detail from that department one clerk to act as assistant clerk to the House Committee on Pensions, and one clerk to act as assistant clerk to the House Committee on Invalid Pensions.

LOYALTY REQUIRED.

SECTION 4716, REVISED STATUTES.

No money on account of pension shall be paid to any person, or to the widow, children, or heirs of any deceased person, who in any manner voluntarily engaged in, or aided or abetted, the late rebellion against the authority of the United States.1

1 Limitation imposed by sec. 4716, R. S., is removed in specified cases by the following statutes Act Mar. 9, 1878, 20 Stat. L., 28, c. 28, sec. 5; act Jan. 29, 1887, 24 Stat. L., 372, c. 70, sec. 5; act July 27, 1892, 27 Stat. L., 282, c. 277, sec. 6; act Aug. 1, 1892, 27 Stat. L., 340, c. 351; act Apr. 18, 1900, 31 Stat. L., 136, c. 244; act June 27, 1902, 32 Stat. L., 399, c. 1156; joint resolution July 1, 1902, 32 Stat. L., 750, pub. res., 42; act May 30, 1908, 35 Stat. L., 553, c. 230.