Majority — Miller J.
Syllabus
The deputy-clerk, crier, and messengers of the Supreme Court of the-District of Columbia are not entitled to the twenty per cent additional compensation granted by the joint resolution of Congress'approved Eeb. 28, 1867 (14 Stat. ■ ' 569).delivered the opinion of the court.
Of the appellees, one was a deputy-clerk of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, another was the crier of that court, and two others were messengers. They each sued in the Court of Claims to recover the additional .compensation allowed' to certain employes of the government by the joint resolution, of Congress of Feb. 28, 1867. 14 Stat. 569 .
We concur with'the Court of Claims in the opinion that the resolution does not extend to the officers and.employés of the judicial-department of the government, and though in some instances it may not be easy to say to which department a claimant may belong, we have no difficulty in holding that each of the present claimants belongs to that- department.
The deputy-clerk, Meigs, whose case is the principal one, was appointed by the clerk of the court, and the latter was appointed by the court. ' The deputy served at a salary fixed by contract between him and the clerk. He was also, paid by the clerk, and worked for the clerk, and performed services which it was the duty of the clerk to perform, and for which the clerk received compensation by fees paid by the ■ litigants for whom those services were rendered. It is very difficult to see how this deputy-clerk can be called ■ an employé of the government at all. The government was never liable to him for any salary-at any time, and, if the principal clerk had failed to pay him the $2,000, the government clearly would not have been liable for it. How, then, can it be liable for the additional twenty per cent?
Mulloy, the crier, and‘Taylor and Grimes, the messengers, were employés of the court, — the first appointed by the court and the others by the marshal, to perform services immediately .in connection with the court and its judges; and, if employés of the government at all, they certainly belong to the. judicial department, and not to the executive.
The case of Manning, 18 Wall. 578 , is relied on as covering the case of' the present claimants. Manning was á guard in the jail of the penitentiary of the District of- Columbia- He was- appointed by the warden of the jail, and his compensation fixed by the Secretary of the Interior. Whether the warden of' the’jail, since the office has been disconnected from the marshal’s office, can be held to belong to the- judicial branch of the government, it is not necessary tó decide;, but a decision
The circumstance that in the emolument account of the’clerk the auditor allows him to deduct, from the fees which he would otherwise pay into the treasury; the deputyls compensation, does not make him an employé of the department. ‘ All claims' paid out of the treasury of the United States must be audited by one of its officers, and approved by one of the comptrollers; but their action in allowing or refusing to allow a claim proves nothing as to which of these great constitutional divisions, executive, legislative, or judicial, the claimant belongs.
Judgment reversed, with directions to dismiss the petitions.