Case ID: us-ct-cl_28/html/0553-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Mr. Justice Brown", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

JOHN R. TANNER v. THE UNITED STATES.
    (25 C. Cls. R., 68; 147 U. S. R., 661.)
    
      On the defendants’ Appeal,
    
    
      ■ A marshal is allowed mileage of 10 cents per mile “for transporting criminals’’ by the Revised Statutes, § 829. He now claims 6 cents per mile additional for serving warrants of commitment of criminals sentenced to the penitentiary under the same section.
    The court below decides:
    1. The provisions of the Revised Statutes, § 829, are ambiguous concerning the mileage fees of a marshal for “tra/nsporting criminals,” and for “travel in going only to serve” any process, warrant, attachment, or other writ.
    2. Where it is doubtful whether a marshal is entitled to one fee for transporting criminals and to another for the travel incident thereto, and the accounting officers for a series of years hold that the one fee is to compensate him for his services and the other is to reimburse him for his expenses, the court will not disturb thp construction.
    The decision of the court below is reversed on the ground that a marshal is not entitled to the fees allowed, and that the statute is not so doubtful as to render the construction given to it by the Department material.
   Mr. Justice Brown

delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, March 6, 1893.