Court Opinion

ID: 9444053
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 19:39:28.132949+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:29:41.568625
License: Public Domain

PRETTYMAN, Circuit Judge.
The United States filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York a civil action against our appellant Silverstein, as guardian for an incompetent, for an alleged balance due on a bill rendered for board and maintenance of the incompetent at St. Elizabeths Hospital. The action was thereafter transferred to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The defendant guardian answered, denying liability.
The case went to trial before a judge without a jury. It was shown, by replies to interrogatories, stipulation as to facts, and documentary evidence, that Joseph M. Gellis, the incompetent involved, had been rated by the Veterans Administration as permanently and totally disabled from March 1, 1922, to' the time of the trial; that disability com*20pensation was in fact paid from 1922 through 1951, except for the period when he was in St. Elizabeths Hospital. It was further shown that the Veterans Administration, through the office of its Chief Attorney, advised the guardian that “The compensation of the veteran was discontinued by reason of the fact that he was being cared for by the Government, was insane, had no wife, child, or dependent parents, and his estate was over $1,500.00.” The guardian, accepting this ruling of the Veterans Administration, says that, since her ward was being cared for by the Government and the Government retained for that purpose money which was otherwise due her ward, she does not owe the bill. We agree with this position of the guardian.
It is said by the appellee United States that the guardian seeks to have the court review the ruling of the Veterans Administration, which we cannot do under the statute.1 We do not so understand her position. On the contrary, she accepts and in effect treats as unreviewable the decision of the Veterans Administration. She says that since, according to that ruling, her ward was being maintained by the Government, and money belonging to the ward was retained for that purpose, there is no remaining liability on her part.
The judgment of the District Court must be and is hereby reversed, and the case is remanded with instructions to enter judgment for the defendant guardian.
Reversed and remanded.

. 54 Stat. 1197 (1940), 38 U.S.C.A. § 11a — 2.