The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-05-15
More Favorable Decisions to Old
Soldiers.

COMMISSIONER TANNER hos granted
a pension to Frederick Schweiger of
Lime Rock, Penn. The claimant, while
in Washington, in 1865, contracted a
cold which resulted in neuralgia and
finally in total blindness. He filed a
claim for a pension some years ago,
which was rejected by Commissioner
Black on the ground of fraud. A sub
sequent investigate however, showed,
it is said, that the claim was not in any
sense a fraud, but entirely meritorious.
Hence the pension. The claimant will
receive $4,000 arrears and S72 per
month hereafter.
LAST week Assistant Secretary Bus
sey rendered decision in the case of
Charles B. Varnum, late sergeant in
Company II, Twenty-eighth Maine,
who applied for rerating and increase
of pension, alleging total disability.
The adverse decision, from which an
appeal is taken, was based solely upon
the opinion of the medical referee that
the combined disabilities of the claim
ant did not result in incapacity for the
performance of any manual labor, and
that he was then in receipt of the full
amount of pension to which he was en-
titled under the law. The merit of the
claim was not discussed. The assistant
secretary, in his opinion, says that the
question as to whether the claimant
was totally incapacitated for performing
manual labor by his combined disabili
ties, which are all accepted as of serv-
ice origin, was not necessarily purely
medical one, but was also question of
fact, to be determined by the weight of
evidence, and not by the professional
opinion of the medical referee alone.
The preponderance of the evidence in
this case is found by the assistant secre-
tary to sustain the allegations of the
claimant, and it is ordered that his pen
sion be rerated.
ASSISTANT SECRETARY BUssEY rem
dered an important decision in the pen
sion case of Mary E. Mcneil, widow of
Alexander Mcneil. The case involves
the important question of cline of
duty" and Assistant Secretary Bus
sey's Interpretation of the law with
respect to it is even broader and more
liberal than in the zimmerman case.
The claim was originally rejected upon
the ground that the soldier incurred his
injuries, which are alleged to have re-
suited in his death, when not in the
line of his military duty. 1t appears
from the statement that the soldier re-
ceived the injuries while engaged in a
friendly wrestling-match with a CON-
rade. There does not appear to have
been any malice or bad blood about the
affair, and the injury seems to have
been purely accidental. Mr.. Bussey
says: /" He was at the time in camp,
where his duty as asoldier required him
to be, and INDUCING in harmless and
innocent athletic sport of friendly
character he was not acting in violation
of any of the rules and regulations of
the service, nor disobeying any COM
mands of his superior officers, nor con-
Quoting himself in an unseemly or I'M
soldier-like manner, nor doing any
thing calculated to disturb or transgress
military discipline and good order.
The government placed the soldier and
his comrade in the position where it was
both natural and proper for them to in
dulge in such athletic sports and eXer-
else, with the consent of their COM
handing officers, and | consider that
it would now be an altogether too mar
row and technical view to hold that an
accident resulting therefrom, under the
circumstances of this case, would be
incurred out of the line of duty, and
therefore not pensionable." For these
reasons the former decision is reversed,
and the commissioner of pensions is
directed to place the name of the widow
on the pension rolls. In speaking of
this decision Assistant Secretary Bus
sey said that he was of the settled
opinion that soldier is in line of duty,
within the meaning of the pension laws,
when he is not engaged in violating
any order, army rule or regulation, or
violating any instruction of his superior
officer for the police regulation of the
camp.