Case Name: THOMAS A. BRADY v. THE UNITED STATES
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1912-02-12
Citations: 47 Ct. Cl. 286
Docket Number: No. 30458
Parties: THOMAS A. BRADY v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Volume: 47
Pages: 286–288

Head Matter:
THOMAS A. BRADY v. THE UNITED STATES.
[No. 30458.
Decided February 12, 1912.]
On the Proofs.
A trooper is detailed to make out monthly pay rolls and do other clerical work relating to his company. The work takes all his time and he is relieved from ordinary duty.
I. Where a soldier is detailed for special duty which relates only to the interior administration of his company or troop and which is for the benefit of the members of the troop, he is not entitled to recover extra pay under the Revised Statutes (§ 1287) and the Acts 5th July, 1884, and 8d March, 1885 (23 Stat. L., pp. 110, 359).
II. The “ extra-duty pay ” authorized by the statutes is for extra duty rendered by “mechanics, artisans, school-teachers, and clerics at Army, division, and department headquarters,” etc.
The Reporters’ statement of the case.
The following are the facts as found by the court:
I. During the periods hereinafter mentioned the claimant was a sergeant in Troop H, Eleventh Cavalry, United States Army.
II. By the verbal order of the troop commander the claimant was detailed for special duty as troop clerk, and served as such during the periods, from May 2, 1894, to August 31, 1904; March 31, 1905, to April 16, 1905; August 24, 1905, to September 26, 1905, Sundays included.
TTT. T-Tis detail to such duty was by order of the commanding officer of his troop, approved by the colonel commanding the regiment, which order was immediately posted in the trooj) order book, each page of which was signed by the troop commander. During the periods set forth in Finding II the claimant was borne on the daily morning report and on the muster roll for each month on special duty as troop clerk. Said muster roll was approved by the commanding officer of bis troop and forwarded through’the proper departmental commander to The Adjutant General at the War Department.
IV. As such troop clerk the claimant made out the monthly pay rolls in triplicate and the bimonthly muster rolls induplicate; he took care of each man’s individual record, including the clothing accounts, courts-martial, and absences; he made out the requisitions for clothing; he kept track of the horses’ descriptive book; he copied the requisitions made out by the captain for ordnance; he loked after the correspondence of the troop; he placed all indorsements on papers of a military nature; his letters were written on the typewriter and he did the bulk of the clerical work of the troop and kept the books and records systematically; he had no assistance in doing this work. The work occupied all his time and he did not have the ordinary duty of a cavalryman for that reason.
V. If he is entitled to extra pay at the rate of thirty-five (35) cents a day under t'he act of March 3, 1885 (23 Stat. L., 356), the sum due him is sixty dollars and fifty-five cents ($60.55).
Mr. William B. King for the claimant. Messrs, George A. and William B. King were on the brief.
Mr. P. M. Cox (with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General Thompson) for the defendants.

Opinion:
Pee Cueiam:
The claimant was detailed by the verbal orders of the troop commander to perform special duty as troop clerk, and performed such duty during the periods stated in Finding II.
The claimant's contention is that although detailed to perform special duty he is entitled to extra pay therefor at the rate of 35 cents per day under Eevised Statutes, section 1287, as amended by the acts of July 5, 1884, and March 3, 1885 (23 Stat. L., 110 and 359).
The section of the Eevised Statutes referred to authorizes the detail of soldiers for employment as artificers or labor ers in the construction of permanent work, public roads, or other constant labor ,of not less than 10 days' duration, and provides that noncommissioned officers employed as overseers for such work shall receive 35 cents per day.
The provision in the later acts, being the same in each, provides—
" That two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of the appropriation for incidental expenses, or so much of the same as shall be necessary, shall be set aside for the payment of enlisted men on extra duty, at constant labor of not less than ten days; and such extra-duty pay hereafter shall be at the rate of fifty cents per day for mechanics, artisans, schoolteachers, and clerks at Army, division, and department headquarters, and thirty-five cents per day for other' clerks, teamsters, laborers, and other enlisted men on extra duty."
Whether said acts'be treated as amendments to section 1287 or as independent legislation is immaterial for the purposes of this case, as, for the reasons stated both by the Assistant Comptroller of the Treasury (15 Com. Dec., 374) and by the Judge Advocate General of the Army of December 2, 1908 — where the distinction between special duty and extra duty is discussed and need not be repeated here — we must hold that the claimant is not entitled to recover, his detail having been for special duty in connection with the interior administration of the company or troop of which he was a member, for the mutual benefit of the members of said troop, and for the safety of public property as well as of private property belonging to the enlisted men.
Petition dismissed.