Court Opinion

ID: 9447460
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-03 22:35:45.740164+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:31:03.391883
License: Public Domain

WHITAKER, Judge
(dissenting).
At the time the President’s Message-of July 1, 1945, was circulated throughout the Navy (ALNAV 149-45) plaintiff' was in the hospital and, therefore, was-not eligible to promotion thereunder, since ALNAV 149-45 was subject to the-provisions of BUPERS CIRCLTR 222-43, and this circular excepted from the-terms of ALNAV 149-45 “officers on-sick leave or under treatment in hospitals.”
However, this same BUPERS-CIRCLTR 222-43 says that “personnel concerned will be considered for appointment when and if the officer concerned is-later found to be physically qualified andt *825is recommended by his commanding officer.”
On December 17, 1945, plaintiff was released from the hospital and ordered to report to the United States Naval Personnel Separation Center, Washington, D. C. Upon reporting there, the commanding officer of the Separation Center ordered him to “report to a medical officer or to a Board of Medical Examiners for examination to determine your physical fitness to perform the duty of a lieutenant (junior grade) for temporary service. * * * ” He did report, and was examined and was found physically disqualified.
The question presented then is: Does the Act of March 4, 1911, 34 U.S.C. § 390 (1952 ed.) apply to such a person. This section reads in part:
“ * * * If any officer of the United States Navy, below the rank of lieutenant (junior grade), shall fail in his physical examination for promotion and be found incapacitated for service by reason of physical disability contracted in the line of duty, he shall be retired with the rank to which his seniority entitled him to be promoted * *
Plaintiff was entitled to promotion under the Temporary Promotion Act and ALNAV 149-45, unless excepted from its provisions, since he had entered the service between the specified dates of February 2 and February 29, 1944, prescribed in ALNAV 149-45. ALNAV 149-45 authorized the promotion of all reserve officers who entered on active duty between those dates. Officers who entered on active duty after February 29, 1944, were not entitled to promotion. Those who entered on active duty between those dates had seniority over those who entered later. No doubt an earlier ALNAV had authorized the promotion of those entering the service before February 2, 1944.
I think it should be said, therefore, that plaintiff had the seniority which entitled him to be promoted within the meaning of the Act of March 4, 1911. If he did, he is entitled to the benefits of the provisions of the Act of March 4, 1911, after release from the hospital. After his release, he was ordered to report for examination to determine his physical fitness for promotion to the rank of lieutenant, junior grade, and was found physically unfit. Since his seniority entitled him to the promotion, he was entitled under the Act of March 4, 1911, to be retired in the next higher rank of lieutenant, junior grade.
I think he is entitled to recover the difference between the retired pay of an ensign and a lieutenant (junior grade) fo» six years prior to the filing of his petí tion and until the date of judgment.