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Nature of Suit Code: 890
Nature of Suit: Other Statutory Actions
Cause of Action: 

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United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT

-

Filed May 21, 1996

No. 94-5150

DRG FUNDING CORPORATION,

APPELLANT

v.

SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, ET AL.,

APPELLEES

On Appellant's Petition for Rehearing

-

Before: WILLIAMS, GINSBURG and RANDOLPH, Circuit Judges.

WILLIAMS, Circuit Judge, concurring in the denial of rehearing: In DRG's petition for

rehearing and the Department's response, the parties have drawn attention to an additional reason

why DRG's judgment is not "a judgment against the United States Government presented to the

Comptroller General," the terms triggering 31 U.S.C. § 3728. Slip op. at 4-6 (Williams, J.,

concurring). Both parties point to U.S. General Accounting Office, Office of the General Counsel,

Principles of Federal Appropriations Law (2d ed. 1994), parts of which were cited in my prior

separate opinion. In the key passage cited, GAO explains that once it receives a request for payment

of a judgment, its first step is to determine "the proper source of funds for payment." Id. at 14-65.

If that source is not "the judgment appropriation," i.e., the general fund created by Congress for the

payment of judgments against the United States, the request package "is returned to the submitter

with a brief explanation and advice as to the correct source of payment." Id. That course would be

followed here, for the source to be tapped for DRG's judgment is HUD's General Insurance Fund.

DRG argues that this sequence means the judgment is "presented" to the Comptroller General. But,

as HUD points out, GAO returns inappropriately addressed packages merely as a courtesy; unlike

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a judgment to be paid from the judgment appropriation, a judgment such as DRG's cannot, in the

nature of things, culminate in GAO's preparation of a Certificate of Settlement to be presented to the

Treasury for payment. I do not think that the judgment creditor's error in such a case, with or

without the GAO's courtesy in directing the creditor to the correct agency, can possibly mean that

the judgment was "presented" to the Comptroller General for purposes of § 3728.

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