Case ID: us-ct-cl_57/html/0590-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Day", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

WILSON SCOTT NORRIS v. THE UNITED STATES.
    [55 C. Cls. 208; 257 U. S. 77.]
    Judgment was rendered in favor of the United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was affirmed, and the Supreme Court decided:
    N having been wrongfully removed from the office of customs inspector, without being furnished a copy of the charge against him or opportunity to answer, as required by the act of August 24, 1912, c. 389, sec. 6, 37 Stat. 555, waited eleven months before asserting his rights. He was reinstated for the purpose of affording him a due hearing, suspended from duty and pay meanwhile, and was exonerated, but the office was then abolished, and his services dispensed with, for the reason that there was no existing vacancy in the service to which he could be assigned.
    
      Meld: {1) That he was not entitled to official pay for the time of his removal to the time of his reinstatement. Nicholas v. United States, 257 U. S., 71.
    (2) The power to determine the number of customs inspectors and to appoint and remove them was lodged with the Secretary of the Treasury.
    (3) The order abolishing the place to which N was reinstated, made by an Assistant Secretary and being part of the archives of the department, must be presumed to have been within the scope of the authority conferred upon the assistant by the Secretary, there being no evidence to contrary. Rev. Stats., secs. 161, 245.
    (4) N could not recover pay since the time of his reinstatement.
   Mr. Justice Day

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court November 1, 1921.