Case Name: THE UNITED STATES v. CHARLES A. MORROW
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1925-01-05
Citations: 60 Ct. Cl. 1023
Docket Number: 
Parties: THE UNITED STATES v. CHARLES A. MORROW
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 60
Pages: 1023–1023

Head Matter:
THE UNITED STATES v. CHARLES A. MORROW
[58 C. Cls. 20; 266 U. S. 531]
Judgment was rendered against tbe United States in the court below. On appeal the judgment was reversed, and the Supreme Court decided:
1. Although a proviso is sometimes used to introduce independent legislation, the presumption is that, in accordance with its primary purpose, it applies only to the provision to which it is attached.
2. A proviso may be examined in the light of prior legislation, the condition it was evidently intended to correct, and its legislative history.
3. The provisos found in the Army appropriation acts of 1915 and 1916, which granted additional pay to clerks and messengers a t headquarters of territorial departments, etc., while serving in the Phillippine Islands, are confined to those positions for which specific salaries were appropriated by the preceding clauses to which the provisos are attached, and are inapplicable to a chief clerk of the depot quartermaster’s office at Manila, whose salary was fixed by the War Department and paid out of lump sums appropriated elsewhere in these statutes.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice SaNfojrd
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court January 5, 1925.