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gation shall be undertaken as soon as practicable. The Commission shall report the results of its investigation to the two Governments and shall make recommendations as to the regulation of the halibut fishery of the North Pacific Ocean, including the Bering Sea, which may seem to be desirable for its preservation and development."

The Convention contains no reference to any employees. The "Director of Investigations," apparently selected by the Commission, has furnished the following information: "Employees are appointed by the Commission as a unit acting through the chairman and the director of investigations. It is understood but not required that in so far as possible the employees of the Commission shall be in equal numbers Canadian and United States nationals if such are available for the particular duties required.

"The salary of all employees is determined on and approved by the International Fisheries Commission and is paid in total by the Department of Marine and Fisheries in Canada. The vouchers covering these payments are forwarded to the United States. Canada is thereupon reimbursed for the United States share as paid by Canada.

"Each country has made appropriations to cover these expenses which are joint in nature and so indicated by the terms of the treaty."

The Federal Employees' Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, was passed before the International Fisheries Commission was created, or provided for. I find nothing in the Compensation Act indicating that it was intended to apply to employees of such a commission. Their salaries are paid in the first instance by a department of the Dominion of Canada, and they are subject to the control of British commissioners to as great an extent as to the control of the commissioners appointed by the United States. In my opinion they are not "civil employees of the United States " within the meaning of the Act. My conclusion is fortified by the fact that section 24 provides that immediately after injury to an employee "his immediate superior shall make a report to the commission containing such information as the commission may require." The "immediate superior" in control of the employee who would be required to make the report required by section 24, if the Act is applicable,

would be the commission, half of the members of which are British. I do not believe that Congress intended to subject such a commission to this requirement.

It is my opinion, therefore, that the question asked should be answered in the negative.

Respectfully,

To the PRESIDENT.

WILLIAM D. MITCHELL.

AVAILABILITY OF UNCOLLECTED $60 BONUS TO PREVENT
LAPSE OF WAR-RISK INSURANCE

A check for the sixty-dollar bonus provided by section 1406 of the
Revenue Act of 1918 (40 Stat. 1151) was mailed to an honorably
discharged veteran of the World War on April 21, 1919, and was
received by him while he was on his deathbed and unable to
collect or negotiate it. He died April 26, 1919, and thereafter
the check was paid to his widow, upon her indorsement. Held,
under such circumstances, that the mailing of the check and its
receipt by the payee did not constitute payment; that the amount
thereof was uncollected at the time of payee's death and was
therefore available to prevent lapse of his war-risk insurance under
section 309 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended;
and that this was unaffected by the subsequent payment of the
bonus to the widow of the payee.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
December 4, 1929.

SIR: I have the honor to refer to your letter of July 30, 1929, requesting my opinion upon the question hereinafter indicated.

A check for the sixty-dollar bonus provided by section 1406 of the Act of February 24, 1919, c. 18, 40 Stat. 1057, 1151, was mailed to Harry Ed. Luxenberger, an honorably discharged veteran of the World War, on April 21, 1919, and was received by him while he was on his deathbed and unable to negotiate it. He died April 26, 1919, and thereafter the check was paid to his widow, upon her indorsement. The question now arises whether it may be considered that the amount represented by this check remained uncollected at the time of the veteran's death and was therefore available to prevent lapse of his war risk insurance in accordance with the following section, which was added to

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the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, by the Act of July 2, 1926, c. 723, 44 Stat. 790, 800 (U. S. C. Title 38, sec. 516b). "SEC. 309. Where any person allowed his insurance to lapse and died after February 24, 1919, and prior to collecting the $60 bonus provided by the Act of February 24, 1919 (Fortieth Statutes at Large, page 1151), then and in that event his insurance shall not be considered as lapsed during such period as said uncollected bonus would, if applied to the payment of premiums when due, equal or exceed the same, and the United States Veterans' Bureau is hereby authorized and directed to pay to his beneficiaries under said policy the amount of said insurance, less the premiums and interest thereon at 5 per centum per annum, compounded annually, in installments, as provided by law."

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Section 1406 of the Act of February 24, 1919, specifically provided that, "this amount shall not be paid the heirs or legal representatives of any person entitled to any payment under this section who has died or may die before receiving such payment."

Ruling upon what constitutes payment, within the meaning of the latter section, the Auditor for the War Department on May 12, 1919, declared: "It appears that the actual issuance of a negotiable instrument and its deposit in the mail does not enter into the question but that in order to constitute payment it is necessary that the instrument be received by the payee." His decision (not reported) was approved by the Comptroller of the Treasury, May 30, 1919, without discussion.

The Auditor did not expressly say that mere receipt of a check by the payee would constitute payment. His words, however, were so interpreted, and the rule supposed to have been announced by him was followed in a number of similar cases. The instant case was one of them.

Upon recommendation of the Zone Finance Officer, concurred in by the Auditor for the War Department, the check which had been mailed to Mr. Luxenberger was noted, over the signature of the Chief of Division of Public Moneys"This check may be paid in the usual manner on the indorsement of Mrs. H. E. Luxenberger, widow of the payee." The check, so indorsed, was paid July 14, 1919.

Later the precise question was considered by the Comptroller of the Treasury in another case, and, on June 15, 1920 (26 Comp. Dec. 1038, 1039), he advised the Secretary of the Navy as follows:

"In connection with allotments of Army pay this office has held that an amount represented by a check issued in payment of such allotment to an allottee who died before. collecting or negotiating the check does not become part of the allottee's estate, without regard to whether the check had been received by the allottee, or had been indorsed by the allottee, or not. 26 Comp. Dec., 855.

The same principle applies to checks issued in payment of the bonus referred to in your letter. Accordingly the amount of this bonus does not become assets of decedent's estate to be disposed of by the administrator."

It appears that the rule thus stated by the Comptroller of the Treasury has since been followed, and the conclusion is in harmony with that of Attorney General Garland, that "the sending of a check to a pensioner, which has been indorsed by him but not transferred in his lifetime, is not a payment 'so completed that the amount due by way of pension becomes assets"" in the estate of the decedent. Op. 1, 5.

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It is my opinion that the mailing of the check and its receipt by the payee, under the circumstances hereinbefore set forth, did not constitute payment; that the amount thereof was uncollected at the time of the payee's death and therefore available to prevent lapse of his insurance under section 309, World War Veterans' Act 1924, as amended; and that this was unaffected by the subsequent payment of the bonus to the widow of the payee.

Respectfully,

WILLIAM D. MITCHELL.

TO DIRECTOR, UNITED STATES VETERANS' BUREAU.

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BRANCHES FOR STATE BANKS CONVERTED INTO, AND CONSOLIDATED WITH, NATIONAL BANKS

Where a State bank, operating in a city of slightly under one hundred thousand population and having three branches, two of which were established prior to the passage of the Act of February 25, 1927 (44 Stat. 1224), is converted into a national bank, the converted bank may retain only the two branches established by the State bank prior to February 25, 1927, and may, with the consent and approval of the Comptroller of the Currency, establish two new branches within the limits of the city of its location, provided the law of the State permits the establishment of branches by State banks.

Where a State bank, operating in a city having a population of slightly less than one hundred thousand and having two branches in lawful operation prior to the approval of the Act of February 25, 1927, supra, is consolidated with a national bank having two branches authorized by the Comptroller of the Currency pursuant to the provisions of the said Act of February 25, 1927, the consolidated bank may retain only the two branches established by the State prior to February 25, 1927, and, after the consolidation, it may, with the consent and approval of the Comptroller of the Currency, establish not more than two additional branches within the limits of the city where said bank is located, provided the law of the State permits the establishment of branches by State banks.

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

December 23, 1929.

SIR: I have the honor to reply to your letter of August 6, 1929, wherein you state that the Comptroller of the Currency has before him the application of a State bank, operating in a town of slightly under one hundred thousand population, to convert into a national bank, and that said State bank is now operating three branches, one of which was established subsequent to the passage of the Act of February 25, 1927, known as the "McFadden Act." You request to be advised (a) whether the branch established subsequent to February 25, 1927, must be discontinued upon conversion of the State bank into a national bank; and (b) whether the Comptroller of the Currency is authorized, after conversion of the State bank, to grant two new branches to the national bank established by such conversion, such new branches being in addition to those retained upon conversion.

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