Case ID: us-ct-cl_64/html/0306-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Booth, Judge,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

VERA JACKSON v. THE UNITED STATES
    [No. E-158.
    Decided December 5, 1927]
    
      On the Proofs
    
    
      Veterans’ Burewu pay; transfer from War Department; recovery of tonus. — The plaintiff, pending the completion of her contemplated transfer from the War Department to the United States Veterans’ Bureau, was necessarily unemployed for a period of ten days. Held, that the transaction did not involve a complete separation from the service, and the plaintiff was not by reason of her unemployment to be deprived of the bonus under the act of June 29, 1922.
    
      The Reporter’s statement of the case:
    
      Mr. George A. King for the plaintiff. Kvng <& King were on the briefs.
    
      Mr. James J. Lenihan, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Herman J. Galloway, for the defendant. Mr. J ohm, G. Ewing was on the brief.
    The court made special findings of fact, as follows:
    I. Plaintiff, a citizen of the United States, has at all times borne true allegiance to the United States Government. She entered the employ of the United States February 18, 1918, as a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington, D. C. From January, 1922, to June 29, 1922, she was employed under the Quartermaster General’s office of the War Department-of the United States at Camp Jesup, Ga., and received a basic salary of $1,200 per annum, and as an additional compensation $240 per year. June 30, 1922, Camp Jesup was practically closed.
    II. April 15, 1922, pla,intiff was notified of telegraphic instructions from the Quartermaster General dated April 12, 1922, of her retention in the Government service until a transfer to the United States Veterans’ Bureau was accomplished, and from June 30, 1922, to July 10, 1922, plaintiff was off duty pending completion of said transfer.
    III. July 10,1922, there was sent to plaintiff a notice from the United States Veterans’ Bureau that she was temporarily appointed, subject to taking the oath of office, as a typist in the United States Veterans’ Bureau for a period not to exceed 90 days at a salary at the rate of $1,100 per annum, effective the date on which she entered upon duty. The notice stated that the appointment was temporary pending the receipt of United States civil service certificate authorizing her transfer and that her official station was district No. 5, Atlanta, Ga., and plaintiff entered upon her duties under the above-mentioned notice of appointment July 12, 1922, at a salary of $1,100 per annum.
    August 7, 1922, the United States Veterans’ Bureau at Washington, D. C., informed plaintiff that she was permanently appointed as a clerk in said bureau at a salary at the rate of $1,100 per annum effective July 17, 1922, by change from temporary typist at a salary of $1,100 per annum.
    From July 12, 1922, to June 30, 1924, plaintiff was on duty with the United States Veterans’ Bureau at Atlanta, Ga., and received pay at the rate of $1,100 per annum and has received nothing additional.
    IV. Plaintiff presented a claim to the Office of the Comptroller General for an increase of compensation for services rendered as an employee of 'the United States Veterans’ Bureau from July 12, 1922, to May 5, 1924, for the difference of $1,100 per annum received from the said bureau and the salary of $1,200 plus $240 bonus per annum which she had previously received before transfer to the United States Veterans’ Bureau and while employed as a clerk in the Quartermaster Corps, War Department. This claim was based on the provision in the act of June 29, 1922, 42 Stat. 713, which reads in part as follows:
    “ That all civilian employees of the Governments of the United States and the District of Columbia who receive a total of compensation at the rate of $2,500 per annum or less, except as otherwise provided in this act, shall receive during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1923, additional compensation at the rate of $240 per annum ***.*** the provisions of this act shall not apply to the following: * * * employees paid from lump-sum appropriations in bureaus, divisions, commissions, or any other governmental agencies or employments created by law since January 1, 1916, except employees of * * * the United States Veterans’ Bureau, * * * who shall be included, but the additional compensation granted herein shall not be paid to any person employed in the United States Veterans’ Bureau who did not receive the additional compensation during the fiscal year 1922 * * * ”
    This claim the Office of the Comptroller General disallowed May 5, 1924, holding that her salary had been adjusted by the Director of the United States Veterans’ Bureau at the time of her appointment at an amount that woujd equal the bonus of $840 base pay plus $240 or $1,100, and that the director had not certified her for an increase of compensation.
    V. If plaintiff is entitled to increased compensation at the rate of $240 per annum from July 12, 1922, to June 30, 1924, there would be due her $472.67.
    The court decided that plaintiff was entitled to recover.
   Booth, Judge,

delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff in this case was employed in the Treasury Department on February 18, 1918. From January, 1922, to June 29, 1922, she was regularly employed in the Quartermaster General’s office at Camp Jesup, Georgia, receiving a basic salary of $1,200 per annum, plus the bonus of $240 per annum.

When Camp Jesup was, for practical purposes, closed on June 30, 1922, the services of plaintiff, as before stated, were no longer needed there, so on April 15, 1922, preceding the closing of the camp, plaintiff was advised by wire that she would be retained in the service until her transfer to the United States Veterans’ Bureau could be accomplished. On June 10, 1922, the plaintiff received notice of her temporary appointment as a typist in the Veterans’ Bureau for not to exceed ninety days at a salary of $1,100 per annum. The temporary character of this appointment was due entirely to a delay in the certification by the Civil Service Commission authorizing plaintiff’s transfer from the Quartermaster’s Department to the Veterans’ Bureau. On August 7, 1922, the temporary appointment was made permanent and plaintiff’s transfer completed, the salary remaining the same. From July 12,1922, to June 30,1924, the plaintiff discharged the duties of a permanent typist in the bureau and received her basic salary of $1,100 per annum, but did not receive the $240 bonus. This suit is for the recovery of the bonus alleged to be due for said services.

The defendant questions plaintiff’s right of recovery upon the theory of her complete separation from the public service when Camp Jesup was closed, and her subsequent appointment in the Veterans’ Bureau, contending against the fact of a transfer from one department to another. The record as a whole does not- sustain the contention. The hiatus in plaintiff’s governmental service was not due to any fault of hers, or those intending to effect her transfer. It is ascribable to the usual delay incident to the civil service formalities required to bring it about. Of course she drew no pay during the interim; but it is manifest from what was done that plaintiff was to be transferred and her services continued. The period of time between the two employments was not unreasonable and the transaction was undoubtedly a transfer.

The Comptroller of the Treasury (3 Comp. Gen. 420, 421, 422) exhaustively treated a situation similar to the present one, construed the applicable statutes, and advised the Veterans’ Bureau that employees in plaintiff’s status were entitled to the bonus. With this opinion we are in accord. Plaintiff is entitled to recover. Judgment for $472.67 will be awarded. It is so ordered.

Moss, Judge; Geaham, Judge; and Campbell, Ohief Justice, concur.