Langston v. United States 21 Ct. Cl. 506

JOHN M. LANGSTON v. THE UNITED STATES.

(21 C. Cls. R., 10; 118 U. S. R., 389.)

On the defendants’ Appeal.

Congress fix the salary of the minister to Hayti at ¡$7,500 in 1862, and re-enact the provision by repeating it in the Revised Statutes. The appropriation acts 1882, 1883, 1884, and 1885 appropriate only ¡$5,000 a year, but do not assume to repeal or suspend the existing law, nor prescribe that the money appropriated shall be payment in full.

The court below decides —

(1.) Where an appropriation act contains no legislative intimation that the amount appropriated for the compensation of a public officer whose salary is fixed by law is to be taken in full satisfaction of his service during the period appropriated for, the salary is not reduced and he may recover the balance.

(2.) A naked appropriation of an insufficient sum neither repeals a statute fixing the salary of the office nor precludes the incumbent who accepts it from seeking the balance of his lawful salary.

The decision of the court below is affirmed on the same grounds.