(c) Damages recoverable for personal injury unaffected No action taken by the United States in connection with the rights afforded under this legislation shall operate to deny to the injured person the recovery for that portion of his damage not covered hereunder. (Pub. L. 87-693, § 2, Sept. 25, 1962, 76 Stat. 593.) § 2653. Limitation or repeal of other provisions for recovery of hospital and medical care costs This chapter does not limit or repeal any other provision of law providing for recovery by the United States of the costs of care and treatment described in section 2651 of this title. (Pub. L. 87-693, § 3, Sept. 25, 1962, 76 Stat. 594.) GUIDING PRINCIPLES IN SPECIFIC CATEGORIES OF CLAIMS CONTRACT CLAIMS When based on equitable considerations, contract claims have been considered by the subcommittee. Claims based upon a contract, either express or implied, are cognizable by the United States Claims Court. The statutory provisions concerning the administrative and judicial settlement of disputes and claims arising from contracts provide the usual basis for final resolution of such matters. The Contract Disputes Act enacted in 1978 and set out as chapter 9 of title 41, United States Code, under the heading "Contract Disputes," provides the statutory basis for government-wide procedures for the administrative and judicial resolution of such disputes. This law originated as a bill considered by the Subcommittee. It should be noted that many of the contract claims presented to the committee have been rejected for failure to take advantage of an existing remedy, by suit or otherwise, as prescribed by committee rule 14. While the Congress may enact special legislation for the payment of claims on what the Supreme Court has termed "moral grounds," it is here emphasized that the matters are considered by the subcommittee in the light of settled legal or equitable principles, and relief will be granted only when the relief is consistent with such principles. JURISDICTIONAL BILLS These are bills conferring jurisdiction for the determination of a claim to a court or tribunal when jurisdiction does not exist under general law. In the past, the committee has considered bills to confer jurisdiction on a court for the determination of a claim for the taking of private lands for public use; for confiscation and illegal sale of property; for the value of services rendered the Government under a contract; for salary wrongfully withheld from an employee; for damage to property; for personal injury and death not covered by the tort claims provisions of title 28, United States Code; and for determination of equitable relief allegedly due under a contract. It is relevant to note that the Federal tort claims provisions of title 28 provide a broad area of jurisdiction in the Federal courts over claims which, before the enactment of the Federal Tort Claims Act, were proper subjects for private bills. REFUNDS BONDS, FEES, FINES, AND OTHER AMOUNTS PAID TO THE The refund of money wrongfully or erroneously covered into the Treasury has at times been the subject of bills considered by the subcommittee. These may include refunds of the value of a bond, either criminal or alien, forfeited to the Government. Bonds are exacted for the performance of some act, usually the appearance of an accused in a criminal case, or the appearance or deportation of an alien in immigration proceedings. A failure to comply with their terms constitutes a breach resulting in forfeiture. It has been required that the appeal for relief be grounded on more than an assertion of the fact of forfeiture and subsequent apprehension of the criminal or alien by the Government, coupled with an argument that the Government should not thus enrich itself at the bondsman's expense. In past years consideration has been given such factors as: Information showing that claimant is not a professional bondsman (received a consideration for his undertaking); that the defendant has been apprehended; that claimant contributed either funds or acts to such apprehension; and that the Government has not been damaged by the defendant's failure to appear. Bills seeking a refund of fees or fines have also been considered. Numerous claims for the refund of taxes, duties, and other revenue overpaid to the Government have been presented, both in past Congresses and the present. Each of these cases involved a waiver of the statute of limitations contained in all revenue laws, which stood as a bar to claimant's recovery, thus necessitating legislation for its waiver or for outright refund incidentally effecting the waiver. The subcommittee has usually required that it be established that relief should be extended because of unusual and compelling equities. For instance, it would be necessary to prove that such a waiver is justified in a unique case, such as where a claimant had been misled by Government agents in payment of the revenue, or as to his right to refund, or had apparently taken every possible precaution to protect his rights but nevertheless lost to the Government upon its assertion that the statute had expired. In other words, the situation was something more than a simple overpayment-of which there are thousands-the collection of which was precluded by the statute of limitations. While not a subject of private bills in recent years, fees coming into the hands of fiscal officers of the Government and erroneously coVered into the Treasury have been refunded by special legislation. Several bills refunding fines paid under the Lever Act of August 10, 1917, subsequently declared unconstitutional in part by the Supreme Court were enacted. ADJUSTMENT AND SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS Bills proposing the adjustment and settlement of accounts of disbursing officers, postmasters, or other fiscal agents of the United States have been considered by the subcommittee. Such bills generally involve no appropriation of money unless the officer has been required to refund it to the Government, in which event appropriation for payment to him will be necessary. If there has been no refund, the correct action is to authorize and direct the Comptroller General of the United States (not the Secretary of the Treasury, Postmaster General, or other official) to credit, or allow credit, in the officer's account and the bills should so read. Fiscal officers are often necessarily held responsible for losses which they neither contributed to or occasioned. Bills granting relief have been favorably considered where good faith and an absence of negligence can be shown. Bills have been approved which validated unauthorized expenditures for goods or services from which the Government benefited substantially. Similarly, fiscal or certifying personnel have been granted relief in some cases for loss of funds and property; for payments made with or without higher authority, but subsequently held to be unauthorized by law; and for account shortages to overpayments, embezzlements by subordinates, post-office robberies, and other losses. Aside from the mentioned good faith and absence of negligence, no general rule relative to allowance of relief in this class of claims can be laid down, but it has been granted or denied in accordance with the particular facts and circumstances in each case. SERVICES PERFORMED FOR THE GOVERNMENT All claims for services rendered to the Government, either as a volunteer or under some legal right or authority are cognizable by the committee, with the exception of those which can be administratively determined and settled (by the departments or the General Accounting Office in accordance with existing law). Payments have been authorized where employees were hired and performed work but were not paid because the hiring was without legal authority or no appropriation existed from which payment could be made. In a few cases, the payment of rewards for services rendered in apprehending law violators, usually of postal laws, has been authorized. It should be noted, however, that the offering and payment of rewards is vested in the Attorney General, the Postmaster General, and other department heads with respect to enforcement of laws administered by their departments, and special legislation is usually not warranted. Payments have also been made for services rendered in developing a national forest; for rescues at sea of Government officers or employees; for the preparation of ship-construction plans; for preparation for burial and transportation of the body of an employee who died abroad while on official duty; for transportation of employees on official business (where the expense has been held unauthorized under existing law); for fees earned as a United States commissioner, probation officer, or doctor attached to a Federal prison, after expiration of a previous appointment. SUPPLIES OR GOODS FURNISHED THE GOVERNMENT Claims for supplies or goods furnished to the Government, as well as for use or loss of property loaned it, have at times been recognized in bills providing for payment for such services or goods. The history of claims before the committee indicate that such bills provided for payments for meat furnished to the Forest Service; trucks furnished to the Army; submarine valves furnished to the Navy; horses, cows, and other property leased or gratuitously bailed to the Government, and thereafter lost, through death or other cause, as a result of negligent care; coal supplied under a contract which was later canceled; and also cases of furnishing both material and labor under construction controls. However, Government procurement contracts and construction contracts are governed by public laws on that subject and their implementing regulations. Only in most unusual instances has it been found appropriate to grant relief through private legislation. As has just been observed, the Government usually obtains services, supplies, goods, or property under a contract or lease. Payment of claims of this class has, in unusual cases, required private legislation because the equities of the case justified relief and there was no right of suit against the Government, for legal or other reasons. Rule 11 requiring that claimant exhaust his remedies elsewhere prior to seeking relief from the Congress, as well as the matter previously set forth with respect to contract claims, should be kept in mind by one who desires to determine what the committee's attitude may be with respect to claims of this class. GOVERNMENT WARDS, PRISONERS, AND CONTRACT EMPLOYEES A statement concerning Government wards and prisoners is included in this booklet since, in past Congresses, several private bills were enacted compensating some of such persons for personal injuries sus tained while performing work of which the Government received the benefit. Those included bills concerning pupils at Indian schools. They learn trades as part of their instruction and also perform duties at the school. Occasionally, injuries have occurred while performing their duties or in the course of their instruction with machinery, and the Congress has, by special act, provided compensation for those injured. Again, inmates of the Federal reformatories and prisons are required to work in shops, and the product of their labor gor 3 to the Government. Under section 4126 of title 18, United States Code, there is provision for the payment of compensation to prisoners or their dependents for injuries suffered in any prison industry or in work in connection with maintenance or operation of the institution where confined. This provision provides for payments in a manner somewhat similar to that provided in the Federal Employees Compensation Act. This section provides for relief previously provided for only by private bill. Persons employed by a Government contractor who suffer injury in the performance of their duties must look to the contractor for compensation. In a few rare instances, the committee has favorably considered claims for compensation by contract employees. One was the claim of a contract mail carrier, injured by the negligent overloading of mail sacks by Government employees. Another was himself performing hazardous work under a contract with the Forest Service when he sustained injury. Two more were victims of attempted mail robberies. Of these, one was a contract carrier, the other was employed by a fourth-class postmaster and suffered severe injuries in successfully defending the post office and its contents against four armed bandits. These cases were regarded as involving unique factual situations which provided grounds for distinguishing between their merits and those of claims by persons employed by the average Government contractor. MISCELLANEOUS In past years, the committee has considered claims for the difference in value of purebred cows slaughtered, in the Government's disease-elimination program, as grade animals, prior to their registration as purebred; for the full value of land conveyed to the Government in an instance where payment was originally made on the basis of an erroneous survey of the tract by the Government; for personal injury suffered while assisting a United States officer in law enforcement; for one-half of a judgment recovered against a municipality by the estate of a deceased employee, killed through the joint negligence of the municipality and the Government; authorizing the cashing of two paychecks on behalf of the widow of a Government agent who disappeared while performing official duty, on the 7-year-absence death presumption; for expenses incurred in preparing to carry the mail under an awarded contract which was later canceled; for damage to property occupied, with the Government's assent, by so-called "bonus marchers"; for the refund of an inheritance tax, due the State of Pennsylvania but erroneously paid to the Federal Government; for the refund of Federal tax collected on gas furnished the Government under a contract. The subcommittee also has jursidiction over public claims legislation. For example, the subcommittee has considered bills amending the Federal tort claims provisions of title 28, United States Code, bills amending the military claims provisions of chapter 163 of title 10, Unites States Code, and other public bills concerning claims and claims procedure. |