Case ID: us-ct-cl_19/html/0125-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Scofield, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

J. A. BROADHEAD v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [No. 12915.
    Decided January 28, 1883.]
    
      On the Facts.
    
    In April, 1876, the claimant was ordered to proceed to Camp Gaston, California, and pay troops. Large bills he carried on his person; small bills, fractional currency, and nickel coin, amounting to $600, he carried on his pack-mule. The latter was forcibly taken by a highwayman.
    A paymaster in the Army, traveling under orders .to pay troops, attacked and robbed of government funds by a highwayman, is entitled to relief under the Revised Statutes '(§§ 1050, 1062).
    
      
      The Reporters’ statement of the case:
    This was a disbursing officer’s case, which the claimant brought by the voluntary filing of his petition. The following are the facts as found by the court:
    I. On the 27th of April, 1876, the claimant was a major and paymaster in the Army of the United States, and as such was a disbursing officer of the United States, and, having in his possession funds belonging to the pay department of the Army, was on duty en route to pay troops at Camp Gaston, California.
    II. On the 27th day of April, 1876, while claimant was engaged as aforesaid, in the line of his duty, he was attacked and robbed by a highwayman of the sum of $600 belonging to the pay department, United States Army. The loss was without fault or negligence on the part of said claimant.
    III. The loss was. duly reported to the department, and in the current account of the claimant, opposite the amount lost, was appended the following certificate:
    “I certify that on the 27th of April, 1876,1 was attacked by a highwayman on the trail between Lecompt’s and Camp Gas-ton, while on my way to the latter-named place for the purpose of paying troops there stationed, in compliance with orders from department headquarters. My pack-mule was killed and six hundred dollars in small bills, fractional currency, and nickels, stolen from my valise on the pack. The larger currency was on my person. My clerk (L. B. Spencer) was mortally wounded and died at Lecompt’s on the 21st of May, 1876.”
    Which certificate is found to be true.
    The robber was afterwards convicted, but no part of the $600 was ever recovered.
    IV. Claimant was, and still is, held responsible for the said sum of $600, and his accounts are still open on the books of the Treasury Department.
    V. Claimant has remained continuously in the military service of the United States, and is now a major and paymaster, United States Army.
    
      Mr. Allan Rutherford for the claimant.
    
      Mr. Assistant Attorney-General Simons for the defendants.
   Scofield, J.,

delivered tlie opinion of the court:

The petition of the claimant, a paymaster in the United States Army, prays for a decree by which he will become entitled, in the settlement of his accounts in the Treasury Department, to a credit of $600 under the following provisions of the Revised Statutes:

“Sec. 1050.. * * * The Court of Claims shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the claim of any paymaster, quartermaster, commissary of subsistence, or other disbursing officer of the United States for relief from responsibility on account of capture or otherwise, while in the line of his duty, of Government funds * * * for which such officer was and is held responsible.
“Sec. 1062. Whenever the Court of Claims ascertains the facts of any loss by any paymaster, quartermaster, commissary of subsistence, or other disbursing officer in the cases hereinbe-, fore provided, to have been without fault or negligence on the part of such officer, it shall make a decree setting forth the-amount thereof, and upon such decree the proper accounting officers of .the Treasury shall allow to such officer the amount so decreed as a credit in the settlement of his accounts.”

On and before April 27, 1876, the claimant was, and still is, a paymaster in the United States Army. On that day, while en route, under orders from San Francisco to Camp Gaston in California to pay troops at that post, in company with his clerk, L. R. Silencer, he was attacked and fired upon by a highwayman. Spencer received a gunshot wound from .which he subsequently died. The pack-mule was killed and claimant’s valise, containing $600 in small bills, fractional currency, and coins, belonging to the government, was seized and rifled of its contents. Claimant carried about his person other large amounts of government funds, which were saved. The robber was afterwards convicted, but no part of the $600 was ever recovered .

At the time of the robbery the claimant was in the line of his duty, and the loss occurred without fault or negligence on his part.

The court is of opinion that the facts of the case bring the claimant within the beneficent provision of the law. (Hobb’s Case, 17 C. Cls. R., 189; Scott’s Case, 18 id., 1.)

A decree will be entered in the usual form directing the accounting officers of the Treasury Department to allow to the claimant as a credit in the settlement of his accounts for government funds of which he was robbed April 27,1876, while on his way to pay troops at Camp Gaston in California, the sum of $600.