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A79493 1 (1913-08-07)

handle is hein.gao/gaobadadu0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 72 DECTSTONY OF TILE COMPTlOLLER. as to the effect. of the limitation found in the act of December 22, 1911 (37 Stat., 49), on the payment of a share reserved in a settlement made prior to January 1. 1013, where an undisposed-of item of a claim filed by a soldier in 1865 was not disposed of in a settlemenu subsequently made to him. The fPwis in this ease are.as follows: In 1865 George Messick filed a claim in this office for bounty and arrcars of clothqng due hit for service in Company M, Fifth Ohio Cavalry, and in 186, in tlie settlement of said claim, he was allowed $160, the bdance of bounty due him under joint resolution of January 13, 1864, for said service, but no action whatever appears to have been taken on his claim for clothing pay at the tine that settlement was maode. No further action was taken in this case until 1911, when a claim ws filed by one of the soldier's children, in which it was alleged that the soldier also served in Company C, Twenty-fourth Indiana Infantry, and by settlement certificate No. 84356, dated January 10, 1912, there was found due for arrears of pay, bounty, etc., the sum of $199.64, one share of which, or $49.91, was paid to the claimant, and three shares, or $149.73, were reserved for heirs not applying. By settlement certificate No. 86474, dated March 26, 1912, two shares, or $99.82, reserved in the settlement of January 16, 1912, were paid upon applicatins of two other children of the soldier, fled in February, 1912, leaving one share still unpaid for which no application was filed until July 15, 1913. The question to be determined in this case is whether or not the failure of the accounting officers to dispose of one item of a soldier's claim, either by an allowance or disallowance, leaves that claim a pending claim in' this office which may be disposed of in favor of the soldier's heirs <n applications filed in this office after December 31, 1912. In the Comptroller's decision of February 4,1913 (10 Comp., 509), it Is stated that claims pending and undisposed of in this office on December 31, 1912, may be completed and disposed of after that date, and that this oflice is not nuthorized to receive or consider new claims or new items of claims when the original claim has been disposed of. On June 12, 1913, in the ease of Johnson Batzel it was held by the comptroller that a right to arrears of pay, etc., ncquired by a soldier who filed a claim for bounty in 1866, hut which was not disposed of, survives to his.widow or legal heirs and could be completed by filing ap lIca tions subsequent to December 31, 1912. Jn view of the above-cited decisions, I am of the opinion, and so decide, that the filing of a claim by a soldier prior to January 1, 1913, for one or more items supposed to be due him, and where any of said items remain undisposed of on that date, even though a settlement has been made with the soldier for part of the items so claimed, the undisposed-of item or items preserves the right of the soldier's heirs to complete such a claim for all arrears of pay, etc., due the soldier, and that this office is authorized to receive and consider applications filed after December 31, 1912, in such tases, notwithstanding the limitation found in the act of December 22, 1911, supra. The decision of the auditor appears to be correct and is approved. TRAVELING EXPENSES OF EMPLOYEES TRANSFERRED FROM A POSITION AT ONE STATION TO A SIMILAR POSITION AT ANOTHER STATION UNDER A NEW APPOINTMENT. An ewployee at a station who receives a new aIpPOiIjneh.Ut to simihilr liosition ait another station is not entitled to relinurseinent for traveling expeuses Incurred, as the travel involved is not travel from one station to nother under the same oppointient. Decision by Assistant Comptroller Warwick, August 7, 1913: J. B. Harness, clerk, United States land ofice, North Yakima, Wash., appealed August 1, 1913, from the action of the Auditor for the Interior Department in settlement No. 31.653, dated July 24, 1913, in disallowing his claim of $78.03 for reimbursement of traveling ex- penses incurred in connection with his transfer from position as clerk, United States land office, H-Telena, Mont., to like position at United States land office, North Yakima, Wash., in February, 1908, and also in connection with a similar transfer from United States land office, Valentine, Nebr., to United States land office, North Yakima, Wash., in October, 1912. The travel performed was not travel from one station to another under the same appointment. Each transfer was in eifect. i new appointment to a new place requiring the taking of a new oath of office and actual entrance on duty before such clerk was lawfully en- titled to pay at the new place of duty. (See decision of July 21, 1898, 7 MS. Comp. Dec., 110.) And the travel wnas performed in going to accept a new position or appointment. Such travel can not be considered as travel on public business so as to entitle the claimant to reimbursement. of expenses therefor under the act of March 3, 1875 (18 Stat., 452). Traveling expenses are inci- dent to service and the right to reimbursement therefor can properly attach only after he has qualified for the position. So also the travel in question had no official connection with the position he left when going to accept the new position. The action of the auditor is aflirmed. CONSTRUCTION OF EXTENSION TO A PUBLIC BUILDING. Appropriations which provide for and authorize alterations, improvements, and repairs of a public building do not atuthorize the use of said appro- prlation for the constructiou of an extensioli to said building. Comptroller Downey to Secretary of the Treasury, August 7, 1913: In your letter of the 4th instant you present a question for my decision, as follows: Attention is invited to the sundry civil act. approved June 23, 1913, which contains the following item: u Canton, Ohio, post office: For alterations, improvements, and repairs, $20,000.' DECTSIONS OF TBE COMPTIMLLER. 73

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