35TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. S REPORT C. C. 1st Session. No. 152. { JOHN ETHERIDGE. FEBRUARY 1, 1858.-Committed to a Committee of the Whole House, and ordered to be printed. The COURT OF CLAIMS submitted the following REPORT. To the honorable the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States in Congress assembled: The Court of Claims respectfully presents the following documen's as the report in the case of JOHN ETHERIDGE vs. THE UNITED STATES. 1. The petition of the claimant, submitted without argument June 30, 1857. 2. Petition to Congress, with accompanying documents, marked A, B, C, D, and E, referred by the Senate to the Court of Claims and returned to that House. 3. Certified copy of a statement of the Secretary of the Navy, dated March 3, 1857, offered by the claimant and transmitted to the Senate. 4. Brief of the United States deputy solicitor. 5. Opinion of the Court adverse to the claim. By order of the Court of Claims. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of said Court at Washington, this first day of February, A. D. 1858. [L. S.] SAM'L H. HUNTINGTON, UNITED STATES COURT OF CLAIMS. To the honorable the Court of Claims of the United States, Washington, D. C.: The petition of John Etheridge, a clerk of the third class in the Navy Department, respectfully represents : That, in the month of August, 1853, your petitioner was assigned by the honorable James C. Dobbin, then, and now, holding the office of Secretary of the Navy, to the desk of principal corresponding clerk in the Navy Department, to which position there was at that time, has been uninterruptedly since, and is now, added the separate and altogether different office of "Superintendent of the Southwest Executive Building.' The compensation fixed by law to the desk of the principal corresponding clerk of the Navy Department, previous to the appointment of your petitioner, was, as fixed salary Temporary addition, by act of 31st August, 1852, Making the total compensation of the principal corre- annum $1,500 00 100 00 250 00 1,850 00 By the 3d section of the act making appropriations for the civil and diplomatic expenses of the government, approved March 3, 1853, a classification of the clerks in the several departments was directed to be made, from and after the 30th June, 1853, in which classification the principal corresponding clerk of the Navy Department was placed in class three, and was designated by the head of the department to hold the additional office of superintendent of the southwest executive building, under the further proviso of the 3d section of the act just referred to. The intention of Congress by the acts of 31st August, 1852, and 3d of March, 1853, as amended by the act of 22d April, 1854, was undoubtedly to increase the compensation of clerks, and there was accordingly added to the pay of the principal corresponding clerk of the Navy department, by the act approved August 31, 1852, and continued by the classification act, approved March 3, 1853, as amended by the act of 22d April, 1854, one hundred dollars per annum; so that the compensation paid to your petitioner under the acts of 1853, 1854, as a third class clerk has been the same as was paid to the principal corresponding clerk under the act of 31st August, 1852, viz: The pay of a third class clerk, under the act of 3d March, 1853, as amended by the act of 22d April, 1854, being $1,600 00 And the compensation of the superintendent of the southwest executive building, legalized by the act of 26th August, 1842, and provided for in the classification act of 3d March, 1853, being Making the total annual compensation eighteen hundred and fifty dollars 250 00 1,850 00 Your petitioner further represents, that he continued to receive compensation at the rate of eighteen hundred and fitty dollars per annum down to the thirty-first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five; and that the accounts of the disbursing clerk of the Navy Department for such payments were audited, revised by the Comptroller, and allowed by the accounting officers of the government down to the said date of thirty-first day of March, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. But your petitioner was informed, that in subsequent settlements of the accounts of the disbursing clerk of the Navy Department, the said accounting officers re-opened the accounts of the disbursing clerk as far back as the first day of July, eighteen hundred and fifty-four, and disallowed all payments made by him to the superintendent of the southwest executive building from and after that date, based upon an adverse decision made by the honorable Elisha Whittlesey, Comptroller, in the case of Archibald Campbell, esq, chief clerk of the War Department, who claimed, in addition to his salary of $2,200 (twenty-two hundred dollars) per annum, the compensation as superintendent of the north-west executive building, during the year ending the thirtieth of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-five. Your petitioner further represents, that the office of the superintendent of the southwest executive building has not been abolished, nor his appointment thereto revoked; that the duties of the office continue to be devolved on your petitioner, are still performed by him, and that he cannot find, nor does he believe that the legalizing act, approved August 26, 1842, establishing the office and fixing the salary or compensation, to wit: "one superintendent of the southwest executive building at two hundred and fifty dollars," as distinct and different from that of clerk, has ever been repealed, either expressly or by inevitable implication; but, on the contrary, your petitioner finds it not only recognized and provided for by the very act directing a classification of clerks, to be arranged from and after the 30th of June, 1853, thereby making separate provision for the offi e of superintendent for an entire year after the classification of clerks took effect, but that the prohibitory enactment of September 30, 1850, against allowing "to one individual the salaries of two different offices on account of having performed the duties thereof at the same time," expressly excludes from its prohibition "the superintendents of the executive buildings;" and also, that the prohibition found in the 18th section of the civil and diplomatic act, approved August 31, 1852, extends only to persons "who hold or shall hold any office under the government of the United States, whose salary or annual compensation shall amount to the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. And your petitioner begs leave further to refer to the opinion of Mr. Attorney General Cushing, of the 18th August, 1853, in the case of L. B. Hardin, who held two offices in the Navy Department, one as clerk, the other as superintendent of the southwest executive building. And your petition states further, that upon his being apprised in November, 1855, of the decision of the Comptroller, Mr. Whittlesey, disallowing the payments made to the superintendent of the south west executive building for four quarters, three of which had been previously reported upon and passed, allowing the payments therein charged, he addressed a communication to the Comptroller, remonstrating against his decision, and asking his forbearance and reconsideration of the matter involved. The remonstrance is of date 30th November, 1855, |