33 Reporter's Statement of the Case not to pay for extra services until or after the first day of the month following that in which the services were rendered; there was no failure or refusal to pay, in the instant case, and no cause of action accrued for services rendered in October 1939, until at least November 1, 1939. The Reporter's statement of the case: Mr. Charles A. Horsky for the plaintiff. Miss Amy Ruth Mahin, and Messrs. Covington, Burling, Rublee, Acheson, and Shorb were on the briefs. Mr. Alfred H. Golden, with whom was Mr. Assistant Attorney General John F. Sonnett, for the defendant. Mr. J. Frank Staley and Miss Mae Helm were on the brief. The court made special findings of fact as follows, upon the evidence, the report of a commissioner and an agreed statement of facts entered into between the parties: 1. The plaintiff is a citizen of the United States and a resident of the State of Minnesota. He sues to recover extra compensation for certain week-day overtime, Sunday and regular holiday and wartime holiday services performed by him as an officer of the United States. The period covered by his claim begins October 1, 1939, and ends June 1, 1946. 2. The plaintiff was a duly appointed Deputy Collector of Customs of the United States during the period of his claim, serving in Customs District No. 36, State of Minnesota. His base salary during this period was $2,100 per annum through September 1940; $2,200 per annum October 1, 1940, through March 1942; $2,300 per annum April 1, 1942, through September 1943; $2,400 per annum October 1, 1943, through March 1945; $2,600 per annum April 1, 1945, through June 30, 1945; and $2,980 per annum beginning July 1, 1945. March 1, 1946, his annual salary was raised to $3,090. The plaintiff has received his base salary as augmented by the War Overtime Pay Acts (Joint Resolution of December 22, 1942, and the Act of May 7, 1943), and the Federal Employees Pay Act of 1945, for the period covered by his claim, said salary having been prorated on the basis of 12 monthly periods of 30 days each and received by plaintiff in semimonthly installments paid, prior to December 1944, on the Reporter's Statement of the Case 109 C. Cls. middle and last days of the calendar month in which the services were performed. Such extra compensation as plaintiff was paid for services rendered prior to filing suit October 22, 1945, was paid not earlier than the first day of the month following that in which the services were rendered. 3. All of the services covered by his claim were performed by the plaintiff on weekdays, Sundays, and holidays at Roseau, Minnesota, a port of entry, located at a fork in the free international vehicular highway between the United States and Canada, about five miles north of the village of Roseau, Minnesota, and about five miles south of the international boundary line. The forked highway leads to the nearby Canadian ports of South Junction and Sprague, Manitoba. There are no hotel or other accommodations for the traveling public and no living quarters for government personnel at or near the customs office. The customs office was open for business, as required by the Collector of the District, for 12 hours a day from April 1 to September 30, and for 10 hours a day from October 1 to March 31, each year, traffic being required to be admitted any time between the hours of 8:00 a. m., and 8:00 p. m., seven days a week during the summer months, and between the hours of 8:00 a. m., and 6:00 p. m., seven days a week during the winter months. at Traffic at the port consisted of pedestrians and passengers, trucks, private automobiles and other vehicles. Dutiable merchandise entered the United States during the period in question and estimated duties thereon were collected. All merchandise was subject to customs treatment, whether dutiable or not. Commercial importations involving formal entry procedures were not handled at the port on Sundays and holidays, except where immediate delivery procedures were complied with, as prescribed by the customs regulations. Other merchandise and baggage might enter the United States or be exported to foreign countries at any hour that the customs office was open for business, and services for 12 hours a day from April 1 through September and for ten hours a day from October 1 through March, seven 33 Reporter's Statement of the Case days a week, were necessary to protect the revenue of the Government. Chartered buses might on occasion enter the United States at Roseau bringing in passengers from Canada. All outgoing automobiles of Canadian registry required inspection at this, as at other border ports. A touring certificate was issued for such vehicle on entry into the United States. This had to be checked by customs officers when the automobile left the United States in order to certify that it was the same automobile and equipment described in the permit before it could be taken out of the country. All persons entering from Canada and their baggage were inspected by United States Customs officials. From May 1, 1941, to October 1, 1945, by reason of wartime statutes and restrictions the plaintiff was required to check all outgoing traffic into Canada, in order to assist with enforcement of such statutes as the Export Control Act and the Trading-with-the-Enemy Act, and regulations promulgated by the Office of International Trade Operations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 4. The port at Roseau was manned throughout the year during the period in question by one customs officer. No seasonal customs inspectors were assigned to the port. Any immigration officers who were assigned to the port were deputized to perform certain customs services but performed such customs services only on days or during hours that plaintiff was off duty or otherwise not available. The services rendered by plaintiff as a customs officer at the port of Roseau consisted of duties in connection with inspection of vehicular traffic, comprised of private trucks and automobiles and commercial trucks; inspection of private and commercial importations arriving from Canada; inspection of merchandise brought in by automobile, truck, or otherwise, including perishable goods in certain seasons and passengers' baggage; examination of goods entering in bond for transportation through the United States or to other ports for unloading or warehousing, and of goods for exportation to foreign countries, with benefits of draw-back or otherwise. 772634-48- -5 Reporter's Statement of the Case 109 C. Cls. In addition he performed the duties of an immigrant inspector when the regular immigrant inspector was off duty, and the immigrant inspector performed reciprocal duties. This arrangement was one between the customs and the immigration services and enabled both customs inspector and immigrant inspector in general to work less hours than those during which the port was open for business. Neither officer received additional compensation because of this arrangement. Before November 1945, both Customs and Immigration Services left to the officers in the field the adjustment of their working schedules by mutual agreement so as to take care of the full number of hours that the ports were required to be open for business. Until June 1944, it was usual at Roseau for both customs and immigrant inspectors to work eight-hour overlapping shifts on weekdays and for each to man the port alone on alternate Sundays for the full day. The officer who worked alone on Sunday would take a weekday off in lieu of Sunday during the week following, when the officer who had been off duty on Sunday would man the port alone for the entire weekday. Beginning in June 1944, and until November 1945, the plaintiff was required by his superiors in office to work on a seven-day per-week basis and the practice of working alternating Sundays was discontinued, the plaintiff manning the port alone for the full day every Sunday until November 1945. Beginning with November 4, 1945, the Immigration and Customs Services jointly established biweekly work schedules which were followed by the men in both services throughout the rest of the period of the plaintiff's claim. These schedules required the plaintiff regularly to man the port alone for the full business day on one Sunday and three weekdays in each biweekly period. Occasionally, the plaintiff would relieve the immigrant inspector and substitute for him a day or more at a time, in case of emergencies such as illness. In the event of extended absence of the immigrant inspector, special relief was provided by the immigration service. 33 Reporter's Statement of the Case The arrangement with respect to Sundays applied also to regular holidays, and as a result the plaintiff worked about half the Sundays and half the regular holidays. On wartime holidays-that is, holidays proclaimed by administrative order or by the President during the war as workdays-the plaintiff and the immigrant inspector each worked at least eight hours. Plaintiff habitually ate the noon meal, and the evening meal when the port was open from 8 a. m., to 8 p. m., at the customs office, at the convenience of traffic and usually in ten or fifteen minutes. 5. Before July 1945, the plaintiff was not required to and did not keep official records of the days and hours he worked. The immigration service required such records of its inspectors, and the days and hours worked by the plaintiff are ascertained by reference to the immigrant inspector's time records, the assumption being that the plaintiff worked when the immigrant inspector or inspectors were off duty, and that when the two worked on the same day there was usually an overlap of their time. The immigrant inspectors' records are supplemented by the plaintiff's personal record of his own time, kept during the working arrangement with the immigrant inspector. Thereafter, official records were kept of plaintiff's time. 6. Beginning October 1, 1939, and ending with the close of May 1946, the plaintiff's unpaid extra compensation for Sundays and regular holidays (not including wartime holidays), calculated at (1) two times the daily rate of the base salary for eight hours, (2) one-half such daily rate for twohour periods of overtime, and (3) the daily rate for fourhour periods of overtime, is as follows: Unpaid extra compensation calculated at one-half such daily rate for two-hour periods of overtime, and the daily rate for four-hour periods of overtime, is, for weekday serv |