Case: JABEZ BURCHARD v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Burchard v. United States
Decision Date: 1888-03-19
Docket Number: 
Citation: 23 Ct. Cl. 495
Volume: 23
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: JABEZ BURCHARD v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Pages: 495–496

Head Matter:
JABEZ BURCHARD v. THE UNITED STATES.
(19 C. Cls. R., 137; 125 U. S. R., 156.)
On the defendants’ Appeal.
A retiring board in 1874 finds a naval officer incapacitated by disability “xohioh did not originate in the line of duty." The findings are approved by the President and the officer is retired on furlough pay. The Secretary of the Navy next decides that the causes which incapacitated him were incident to the service. Subsequently the President, with the consent of the Senate, transfers him from the furlough to the retired-pay list as of an antecedent date. He is then paid 50 per cent, of his sea-pay. The officer seeks to recover three-fourths of his sea pay ; the defendants seek to recover back the increase of pay allowed him under his retroactive transfer and other overpayments.
The court below decides :
U) The Revised Statutes (§ 1594) empower the President and Senate to transfer a naval officer from the furlough list to the retired-pay list; but do not authorize a transfer as of the time when the officer was placed on the furlough list.
<(2) The defendant’s counter-claim, though valid in the opinion of the court, is dismissed for the purpose of an appeal.
The decision of the court below is reversed ou both points. The Supreme Court decides :
(1) That under section 1594, Revised Statutes the President Ras power, with the consent of the Senate, to date the transfer back to the time when he thinks it should have been made.
(2) In a suit iu the Court of Claims on a pay account the United States can set up as a counter-claim an overpayment on the account.

Opinion:
Mr. Chief-Justice Waite
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court March 19, 1888.