U.S. Supreme Court DISMUKE v. U.S., 297 U.S. 167 (1936)

[Page 297 U.S. 167, 174]

employee of the government or of the marshal as settled by the decision and reasoning of this Court in Douglas v. Wallace, , 16 S.Ct. 485, which held that, in view of the manner of a deputy marshal's appointment and payment, his claim for compensation had the status of that of a claim of an employee of the marshal, not of the government, and so was not affected by R.S., 3477 (31 U.S.C.A. 203), declaring void any assignment of any interest in a claim against the United States. To the same effect are United States v. McDonald (C.C.A.) 72 F. 898, 900; Powell v. United States (C.C.) 60 F. 687; Wintermute v. Smith, 30 Fed.Cas. page 373, No. 17,897. This has been the administrative ruling since 1920, see Claim of George Taylor Larkin, recorded in 21 P.&R. D. 42. A construction of such long standing is not lightly to be overturned. See United States v. Moore, 95 U.S. 760, 763; Logan v. Davis, 233 U.S. 613, 627, 34 S.Ct. 685; Maynard v. Elliott, , 51 S.Ct. 390; Brewster v. Gage, 280 U.S. 327, 336, 50 S.Ct. 115; Fawcus Machine Co. v. United States, , 51 S.Ct. 144; Interstate Commerce Commission v. New York, N.H. & H.R. Co., 287 U.S. 178, 53 S.Ct. 106; Norwegian Nitrogen Products Co. v. United States, 288 U.S. 294, 315, 53 S.Ct. 350. Later legislation providing for payment of annuities to employees of the United States must be taken to have been adopted in the light of it.

Since the record does not disclose any administrative determination of petitioner's right to an annuity computed on the basis of twenty-four years' service, the sole issue now presented is whether the decision that he was not entitled to the annuity calculated on the basis of thirty years' service was erroneous. The judgment of the court below must therefore be affirmed, but for reasons stated in this opinion and not those stated in the opinion of the court below.

Affirmed. Footnotes

Footnote 1 By Executive Order dated July 21, 1930, under section 1 of Act of July 3, 1930, 46 Stat. 1016, the functions of the Bureau of Pensions were transferred to the Veterans' Administration. By Executive Orders Nos. 6670, and 6731, dated respectively April 7, 1934, and June 5, 1934, under section 16 of Act of March 3, 1933, 47 Stat. 1517, and Order of the Civil Service Commission dated August 24, 1934, the administration of the Civil Service Retirement Act was transferred from the Veterans' Administration to the Civil Service Commission, effective as of September 1, 1934.