Case ID: us-ct-cl_19/html/0621-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Drake, Ch. J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

JOHN W. JORDAN v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [No. 14037.
    Decided May 26, 1884.]
    
      On the Facts.
    
    A paymaster in the Navy commissioned in 1870 receives no credit in the matter of pay for services in the Army rendered between 1861 and 1870. He brings his action for longevity pay refused him.
    I. An officer in the Navy is entitled to be credited for service in the Army in the computation of his pay under the Naval Appropriation Act, 18S3 (22 Stat. 1, p. 472, eh. 97).
    II. The method of comprating the longevity pay of an assistant paymaster in the Navy set forth.
    
      The Reporters'1 statement of the case:
    This action the claimant brought by the voluntary filing of his petition. The following are the facts as found by the court:
    I. The claimant was enrolled and mustered in as a private in Company D, Third Maryland Volunteers, September 30,1861; was promoted and mustered in as second lieutenant of Company C, same regiment, to date from November 25, 1861; and was mustered out of service as such May 15, 1862. He was mustered in as second lieutenant Company C, Second Regiment Potomac Home Brigade, Maryland Volunteers, to date from May 24, 1862, and was mustered out of service as such September 29, 1864. He was appointed second lieutenant Thirty-seventh United States Infantry May 6, 1867, and accepted the appointment May 20, 1867;'and not having been nominated to the Senate during its sittings from July 3 to July 20,1867, he was re-appointed second lieutenant Thirty-seventh United States Infantry August 1, 1867, and continued in service as such until April 21, 1869, when, by the consolidation of the Fifth with a portion of the Thirty-seventh Regiment of Infantry, he became unassign¿d, and he remained unassigned from that date until the acceptance of his resignation, February 10,1870. His whole length of service, as above stated, was five years, eight months and eleven days.
    II. The claimant was commissioned an assistant paymaster in the United States Navy to date from March 21, 1870, and was promoted passed assistant paymaster from September 27, 1877; which position he now continues to hold.
    III. While he was assistant paymaster he received only the pay of that office, as prescribed, first, in the act of July 17, 1861, “to provide for the appointment of assistant paymaster in the Navy (12 Stat. L., 258, ch. 4), aud afterwards in the naval appropriation act of July 15, 1870 (16 Stat. L., 321, ch. 295), and in section 1556 of the Revised Statutes; aud in the matter of pay has received no credit for the aforesaid service in the Volunteer and Regular Army of the United States.
    
      Mr. Robert B. Lines, Mr. John Paul Jones, and Mr. George M. Robeson for the claimant.
    
      Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Simons for the defendants.
   Drake, Ch. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court:

The claimant sues for a higher rate of pay as an assistant paymaster in the Navy, than has been allowed him, and bases his claim on service in the volunteer and regular army of the United States for 5 years 8 months and 11 days before he was appointed into the Navy; for which he has never been credited in the computation and allowance of his pay as assistant paymaster.

The case differs from that of Hawkins, (just decided,) only in the character and length of the previous service, the naval office held, and the rate of pay. The law applicable to it is the same, and the result must be the same, except as to the amount of the recovery.

When the claimant entered the Navy, the pay of an assistant paymaster was, and continued to be till July 15, 1870,—

For the first five years after date of commission, at sea, $1,300; on other duty, $1,000; on leave or waiting orders $800.

After five years from date of commission, at sea, $1,500; on other duty, $1,200; on leave or waiting orders, $1,000.

Since July 15, 1870, -the pay of that officer has been—

For the first five years after date of appointment, at sea, $1,700; on shore duty, $1,400; on leave or waiting orders, $1,000.

After five years from such date, at sea, $1,900; on shore duty, $1600; on leave or waiting orders, $1,200.

When the claimant was appointed assistant paymaster, his previous military service entitled him, while he held that office, to receive the rate of pay allowed by law after five years from the date of his appointment.

The difference between that rate and that which has been allowed him is $1,004.86, for which sum judgment will be entered in his favor.