ACTIVE DUTY PAY. See Military Pay.
ADMINISTRATIVE CONSTRUCTION. See Statutes-Construction and
CAREER COMPENSATION ACT. See Military Pay.
CARRIERS. See also Constitutional Law.
CARRIAGE OF GOODS.
Applicable tariff.
Interpretation and construction of tariff.
Where the language on a bill of lading applicable to transportation of goods by motor carrier is ambiguous, the court will interpret it in the light of the circumstances and the actions of the parties to the contract of carriage. Benton Rapid Express, 360.
Substantial compliance with conditions of tariff.
Where the carrier offered the Government export rates on Gov- ernment traffic to Pacific coast ports for export and the Government complied with all the conditions entitling it to the lower export rate except for the furnishing of a certificate to the carrier certi- fying that the traffic was loaded for a port within the destination area covered by the Export Tariff, there has been substantial compliance with the conditions and the Government is entitled to the lower export rate. Union Pacific Railroad Co., 619. Carriers 192
CARRIERS-Continued
CARRIAGE OF GOODS-Continued
Warsaw Convention.
Limitation of actions.
Article 29 of the Warsaw Convention (49 Stat. Part 2, 3000) pro- vides that the right of a shipper to sue for damages is extinguished if action is not brought within two years. Where the Government- shipper did not bring suit within the two years specified, it may not, after the expiration of the two years, assert its claim by way of set-off or counterclaim in an action brought by the plaintiff for unpaid transportation charges, even though within the two-year period the Government recouped its losses by unilaterally withhold- ing the amount claimed due it from other moneys owing to the plaintiff, such withholding not serving to toll the two-year statute of limitations. Flying Tiger Line, 1.
Limitation of Actions 41, 104%
Limitation of liability.
Article 9 of the Warsaw Convention (49 Stat. Part 2, 3000) provides that if a carrier accepts goods without requiring an air waybill from the shipper containing, inter alia, a statement that liability is limited, i.e., notice of the waiver of the ordinary rules of liability, the carrier cannot avail itself of the limitation of liability provided for in the Convention. Where the plaintiff-carrier failed to require the Government shipper to make out an air waybill, plaintiff is precluded from availing itself of the limitations on liability provi- sion of the Convention. The requirement that the carrier give the shipper notice of the waiver of the ordinary rules of liability is not satisfied by a reference in the Charter Agreement to a second document (the applicable tariff) which in turn referred to a third document (official rules), which third document contained a state- ment that the carrier's liability was subject to the limitations of the Warsaw Convention. Flying Tiger Line, 1.
CIVILIAN PAY.
ADMINISTRATIVE REMEDIES.
Failure to exhaust.
Where a departmental appeal or some other administrative remedy is provided, failure to pursue such appeal or remedy will usually serve as a bar to recovery in a suit brought in the Court of Claims. Adler, et al. v. United States, 134 C. Cls. 200, cert. denied 352 U.S. 894; Majesic v. United States, 137 C. Cls. 188, cert. denied 355 U.S. 826. Kooy, 31.
Appeal to Civil Service Commission.
Review of agency action-scope of.
Where a Government employee appeals his discharge for insubordi- nation to the Civil Service Commission and the insubordination of which the employee was found guilty by the employing agency was his refusal to obey an order of reassignment, which he claimed was motivated by purely political considerations rather than for the good of the Government service, it was the duty of the Civil Service Commission to decide the issue of whether such reassignment was for political purposes even though plaintiff refused to accept the assignment. If the order of reassignment was prompted by political considerations it was unlawful and did not have to be obeyed and in that event the plaintiff's refusal to obey it was not insubordination and his dismissal was unlawful. Schmidt, 632.
Insubordination-what constitutes.
The refusal by a Government employee to obey an unlawful order of his employing agency does not amount to insubordination which will support a discharge. Schmidt, 632.
United States 36
Regulation of executive department.
Administrative interpretation of.
Where a Treasury Department regulation providing for disciplinary action against employees who “without just cause persistently refuse or habitually neglect to pay personal and family debts" has been interpreted by the Department as applying only to situations where there have been frequent complaints against an employee by his creditors, a departmental letter of charges and a dismissal decision referring to a single unpaid debt of the employee is insufficient to support the dismissal under the regulation of the Treasury Depart- ment. McGuire, 17.
Failure of Government to comply with.
Where a Government employee who fails to report interest income in his income tax returns is thereafter dismissed for suitability reasons but his removal is effected under departmental regulations pertaining to security procedures, the section in such regulations entitled "Suitability Decisions" takes coloring from its surroundings and implies suitability from the standpoint of security rather than suitability from the standpoint of a failure to report interest income. The employee's removal under regulations not applicable to his situation violated the regulations of the Internal Revenue Service
Regulation of executive department-Continued
and was prejudicial to the employee in that it deprived the Regional Commissioner of an opportunity, which he would have had if the proper regulations had been followed, to exercise his broad discre- tion as to the kind of disciplinary action to be taken. Starzec, 25. Internal Revenue 1221
Where plaintiff is dismissed from his civilian Government position in violation of a valid Treasury Department regulation issued pur- suant to section 161 of the Revised Statutes, and he is not thereafter reinstated, the limitations on the recovery of back pay imposed by section 6(b)(1) of the 1948 amendment to the Lloyd-La Follette Act (62 Stat. 354, 355) are not applicable and the plaintiff is entitled to recover any in-grade and statutory increases which he would have earned during the period of removal, plus payment for any annual leave he would have earned during that period, less his outside earnings. Crocker v. United States, 130 C. Cls. 567 ; Hynning v. United States, 141 C. Cls. 486. McGuire, 17. United States 39 (8)
Tardy compliance with by Government.
Where a statement of charges and a dismissal decision of an em- ploying agency is insufficient under the regulations of the agency or department because both referred to only one instance of failure to pay personal debts, whereas the regulation referred to frequent or persistent failure to pay debts as a cause for removal, the dis- missal is illegal and a later attempt by the employing agency to cure these defects by notifying the employee that his discharge had actually been based upon other instances of his failure to pay per- sonal debts will not serve to cure the illegality of the dismissal. McGuire, 17.
United States 36
Reinstatement.
Right to administrative payment of back pay.
Where a Government employee is dismissed and later reinstated on the ground that his dismissal was unjustified and unwarranted, he is entitled to the administrative payment of back pay lost under section 6(b)(1) of the 1948 amendment to the Lloyd-La Follette Act (62 Stat. 354). But where his reinstatement is not on the ground that his dismissal was unjustified and unwarranted but rather because the employee's long unblemished Government service prior to his proper removal justified his reinstatement, he is not entitled to the administrative payment of the lost pay under the 1948 amendment to the Lloyd-La Follette Act. Kooy, 31. United States
CIVILIAN PAY-Continued
DISMISSAL-Continued
Reinstatement-Continued
Right to back pay following reinstatement.
Where removal of plaintiff for inefficiency was set aside by the Board of Appeals and Review of the Civil Service Commission on the ground that the removal action was procedurally defective, the plaintiff is entitled to recover for loss of pay from the time of the removal until his subsequent reinstatement, the recovery to be limited to the amount allowed under the terms of the 1948 amend- ment (62 Stat. 354) to the Lloyd-La Follette Act (5 U.S.C. (1952) § 652 (b) (2)). Mayer, 181.
A member of the classified civil service transferred to an excepted position under the Mutual Security Act of 1954, 68 Stat. 832, is entitled to the benefits of section 528 of the Foreign Service Act, 60 Stat. 999, 1010, requiring his reinstatement in the Government agency by which he had been regularly employed; and where such member is arbitrarily discharged from his excepted position, he has been deprived of his right to reinstatement under the Mutual Security Act, giving rise to a claim over which this court has jurisdiction as a claim arising under an act of Congress. man v. United States, 144 C. Cls. 692. Clark, 374. Courts 449(1)
Where a statute (Foreign Service Act of 1946, 60 Stat. 999) confers upon "participants" the right to include prior military service in the computation of their retired pay and then defines "participants" as Foreign Service officers who were contributing to the retirement system on the effective date of the act, persons already retired on such date were not intended to have the benefit of such additional credit. Fox, 186.
An order of reassignment motivated by purely political reasons is not lawful because it is violative of the Civil Service Act of 1883, 22 Stat. 403, 407. Schmidt, 632.
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