Opinion ID: 88492
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: miller's case.

Text: About the same time one Miller filed a petition in the Court of Claims, alleging that he had been as clerk and employ e in the office of the Capitol Extension, assigned to duty as foreman of construction, receiving a salary of $1800; that he was in the civil service of the United States at Washington, and that he was thus entitled to an addition of 20 per cent. on his salary, under the joint resolution above quoted, and asking judgment against the United States therefor. The United States opposed the demand. The court found as fact: 1. That the claimant was appointed foreman of carpenters by the Secretary of the Interior Department, March 1st, 1866, at a salary of $1800 per annum, and was in the service of the United States, in connection with Capitol Extension , at Washington, D. C., continuously from June 30th, 1866, to June 30th, 1867, inclusive, at the said salary. 2. That he was paid monthly, as in the case of other salaried officers; that he received materials for the work upon the Capitol building; made up daily reports; had charge of workmen, and performed such duties as were assigned him by the architect of the Capitol Extension, and was paid out of the said fund as the architect of the Capitol Extension, clerks, and others connected with said work, viz., the appropriation for the Capitol Extension. No other facts than those above mentioned were found by the court. The counsel of the United States, however, after adverting to the fact that the findings contradicted an averment of the petitioner of a matter within his own knowledge, they finding that he was appointed foreman of carpenters March 1st, 1866, at a salary of $1800 per annum, and the counsel stating—by way of reconciling the discrepancy—that prior to March 1st, 1866, the claimant was employed in the same capacity as thereafterwards, but at a compensation of only $5 per day of actual employment, that is, exclusive of Sundays, or about $1500 per annum; and that the Secretary of the Interior, on March 1st, 1866, wrote the following letter:'DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, 'WASHINGTON, D. C. March 2d, 1866. 'SIR: You are hereby authorized, from and after the 1st of the present month, to pay George Miller, timekeeper, &c., on the Capitol Extension, at the rate of $150 per month, for the time actually employed, until further orders. 'I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, 'JAMES HARLAN, 'Secretary.' 'DR. WM. S. MARSH, Disbursing Agent, Capitol Extension.'