Case: JAMES C. SAUNDERS v. THE UNITED STATES
Abbreviation: Saunders v. United States
Decision Date: 1887-01-24
Docket Number: 
Citation: 22 Ct. Cl. 482
Volume: 22
Reporter: United States Court of Claims Reports
Court: United States Court of Claims
Jurisdiction: United States
Parties: JAMES C. SAUNDERS v. THE UNITED STATES.
Judges: 
Pages: 482–482

Head Matter:
JAMES C. SAUNDERS v. THE UNITED STATES.
(21 C. Cls. R., 408; 120 U. S. R., 126.)
On the defendant’s Appeal.
The petition avers that the claimant was at the same time clerk of a committee of the House and clerk in the Executive office. To the one he was appointed by the committee, to the other by the President. The appropriation for the committee clerkship was by tho fiscal year. The practice is to' pay such salaries monthly, and to pay them during the interregnum between the dissolution of one Congress and tho assembling of the next. The claimant was not paid from tho 14th March, 1885, to the 7th of January, 1886, because of his holding the Executive clerkship.
The court below decides:
(1) The Bevised Statutes (§ 1765) prohibit an officer or person whose salary is fixed by law from receiving “additional pay, extra allotoanoe, or compensation,” but this does not extend to an Executive clerk who is at the same time the clerk of a standing committee of the House. Each position being authorized by law, and having a salary affixed-to it, the pay of the one can not be considered as additional to that of the other.
(2) It is immaterial, so far as compensation is concerned, whether an em-employment constitutes an office as defined in the Constitution,, provided the appointment was made lawfully. The cases of The United States y. - Germaine (99 U. S. B., 508) and Converse v. The United Slates (21 How., 463) examined and explained.
The judgmeht of the court below is affirmed on the same grounds.

Opinion:
Mr. Justice Millee
delivered the opinion of the Supreme Court, January 24, 1887.