Case Name: JOSEPHINE B. LEWIS, EXECUTRIX OF ESTATE OF JAMES LEWIS, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1917-05-21
Citations: 52 Ct. Cl. 518
Docket Number: 
Parties: JOSEPHINE B. LEWIS, EXECUTRIX OF ESTATE OF JAMES LEWIS, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 52
Pages: 518–518

Head Matter:
JOSEPHINE B. LEWIS, EXECUTRIX OF ESTATE OF JAMES LEWIS, DECEASED, v. THE UNITED STATES.
[50 C. Cls., 226 ; 244 U. S., 134.]
The plaintiff’s decedent was for several terms surveyor general of the State of Louisiana, and this suit was brought to recover an unpaid balance of salary and official fees claimed to be due under the decedent’s appointment received January 19, 1905, and under which he served until May 13, 1909, when he received a letter from the Commissioner of the General Land Office advising him that the office of surveyor general of Louisiana would be permanently closed and discontinued on July 1, 1909, when the records of the office would be turned over to the State of Louisiana as soon as proper provision should be made by the legislature of that State for their receipt, pursuant to sections 2218, 2220, and 2221 of the Revised Statutes.
The court below decides:
Where two inconsistent acts are passed at different times the last is to be obeyed, and if obedience can not be observed without derogating from the first, it is the first act which must give way.
Every act is made for some purpose, and its operation is not to be impeded by some previous inconsistent enactment.
It is well settled that a subsequent statute which is repugnant to a prior one necessarily repeals the former, although it does not do so in terms.
The decision of the court below is affirmed.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Dat
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court May 21, 1917.