TABLE OF CASES AND SUBJECTS IN THEIR RESPECTIVE ORDER. Page. DORSEY'S: In the matter of withholding, for benefit of contractor, a penalty stipulated for in a subcontract for carrying mails.... CLAIMS-ASSIGNMENT: 1 In the matter of collecting, under powers of attorney to receive payment, salaries of officers, and other claims against the United States...... PROCEEDS OF SALES: In the matter of sale of old material, condemned stores, &c., not needed for public service, and of the disposition to be made of the proceeds... ST. ELIZABETH'S HOSPITAL: In the matter of the exchange or sale of property by the Superintendent of the Government Hospital for the Insane... AGENCY-DELEGATION: In the matter of the power of disbursing officers and agents to delegate authority to sign drafts and checks. MARSHALS' MILEAGE: In the matter of the mileage to which United States marshals are entitled, for serving process issued in criminal cases by commissioners of the circuit courts 88 EXIGENCY: In the matter of the authority to make a contract, without advertising, for printing lithographic plates for report of the Commissioner of Agriculttre for the year 1880 ... 92 EVANS'S: In the matter of compensation of a marshal of the United States holding over after the expiration of his term of office... 111 UTAH DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S: In the matter of maximum of annual emoluments of district attorney of 119 WALSH'S: In the matter of the assignment of compensation to become due a contractor for carrying the mails 122 MALAKOF BITTERS: In the matter of refunding stamp tax on Malakof bitters..... 129 SEAMAN-RELIEF: In the matter of consular relief for destitute American seamen. YORKTOWN CENTENNIAL: 138 In the matter of expenditures for the centennial anniversary of surrender of Lord Cornwallis.. 141 TERRITORIAL COURT: In the matter of the right of the legislative assembly of the Territory of New Mexico to prescribe terms for the Supreme Court thereof........ ELECTION SUPERVISORS': In the matter of the mode of certifying accounts of chief supervisors of elections.. 148 153 ΧΙ HUIDEKOPER'S, (SECOND): In the matter of the legality of allowing commissions to a postmaster, on disbursements of money appropriated for construction of court-house and post-office building at place of location of a collector of customs.. DURKEE'S: In the matter of compensations to marshals, who elect to receive "actual traveling expenses" in lieu of mileage for summoning jurors, under section 829 of the Revised Statutes.... LOST GREENBACK: In the matter of replacing mutilated United States notes (greenbacks), under section 3580 of the Revised Statutes, in favor of finders thereof. DE BILDT'S: In the matter of a husband's claim to have transferred to himself bonds of the United States, purchased, in part, with his wife's means, after marriage, and inscribed in her name with his assent KENNARD'S: In the matter of the payment by public depositaries of pension checks having several indorsements TAYLOE'S: In the matter of an executor's claim for a transfer to himself, as trustee, of United States bonds registered in the name of a deceased executor, his testator.... DISTRICT CONTRACTS: In the matter of the authority of the Commissioners of the District of Columbia to make contracts for supplies prior to the passage of an appropriation act authorizing such contracts and providing for their payment BARNETT'S: In the matter of the right of the holder of one-half of a matured United 200 SANBORN'S: In the matter of the right to set-off moneys legally due a claimant against a balance improperly certified in a settled account... APPROPRIATION-EXTENSION: 205 In the matter of the extension of the legislative, executive, and judicial appropriations for the fiscal year 1822 to a portion of the fiscal year 213 1883 BOARD OF HEALTH: In the matter of the appropriation made by the act of August 7, 1882 (22 EPIDEMIC DISEASE: In the matter of the President's authority, in case of a threatened or actual epidemic, to direct who shall expend the $100,000 appropriated by the sundry civil act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat., 315), in aid of State and local boards of health, etc .... HALSTEAD'S: 221 225 In the matter of the authority of an administrator appointed in the District of Columbia on the estate of a deceased citizen of a State to collect Treasury drafts..... 231 CLERKS' INVESTIGATION: In the matter of appointment of clerks in the Treasury Department to investigate the offices of collectors of internal revenue.. 241 INFORMER'S : In the matter of the payment of informer's moieties under section 1174 of the Revised Statutes relating to the District of Columbia ..... 260 In the matter of the payment of claims, when the statute appropriating money for the purpose contains a false description of the claims or the In the matter of the per diem fee of circuit court commissioners in cases be- fore them, when there is no "hearing and deciding on criminal charges," In the matter of who is entitled to the salary due a public officer at the date of his decease, and to the residue of one year's salary allowed by In the matter of the appointment by the President of an officer "to per- form the duties of the office of the First Comptroller in" the Treasury Department, "during the absence troller and the Deputy First Comptroller in the said Department" In the matter of the payment of lost registered bonds of the United States, with indorsements in blank made thereon by the payee, but with no certificates of the acknowledgment of the execution thereof In the matter of the character and mode of disbursement of the appropria- tion made by the act of August 5, 1882, for the office of Supreme Court In the matter of the right of the same person to receive the compensations prescribed by law for the two positions (1) secretary to the school trus- tees, and (2) clerk to a superintendent of public schools in the District LAKE'S: 283 In the matter of the rights of an attorney presenting a claim after the sus- pension or disbarment of a prior attorney presenting the same claim .. In the matter of the right of the widow of a contestant for a seat in the House of Representatives, declared elected after his death, to be paid In the matter of the appointment of a substitute to perform the duties of clerk in the Treasury Department, with a right to receive part of the In the matter of the right of a Representative in Congress to compensation for services rendered the United States, during his term as Representa- In the matter of the payment of expenses incident to the disposition of Osage trust and diminished-reserve lands and Osage ceded lands in In the matter of the payment of claims and allowances "growing out of the illness and burial of the late President James A. Garfield." INTRODUCTION. Prior to the year 1880 but few of the decisions of the First Comptroller in the Department of the Treasury were printed. The practice of the Treasury Department in matters connected with the office of the First Comptroller rested mainly on, and was in large measure controlled by, the knowledge of officers connected with the Department. Much of this knowledge was derived from usages, the evidence of which could only be found in the manuscript files, records, and correspondence of the Department, and to these there were, and are, no ready facilities for reference. Many questions of law arising in this office had been made the subjects of decisions based upon usages derived from the same sources, which were necessarily inconvenient of access, and practically beyond the reach of claimants and others outside of the Department. In view of this, it was almost impossible to avoid incongruous action in matters of practice, and contradictory decisions on similar questions of law; and those seeking and entitled to information found it difficult to obtain it. To obviate these difficulties in some measure, it was deemed advisable, in the year 1880, "to commence the publication of such of the decisions of the First Comptroller" as were "supposed to be of a general character, and sufficiently important to justify this course." A limited number of copies of the first volume of these Decisions for the year 1880 was published by the Public Printer on requisitions made by the Treasury Department. This volume was transmitted by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and, under the authority of an order of that body, a second, and revised, edition of it was printed. A similar course, with a similar result, was pursued as to the second volume of the Decisions for the year 1881. The Joint Resolution of Congress, approved August 3, 1882 (22 Stat., 391), requires the Public Printer "to print not more than one volume each year of the decisions and opinions of the First Comptroller of the Treasury Department, with such explanatory matter as he may furnish." The following volume is printed under this authority. The distinguished and able lawyers who have occupied the high office of Attorney-General, have, in the volumes of Opinions, furnished much valuable information on subjects connected with the Departments. The learned and enlightened labors of the Court of Claims, in the volumes of decisions of that Court, have also furnished a fund of useful instruction. The same may be said to a limited extent of the decisions of other able courts. But the courts can rarely reach matters of prac tice in the Departments, and but to a limited extent can they determine XV |