Artificial

limbs to sol

ors.

When and how furnished

bled, That every officer, soldier, seaman and marine, who, diers and sail in the line of duty, in the military or naval service of the United States, shall have lost a limb, or sustained bodily injuries, depriving him of the use of any of his limbs, shall receive once every five years an artificial limb or or commuted. appliance, or commutation therefor, as provided and limited by existing laws, under such regulations as the Surgeon-General of the Army may prescribe; and the period of five years shall be held to commence with the filing of the first application after the seventeenth day of June, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy.

Transportation to be furnished.

SEC. 2. That necessary transportation to have artificial limbs fitted shall be furnished by the Quartermaster-General of the Army, the cost of which shall be refunded out of any money appropriated for the purchase of artificial limbs: Provided That this act shall not be subject to the provisions of an act entitled "an act to increase pensions," approved June eighteenth, eighteen hundred and seventyfour.

Approved, August 15, 1876.

Secs. 4787,

[19 Stat. L., p. 252.1

[Extract from an act to perfect the revision of the Statutes of the United States, and of the statutes relating to the District of Columbia.]

That section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven Revised Statutes is amended by adding at the end of the section the following:

The provisions of this section shall apply to all officers, non4790, and 4791 commissioned officers, enlisted and hired men of the land and amended. naval forces of the United States, who, in the line of their duty as such, shall have lost limbs or sustained bodily injuries depriving them of the use of any of their limbs, to be determined by the Surgeon-General of the Army; and the term of five years herein specified shall be held to commence in each case with the filing of the application for the benefits of this Section.

That section forty-seven hundred and ninety is amended by inserting, in the second line, after the word "rebellion," the words "or is entitled to the benefits of Section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven."

Section forty-seven hundred and ninety-one is amended by adding at the end of the section the following:

The transportation allowed for having artificial limbs fitted shall be furnished by the Quartermaster-General of the Army, the cost of which shall be refunded from the appropriations for invalid pensions.

Approved, February 27, 1877.

[26 Stat. L., p. 1103.]

Artificial

limbs, etc., furnished every 3 years.

[Extract from an act to amend section 4787 of the Revised Statutes of the United States.]

That section forty-seven hundred and eighty-seven of the Revised Statutes of the United States be amended by striking out the word "five" where it occurs therein,

R. S., sec..

and inserting in lieu thereof the word "three " so that when amended said section will read as follows: Every 4787 amended, officer, soldier, seaman, and marine who was disabled during the war for the suppression of the rebellion, in the military or naval service, and in the line of duty, or in consequence of wounds received or disease contracted therein, and who was furnished by the War Department since the seventeenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy, with an artificial limb or apparatus for resection, who was entitled to receive such limb or apparatus since said date, shall be entitled to receive a new limb or apparatus at the expiration of every three years thereafter, under such regulations as have been or may be prescribed by the Surgeon-General of the Army.

Approved March 3, 1891.

NOTE. Claims of heirs of deceased soldiers for commutation of artificial limbs and appliances, which accrued prior to the death of the soldier. Under the provisions of section 4788 Revised Statutes, every person entitled to an artificial limb or apparatus may, if he so elects, receive the money value thereof every three years (see act of Mar. 3, 1891, 26 Stat., p. 1103). The question having been raised as to the right of the heirs of a soldier to receive the amount of commutation which had accrued prior to the soldier's death, the Second Comptroller decided as follows:

Decision of Where the soldier had exercised in full his right to commuta- Second Comption for an artificial limb, had completed his claim and died troller. before receiving payment, leaving nothing to be done in that direction by his representatives, his interest in the grant must be viewed as a vested right which extends beyond his own life and passes into and become a part of his estate.

Such cases come under the jurisdiction of the Second Auditor.

ASSIGNMENT OF CLAIMS AGAINST THE UNITED STATES.

[9 Stat. L., p. 41.]

[An Act In relation to the payment of claims.]

July 29, 1846.

Claims allowed by Con

other person or

the claimants,

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever a claim on the United States aforesaid shall hereafter have been allowed by a resolution gress not to be or act of Congress, and thereby directed to be paid, the phe to any money shall not, nor shall any part thereof, be paid to persons than any person or persons other than the claimant or claim- their executors, ants, his or their executor or executors, administrator or duly constior administrators, unless such person or persons shall tuted attorproduce to the proper disbursing officer a warrant of attorney executed by such claimant or claimants, executor or executors, administrator or administrators, after the enactment of the resolution or act allowing the

administrators,

neys.

Requisite form of war

ney.

ed and ac

claim; and every such warrant of attorney shall refer to rant of attor such resolution or act, and expressly recite the amount allowed thereby, and shall be attested by two competent witnesses, and be acknowledged by the person or perTo be attest-sons executing it, before an officer having authority to take the acknowledgment of deeds, who shall certify such acknowledgment; and it shall appear by such certificate that such officer, at the time of the making of such acknowledgment, read and fully explained such warrant of attorney to the person or persons acknowledging the same.

knowledged.

Approved, July 29, 1846.

Transfers of claims on

how and when legal.

[10 Stat. L., p. 170.]

[Extract from an act to prevent frauds upon the Treasury of the United States.]

Be it enacted, etc., That all transfers and assignments United States, hereafter made of any claim upon the United States, or any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities for receiving payment of any such claim, or any part or share thereof, shall be absolutely null and void, unless the same shall be freely made and executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, after the allowance of such claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof.

cisions of

courts.

Approved, February 23, 1853.

NOTE. The wisdom and policy of the act of February 26, 1853 (10 Stat. L., p. 170) considered and sustained (United States v. Gillis, 95 U. S., 407; Spofford v. Kirk., 97 U. S., 464).

NOTES OF DECISIONS BY THE COURTS.

The provision of the Revised Statutes (Sec. 3477), Notes of de- which makes assignment of claims against the Government void does not affect the jurisdiction of the Court of Claims in cases under the Bowman Act. (See Forehand's Case, 23 C. Cls. R., p. 477.)

The assignment of a voucher is absolutely void under Section 3477 of the Revised Statutes (Sarah A. Harris, administratrix, v. The United States, 27 C. Cls. R., p. 177).

No officer of the Government can take assignments out of the operation of the Revised Statutes. (Charles A. Hitchcock v. The United States, 27 C. Cls. R., p. 185.)

The purchaser of a claim at a sale in bankruptcy proceedings may maintain an action in his own name. (McKay's Case, 27 C. Cls. R., p. 422.)

1. A mere personal agreement by one setting up a claim on the Government, with another person to pay to such person a percentage of whatever sum Congress, through the instrumentality of such person, may appropriate in payment of the claim, does not constitute any lien on the fund to be appropriated; there being no order on the Government to pay the percentage out of the fund so appropriated, nor any assignment to the party of such percentage.

2. If such an agreement amounted to such an order or assignment, as in the case of a debt due by an ordinary person would constitute a lien on the fund, the agreement, in the case of a claim on the Government, would, under the act of February 26, 1853, not do so; for that act declares that all transfers of any part of any claim against the United States,

or of any interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, shall be absolutely null and void, unless executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses after the allowance of such claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant therefor.

3. A contract to take charge of a claim before Congress, and prosecute it as an agent and attorney for the claimant (the same amounting to a contract to procure by "lobby services "that is to say, by personal solicitation by the agent and others supposed to have personal influence in any way with Members of Congress-the passage of a bill providing for the payment of the claim), is void.

4. Such a contract is distinguishable from one for purely professional services, within which category are included, drafting a petition which sets forth the claim, attending to the taking of testimony, collecting facts, preparing arguments, and submitting them either orally or in writing to a committee or other proper authority, with other services of like character intended to reach only the understanding of the persons sought to be influenced.

5. Though compensation can be recovered for these when they stand by themselves, yet when they are blended and confused with those which are forbidden, the whole is a unit and indivisible, and that which is bad destroys the good. Compensation can be recovered for no part. (Trist v. Child, 21 Wallace, p. 441.)

All contracts for a contingent compensation for obtaining legislation, or to use personal, or any secret, or sinister influence on legislators, are void, as against public policy. (Marshall v. Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company, 16 How., 314.)

ASSIGNMENT OF UNLIQUIDATED DEMANDS.

A claim which has never received the assent of the person against whom it is asserted, and which remains to be settled by negotiation or suit at law, can not be so as

35559-08-2

signed as to give the assignee an equitable right to prevent the original parties from compromising or adjusting the claim on any terms that may suit them. (Kendall v. The United States, 7 Wallace, p. 113.)

66

When a contract by its terms can not be sublet or assigned," one who has agreed with the sureties on default of their principals, to carry out the contract, receive the consideration, and allow to the sureties a percentage thereof, is not a party "interested therein," but merely the "agent, attorney in fact, or employé " of the sureties. (Kellogg v. The United States, 7 Č. Cls. R., p. 56.)

One who is in legal effect merely the assignee of a claim against the Government can not maintain an action upon it, though he holds an official voucher for it issued in his own name. (Johnston's Case, 13 C. Cls. R., p. 217.)

Three things concerning the assignment of claims against the Government may be regarded as well settled: First. That such claims as are choses in action upon which a suit can be maintained as a matter of legal right, if there be a jurisdiction, and in which "there is no element of a donation in the payment ultimately made" (Phelps v. McDonald, 99 U. S. R., 298), pass in bankruptcy and may be prosecuted by the assignee or by the purchaser in bankruptcy proceedings. McKay's Case (27 C. Cls. R., 422); Burke's (13 id., 241).

Second. That the title to what is known as abandoned and captured property not having been divested by capture, a claim for the proceeds in the Treasury is a cause of action which passes in bankruptcy, although no jurisdiction exists at the time in which it can be prosecuted. Klein's Case (13 Wall. R., 128); Erwin's (97 U. S. R., 392).

Third. That a mere expectancy, a claim founded on no legal right known to courts of law or equity, a claim which is but an appeal to the clemency of Congress for the redress of an injury, where there is no obligation. on the part of the Government, and the granting of relief is purely a matter of legislative discretion, can not be regarded as property and does not pass in bankruptcy. Dockery's Case (26 C. Cls. R., 148); Heard v. Sturgis (146 Mass., 545); Taft v. Marisly (120 N. Y., 474); Brooks v. Ahrens (68 Maryland, 212); Kingsbury v. Mattocks (81 Maine, 310); Estate of Moore (26 C. Cls. R., 254); Heirs of Emerson v. Hall (13 Peters's R., 409, 415).

But it must be conceded that since the decision of the Supreme Court in Williams v. Heard (140 U. S. R., 529), overturning the concurrent decisions of four of the leading judicial triblunals of the State judiciary upon the same point, the last rule is not easy of application.

The subject of the action was one of the Alabama claims. The Supreme Court held that—

"the sum awarded by the tribunal of arbitration at Geneva, when paid, constituted a national fund, in which no individual claimant