Case ID: us-ct-cl_62/html/0610-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Downey, Judge,\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

EDGAR L. WOODS v. THE UNITED STATES
    [No. D-992]
    Decided May 3, 1926.
    
      On the Proofs
    
    
      Navy pay; longevity; Public Health and Marine Hospital Service.— An officer in the Medical Corps, Navy, is entitled under the act of May 18, 1920, to longevity pay based on the inclusion of his service as an interne in the Public Health Service.
    
      The BeportePs statement of the case:
    
      Mr. 'William H. White, jr., for the plaintiff. Mr. John T. Trimble was on the briefs.
    
      Mr. John G. Ewing, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Herman J. Galloway, for the defendant.
    On November 15, 1926, on motion for new trial, the court amended Finding VI by adding thereto: “ or according to the supplemental report of the Comptroller General filed herein the sum of $925.91,” and thereupon gave judgment for plaintiff in the sum of $925.91. On the original trial the court made special findings of fact, as follows:
    I. The plaintiff, Edgar L. Woods, is an American citizen, born in Charlottesville, Albermarle County, Va. He studied medicine at the University of Virginia, graduating in June, 1904, with the degree of doctor of medicine.
    II. Effective October 6, 1904, the plaintiff was appointed an interne in the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the United States, now the Public Health Service, by a letter of appointment from the Acting Secretary of the Treasury as follows:
    
      Reporter’s Statement of tlie Case TREASURY DEPARTMENT,
    Oeeice oe the Secretary,
    
      "Washington, October 19,190 f. The Medical Oeeioer in Command,
    
      Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the TJ. S.
    
    
      New York (Stapleton), New York.
    
    Sir: The nomination, in compliance with the provisions of section 3, Civil Service Hule II, of Edgar L. Woods, as interne in the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service of the United States, for duty at the station under your command, submitted in your letter of the 6th instant, is hereby approved, with compensation of quarters, subsistence, and laundering, effective October 6, 1904.
    Kespectfully,
    (Signed) PI. A. Taylor,
    
      Acting Secretary.
    
    He accepted said appointment and served continuously thereunder at the Marine Hospital, Stapleton, Staten Island, until August 15, 1905. Under the regulations then in force for the government of the Public Health Service he ranked as a noncommissioned officer and received quarters, subsistence, and laundry. His duties consisted of the duties ordinarily assigned to the house physician or interne at the hospital, in addition to which he relieved commissioned officers during their temporary absence.
    III. He resigned to take the examination for entrance to the Navy and his resignation was accepted without prejudice by the Treasury Department effective August 15, 1905.
    IV. On October 14, 1905, the plaintiff was appointed an assistant surgeon in the United States Navy, and has served continuously on the active list of the Navy ever since. He now holds a commission as lieutenant commander (Medical Corps) and is attached to and serving at the Naval Hospital, Washington, D. C. He was credited with five years’ service as for appointment to the Navy from civil life.
    V. About December 1,1923, the plaintiff made application to the General Accounting Office for a readjustment of his accounts upon the basis of the inclusion therein for longevity purposes of his service of ten months and ten days as an interne in the Public Health Service, which application was denied.
    
      VI. If the plaintiff is entitled to count his service as an interne in the Public Health Service for longevity purposes for the period of his service in the Navy there would be due him as of June 16, 1925, the date of the report of the Comptroller General herein, the sum of $1,354,39.
   Downey, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The plaintiff, a lieutenant commander (Medical Corps) in the Navy, seeks a readjustment of his accounts and a judgment for the amount due him on such readjustment on the basis of the inclusion for longevity purposes of service for ten months and ten days as an interne in the Public Health Service, then called the Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, under the act of May 18, 1920 (41 Stat. 604), providing “ That hereafter longevity pay for officers in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Public Health Service, and Coast and Geodetic Survey shall be based on the total of all service in any or all of said services.”

This statute has been interpreted for us by the Supreme Court in the Noce case (268 U. S. 613) and needs no further discussion. The result sought in this action is clearly within the defined purpose of the act.

While there is no question made as to the plaintiff having served as an interne in the Public Health Service during the period in question, it is contended that such service was not “service for longevity pay purposes as provided in the act of May 18,1920.’’ This was the conclusion reached by the Comptroller General (4 Comp. Gen. 12) after an able discussion of the question, but while we recognize the force of the argument we are not able to see that it justifies the distinction drawn. We find no words of limitation in the statute itself, its language is plain and unambiguous, it provides for the inclusion of “ all service in any or all of said services,” one of which is the Public Health Service, and we see no proper opportunity for resort to any rules of construction which would serve to import a different meaning than that plainly expressed.

We have concluded that the plaintiff is entitled to have his service in the Public Health Service included for longevity purposes in computing his pay and have directed judgment for the amount shown by the official report to be clue him on that basis up to the date thereof.

Graham, Judge; Hat, Judge; Booth, Judge; and Campbell, Qlvief Justice, concur.