COMPENSATION OF DISTRICT ATTORNEYS, AND OTHERS, (continued.) The district attorney for the southern district of New York, may be allowed his fees ........ ....... Page. 1664 1673 The decisions, however, are not only unsound, but are calculated to produce mischievous results.... ... 1673 The district attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania is not entitled to extra compensation for services rendered in prosecuting for violations of the law respecting post offices..... 1700 District attorneys residing in Louisiana and other States, whose legislatures have omitted to provide any rate or scale of fees for legal services in their supreme courts, are nevertheless entitled to a reasonable compensation for their official services; and as it has been the practice of the treasury, in such cases, to allow bills of costs according to the rates certified and taxed by the judges for district attorneys in neighboring States, as reasonable, when certified by one or more prominent members of the bar, such usage may be continued until Congress shall otherwise determine... 1766 Baylie Peyton, the district attorney of the eastern district of Louisiana, is therefore entitled to compensation for official services rendered in civil and criminal suits in the circuit court of his district.. ... 1766 A district attorney is not required by law to attend a State court; and where he is requested to do so by the Secretary of War, or other head of an executive department, he is entitled to be allowed a reasonable compensation for his services..... 1809 Where the district attorney of Pennsylvania had, by the direction of the Postmaster General, instituted several suits against toll-gate keepers and others, to enforce the penalties prescribed by the 9th section of the act of the 3d March, 1825, for sundry interruptions f the transit of the United States mails, by exacting tolls upon passengers conveyed in the mail coaches, and a nolle prosequi was subsequently entered by direction of a subsequent Postmaster General in every case,-DECIDED, that the said district attorney is fairly entitled to compensation from the United States for the services rendered... ...... ....... The judgments in the matter, however, are not binding upon the treasury. The compensation provided by existing laws on the subject may be inadequate, yet the law, as it is, must control until Congress shall remedy its defects... COMPENSATION IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS. 2054 2054 2104 2104 2104 It is not consistent with the relation between the government and its officers for the former to make itself a creditor of the latter without their consent, and to detain their salaries in the discharge of debts so acquired.... By the act of 20th April, 1818, the number and compensation of the clerks to be employed by the Navy Commissioners is fixed; and the same law provides that no higher or other allowance shall be made to any clerk in the departments and offices than is therein authorized. Wherefore, such of the clerks as have been overpaid should refund the excess to the treasury.. It is improper to allow salaries to clerks absent from the country and not actually employed in the duties of the office.... The sanction of the Navy Commissioners to the excessive salaries erroneously given does not give the clerks who have received the excess a right to retain it.... Where the Navy Commissioners had employed a clerk at a stipulated sum, less than a maximum allowed by the act of 1818, and the difference between the maximum and the amount actually paid, drawn in his name and paid over to other persons, who have since been required to refund it to the treasury, and the said clerk comes forward to demand it-HELD, that he has no claim to the moneys thus refunded.... 441 865 865 865 872 COMPENSATION In the Executive Departments, (continued.) The salaries of three clerks only in the General Land Office were fixed in the act reorganizing it. All the residue, including the messengers, are entitled to the percentage granted by the act of 3d March, 1837...... Page. ... 1094 .... 1086 ... 1469 The clerks and messengers of the Pension Office authorized by the act of the 9th May, 1836, are entitled to the increase of salaries provided by the enacting clause of the third section of the act of the 3d March, 1837...... The word rate" of compensation, as the same is employed in the act and resolution of 1812, to define the compensation of the superintending clerk of the Census, construed to mean the sum paid; and a claim for a greater amount, on the ground of an increase of typographical matter, rejected... The person appointed Secretary of the Treasury ad interim has a claim upon the government for the usual, or, if there be no usual, for a reasonable compensation for his services in that capacity. But an appropriation is necessary.. The chief clerks of the Bureaus of Yards and Docks, and of Construction, Equipment, and Repair, are entitled to the pay of the chiefs of those bureaus whilst acting as such, under authority of the President; but they cannot receive the pay of chiefs and clerks at the same time.... The Secretary of the Interior has authority to increase the salary or compensation of the clerks employed in the census office, provided that such increase does not raise their salaries above either the compensation usually paid for similar services, nor above the sum of one thousand dollars per annum.... These restrictions and limitations are explicit and peremptory; but subject to them the power of the Secretary of the Interior is discretionary.. An acting Secretary of State, or of any other department, is not entitled to the salary provided for the incumbent whilst the office is filled and the salary received by an incumbent duly nominated and appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.... If the duties of an office belong to an incumbent who receives the salary affixed to it, another officer performing those duties is prohibited from receiving therefor any compensation whatever... Since the act of 1842 no officer whose pay is fixed by law or regulation is lawfully entitled to any additional pay, extra allowance, or compensation, in any form whatever, for any other duty or service, unless the same shall be authorized by law, and the appropriation therefor explicitly set forth that it is for additional pay, or extra compensation.... COMPENSATION OF MINISTERS, CONSULS, &c. 1550 1682 2126 2126 2141 2141 2141 There is no act of Congress warranting the practice of the government in paying foreign ministers, and the consuls to whom salaries are given, a quarter's salary after they have presented their letters of recall... 790 The Executive will pay to the widow of a consul, having a salary, who has died in office 824 824 And where the son of the deceased consul remains at the port and discharges duties Such was the practice of the government in the cases of Messrs. Folsom, Heap, In the case of William M. Blackford, charge d'affaires to Bogota, who was superseded 824 824 1763 (See opinion of Mr. Taney, in the case of Shaler, given November 30, 1831.) It is the duty of the government to provide a way to make the salary and expenses of a minister abroad good to him at the capital of his residence... 1804 If a minister be directed to draw on London for his salary and expenses, and there shall be a loss on the sale of his bills, it is the duty of the government to make such loss good to him... 1804 Mr. Wise, the American Minister at Rio, having suffered a loss on his bills thus drawn on London, is entitled to indemnity... 1804 COMPENSATION OF POSTMASTERS. The act reducing the rates of postage upon letters, &c., transported in the public mails, passed March 3, 1845, provides against embarrassment in the mail service on account of deficiency in its revenues, by placing funds at the disposal of the Postmaster General, to which he may resort in cases of necessity.... 1729 COMPENSATION OF POSTMASTERS. This fund should be applied to the purposes for which, and in the spirit for which, it was appropriated, viz: to supply any deficiency which might be actually ascertained, and which might threaten to defeat the objects of the establishment, subject to the proviso that the expenditures for the Post Office Department shall not, in the aggregate, exceed the annual amount of four millions five hundred thousand dollars, exclusive of salaries of officers, clerks, and messengers of the General Post Office, of its fund for contingencies... The 21st and 22d sections are to be taken as in pari materiâ, as the sum appropriated in the former affects, to its full extent, the amount which the Postmaster General may expend under the latter.... The appropriation is the primary fund for the compensation of postmasters; but, as that is from anticipated revenue only, any deficiency thereof that may happen in consequence of the reduction of postage may be made up from the fund thus pro vided.. The several acts of Congress, regulating the compensation of postmasters, invest the And postmasters are entitled to commissions on moneys collected for postage on for- COMPENSATION OF SUPERINTENDENT OF INDIAN EMIGRATION. The same individual having been appointed, under the act of 30th June, 1834, a superintendent of Indian emigration at a stipulated salary, and afterwards a commissioner to negotiate a treaty with the Miamies at a per diem compensation, cannot, under the 30th section of said act, receive but one compensation during the same period... COMPENSATION OF TERRITORIAL OFFICERS. The salaries of the governor and judges of Arkansas Territory did not commence until the 4th of July, 1819.. Page. 1729 1729 1729 2130 2130 2130 1307 199 The salaries of judicial and other officers appointed for the Territory of Michigan, are to be paid until the State shall have been actually admitted into the Union by the proclamation of the President... 1079 The salaries of territorial officers of Oregon date from the time of their appointment, but are not payable until they reach the territory and enter upon their official duties 2144 CONDITIONS. The United States cannot divert land granted for the express and single purpose of a A furlough granted to a sailing-master, on condition that he should relinquish from that See also Pardons.... CONGRESS. 207 386 1825 .220, 314 The sixth section of the act of 1789 provides that the compensation which shall be due to the members and officers of the Senate shall be certified by the President thereof, and the same shall be passed as public accounts and paid out of the Treasury; and the certificate of the President, which is the presumed act of the Senate, is conclusive upon the matter as between that body and the accounting officers. . . . . . 1410 The certificate of the Presiding officer of the Senate is conclusive evidence in support of charges for the payment of mileage to Senators made by the Secretary.. Under the first section of the act of 22d January, 1818, the Secretary of the Senate is entitled to credit for payments made to Senators for mileage, whether the certificate of the Presiding officer be conclusive or not..... CONSTRUCTION OF STATUTES. The accounting officers have the right to adopt the report of a committee of Congress upon which a given law was reported and passed for the principles which are to govern in the settlement of accounts under the law. The passage of a bill, accompanying a written report, may be considered the adoption of that report.. 'The report of a committee accompanying a bill which has passed into a law, may be referred to as well by the President, whilst exercising his revising power, as by the accounting officers in their examination of the accounts submitted, for the principles to govern settlements under such law..... Repeal by implication is permitted only when there is some repugnance between the last act and the former.... Acts of Congress should be so construed as to render their several provisions operative, and in accordance with the intent of the makers of the law.. Page. 389 389 603 681 Acts in pari materiâ are to be considered as one law; and those of 24th May, 1828, Acts of Congress containing no provision as to the time when they shall take effect, go A proviso touching the duties of postmasters, to make returns of emoluments received See also.... CONSULS-See Ambassadors, &c. See also... CONTINUOUS SERVICE-see Navy. 787 1020 1020 1390 .1161, 1246, 1786, 1814 .10, 18, 26, 824, 2047 659 ..... Where contracts for supplies for the army contain the clause providing for a supply, If a general had a right to draw supplies from a place out of his military department, 166 166 166 The contractor is not liable to pay for rations furnished in case of his failure, except 173 240 Contracts for rations which provide that supplies for certain posts shall be furnished six months in advance, require a supply of six months' rations not in advance of a perpetually advancing point of time, but only in advance of the point of time at which the supply is required to be placed at the post... The distinction made in the department between rations in deposite and rations for daily issues, has no warrant in the army contracts; nor can any military order create it in such a way as to affect the bearing of such contracts. A quantity of provisions only, called a supply of rations for a specified time, is required, and those are to be issued by the contractor; and in case the commandant of the post where they are to be furnished, makes an order for more rations, or for a different disposition of them than the contract provides, it is inoperative upon the question of the contractor's legal obligations under the contract, but does not exonerate the government from payment... ................ If the contractor for supplies for daily issues shall be required to place at a given post 252 252 CONTRACTS, (continued.) Page. a specified number of rations for a specified time, the government must either consume them or pay for them; for the requisition is an assurance on the part of the government that the rations are necessary and will be consumed and paid for..... 252 This opinion decides various questions arising out of the peculiar circumstances of the case upon which the questions arise.... ..... Where an assignee of a government contracts to build a fortification, executes a bond ..... The policy of the law is to prevent the exercise of executive influence over members of Congress by means of contracts; and whether the contract be for the services of a lawyer, a physician, a mail-carrier, or a purveyor, it is equally within the mischief to be prevented.. ....... 252 261 406 406 Where the government agreed with Messrs. Ward & Taylor, army contractors, to furnish a proper store-house, in which the provisions were to be deposited from time to time and kept, and that they should suffer no loss for the want of it; and where provisions furnished under such a contract at Fort St. Philip were in a temporary building outside the fort, on the margin of the river and exposed to its overflowings, and were destroyed by flood--HELD, that the government was liable. 749 The public interest requiring that American seamen should not be discharged abroad, nor set on foreign shores in foreign ports, where they may be tempted to enter into foreign employment, to the loss of our service, the government has given instructions to commanders to send home their discharged seamen at the expense of the United States.. But where a merchantman received a seaman on board, for the purpose of bringing him home, and brought him only half the way, when he voluntarily left, the captain cannot justly claim full pay for the voyage, but only a compensation for the distance he did bring him. Where immediate delivery is necessary to the wants of the public service, the article required must be obtained by open purehase; i. e., at places where articles of the déscription wanted are usually bought and sold, and in the mode in which such purchases are ordinarily made between individuals... ..... All contracts and purchases entered into and made by the Navy Department must be It is an incident to the general right of sovereignty for the government to enter into 788 788 648 648 648 866 The title of a quantity of pork contracted for by the proper officer, prepared and designated by the vendors, and an order given by the packers for it, is in the United States; and, if it be there destroyed, the loss must fall upon the government..... 1042 By the act of 1815, which repeals all other acts coming within its purview, the colonel, or senior officer of the Ordnance Department, under direction of the Secretary of the Department of War, may make contracts for the supply of ordnance without previously advertising for proposals.. All purchases and contracts made by the Navy Department should be under the direction of the Secretary of the Navy... 1160 Where the public exigencies do not require the immediate delivery of the article or performance of the service, in such cases it is necessary previously to advertise for proposals respecting the same, unless the article be a steamboat, or some similar structure.. Where immediate delivery is necessary to the wants of the public service, the article required must be obtained by open purchase. 1258 1258 1258 Where a contractor for certain specified rations for the army, to be delivered at a particular place, including a certain ration of distilled liquor, was, after the execution of his written contract, directed by the War Department to furnish an additional ration of liquor to the troops on fatigue duty-HELD, that he had the right to elect in respect to the price to furnish such ration under his contract, or to demand the fair market value thereof at the time and place, &c... 1275 Where the district court has so found, and Congress has recognised and confirmed the principle, the accounting officers are required to do so likewise in their settlement of the account..... ...... 1275 |