Reporter's Statement of the Case 115 C. Cls. open from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m., most members and their guests attend the Club only during the luncheon period. The principal use made of the Club after the luncheon period is by a small number of members who patronize the bar. Prior to the reduction in the resident membership from 700 to 650, as shown in finding 8, and to a lesser extent since then, the Club was crowded during the luncheon period. Members who arrive after 12:30 are required at times to wait ten or fifteen minutes for a table. Table reservations are not made in any of the large dining rooms between the hours of 12 noon and 2 p. m., but aside from those hours reservations may be made in those dining rooms. One group of waiters is on duty from 11 a. m. to 2 p. m., and another group from 11:30a.m. to 2:30 p. m. In the area served by the Club there are several restaurants which are comparable to the Club in quality of food service and price. However, in general, conditions are less crowded and service may be secured more promptly at the Club than at these restaurants. 16. The only place in the Club where ladies are permitted is in the large dining room on the 13th floor and its entrance lobby or passageway, and ladies' room and toilet, described in finding 11. Comfortable chairs are located in this lobby where ladies may wait for luncheon. While this dining room has accommodations for 125 at its tables, the average attendance of ladies is approximately five a day and the rest of the table accommodations are used by men. Members rarely bring their wives or lady members of their families to the Club. The ladies who attend the Club are usually business associates of members or customers of members. Rule XVIII of the house rules provides: A member shall have the right to extend the privilege of using the ladies' dining room to his wife, unmarried daughter, or to his unmarried sister residing in his house, and those to whom this privilege has been given may introduce as guests ladies and gentlemen accompanying her. * However, in actual practice this privilege by a member of permitting members of his family to introduce guests has not been availed of during the period for which this suit 66 Reporter's Statement of the Case is brought and during this period the ladies who have come to the Club have been accompanied by a member. No privileges are given by the Club to the members of the family of a deceased member, whether men or women. 17. Guest cards are issued by the Club at the request of members. An average of five such cards are issued a month to out-of-town business acquaintances of members. They entitle the guests to the privileges of the Club for a two weeks' period. No membership cards are issued to members. 18. The bar on the 13th floor is appropriately equipped for facilities of this character, including a counter and tables with chairs where drinks are served. Approximately 50 or 60 persons a day have drinks at the counter or the tables in that room. The greater part of this patronage is during the luncheon period just prior to the time when a member or guest has luncheon with only an occasional person being served prior to 11:30 a. m., and a relatively few in the afternoon between 3 and 6 p. m., when a member, usually accompanied by another member, business associate or guest, comes by the Club for drinks. In addition, drinks are served at the tables in the dining rooms during the luncheon period from the service bar on the 14th floor. There are two fulltime bartenders on the 13th floor who work from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m.; and two part-time bartenders on the 14th floor, one of the latter working from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. and the other 12 noon to 2 p. m. During the periods when the bartenders are not serving drinks, they are preparing drinks and equipment for service. In the bar on the 13th floor the Club provides pretzels, cheese and crackers, and during the luncheon period hors d'oeuvres. 19. The six elevators which serve the building in which the Club is located also serve the Club, stopping at the Club lobby on the 13th floor. During the two hours from 12 noon to 2 p. m. one of these elevators is assigned as a special elevator to service the Club. One elevator also stops at the 14th and 15th floors, but it is used only as a service car for the Club employees and for the delivery of merchandise. A uniformed employee is on duty in the Club lobby near the elevators. He knows practically all members of the Club and keeps an accurate count by means of a mechanical device Reporter's Statement of the Case 115 C. Cls. of the number of persons arriving at the Club, and reports the number to the steward in order to prevent a waste of food. In addition, he directs persons to their rooms, calls persons who are waiting for a table, prevents salesmen from going to the manager's office and finds out why strangers are entering the Club. 20. The Club occupies 16,844 square feet of space in the building where it is located, of which 7,944 are on the 13th floor, 7,490 on the 14th floor, and 1,410 on the 15th floor. A rental of $30,000 per year is paid by the Club for the premises. The Club has 90 employees assigned as follows: 24 in the kitchen, 52 in the dining room, 4 bartenders, and 10 clerical and general club employees. The Club has a full-time manager whose duty and function it is to manage the affairs of the Club. His salary is $8,600 per year and the weekly pay roll of the Club including the manager's salary is $2,500. The kitchen steward is paid $55 per week and the head waiter who has charge of all the dining rooms also receives $55 per week. 21. For the fiscal years ended January 31, 1943, through January 31, 1946, the total sales of the Club with the details of the departments making such sales and the net profit or loss for each year were as follows: 22. As shown in finding 8, the Club had 650 resident members during 1945 and 1946. Of that number 534 (82.1%) were engaged in the insurance business, 70 (10.8%) in the drug and chemical business, and 46 (7.1%) in miscellaneous businesses and professions, such as lawyers, bankers, accountants, publishers, brokers, etc., who were in most, if not all, cases engaged in some activity related to or associated with the insurance or the drug and chemical business. 66 Reporter's Statement of the Case Of the 650 resident members, 602 (92.6%) had their places of business between the Battery and Chambers Street in the downtown business area of New York City, and most of these 602 members had their offices in the insurance district of New York City within two or three blocks of the Club. 23. The members of the Club are for the most part executives and others of similar rank in the insurance or drug and chemical business. Insurance companies and drug and chemical companies often recommend and at times direct that their junior executives join the Club. Some companies pay the dues and at least some of the house charges of their executives or employees who are members of the Club. Some large insurance organizations have a number of executives who are members of the Club, one firm of insurance managers being represented by 19 members, another by 15 members, and still another by 14 members. Members not only utilize the Club as a meeting place with associates and competitors in the same or related businesses where they discuss business matters of common interest during the luncheon period or other times, but also as a place where they bring their customers, clients and associates to transact business or to continue business discussions during the luncheon period or at other times. In some instances, members who are in the same specialized branch of insurance customarily sit at the same table where, among other things, they discuss matters of common business interest. The Club is used extensively for conferences and meetings to deal with insurance company problems and to promote the welfare of the industry. The Club is used regularly for meetings held to deal with industry problems by insurance groups, insurance committees, insurance organizations, and insurance trade associations. Among the typical industrywide insurance groups holding regularly scheduled business meetings in the private dining rooms are the Automobile Underwriters Association, the Inland Marine Underwriters Association, the Inland Marine Loss Group, the Casualty Managers Association, Automobile Casualty Underwriters Association, the Reinsurance Clearing House, the Claims Conference, the Surety Managers Group, the Insurance Section of the New York Board of Trade, and the National Syllabus 115 C. Cls. Board of Fire Underwriters and its various committees. In addition, meetings are held at the Club not on regular schedule by similar insurance organizations, and by insurance companies. 24. The Club serves as a convenient and comfortable place for its members and their guests, both business and nonbusiness, to secure luncheon under less crowded conditions and more expeditiously than in many of the other better eating places in the area where the Club is located and as a place where they may discuss matters of a business nature during the luncheon period or at other times. However, there is no limitation at the Club or among the members on what members or their guests may discuss when they have luncheon together or meet at the Club, that is, whether business or otherwise, and in addition to business topics and matters of common business interest, the usual topics of the day are discussed, such as politics, baseball, international relations, etc. The court decided that the plaintiff was not entitled to recover. WHITAKER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court: The facts of this case are substantially the same as those in the case of The Bankers Club of America, Inc., v. United States, No. 48513, ante, p. 50, and on the authority of the decision in that case, judgment is rendered for the defendant, and plaintiff's petition is dismissed. MADDEN, Judge, and JONES, Chief Judge, concur. LITTLETON, Judge, and HOWELL, Judge, concur for the reasons stated in the concurring opinion in The Bankers Club case this day decided. AUGUSTIN M. PRENTISS v. THE UNITED STATES [No. 49151. Decided December 5, 1949. Plaintiff's motion for new trial overruled February 6, 1950] On Defendant's Demurrer Civil Service Retirement benefits under 1920 Act as amended; service prior to 1920 Act.-Plaintiff served in the Classified Civil Serv |