The pension which widows are entitled to receive under the
provision of Rev.Stat. § 4702 is the pension for total disability
which is granted to those entitled to receive it by Rev.Stat. §
4695.
This was an appeal from the Court of Claims. The facts are
stated in the opinion of the court.
By an act of Congress of March 3, 1879, 20 Stat. 665, c. 290,
the Secretary of the Interior was directed to place on the pension
roll the name of Ward B. Burnett, and pay him a pension of $50 per
month in lieu of the pension then received by
Page 116 U. S. 159
him. The subsequent Act of June 16, 1880, 21 Stat. 281, c. 236,
provides that all soldiers then receiving a pension of $50 per
month under the provisions of the Act of June 18, 1874, entitled
"An act to increase the pension of soldiers and sailors who have
been totally disabled," 18 Stat. 78, c. 298, shall receive in lieu
of all pensions then paid to them by the United States, the sum of
$72 per month; those whose pensions were thus increased from $50 to
$72 per month to receive the difference between those sums monthly,
from June 17, 1878, to the date when that act took effect.
On the 17th of July, 1882, Gen. Burnett received from the
Department of the Interior a certificate showing that he was
entitled to a pension "for gunshot wounds of left leg and
rheumatism," at the rate of $30 per month, to commence on the first
at August, 1848, and $31.25 per month from June 4, 1872, and $50
per month from June 4, 1874, and $72 per month from June 17,
1878.
By an act approved July 25, 1882, 22 Stat. 174, 176, it is
provided that no person then receiving or who should thereafter
receive a pension under a special act shall receive in addition
thereto a pension under the general law unless the special act
expressly states that the pension granted thereby is in addition to
the pension which such person is entitled to receive under the
general law.
Gen. Burnett died on June 24, 1884, from the effect of wounds
received in the war with Mexico. The appellant, his widow, claims
the same pension -- $72 per month -- that the husband was receiving
at his death. The Interior Department granted her a certificate for
a pension at the rate of only $30 per month, to continue from June
24, 1884, during her widowhood. Her claim for a larger pension
having been denied, the matter was referred by the department to
the Court of Claims. The claimant, in her petition in that court,
asked for judgment against the United States for $210, that being
the difference between $30 per month and $72 per month from the
date of her husband's death to the commencement of this action. A
demurrer by the government to the petition having been sustained,
the case has been brought to this Court.
Page 116 U. S. 160
MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, after stating the facts in the foregoing
language, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The only question presented by the parties for our consideration
is whether, under existing statutes, the widow of Gen. Burnett is
entitled to the same pension that he was receiving at his
death.
Section 4692 of the Revised Statutes provides that
"Every person specified in the several classes enumerated in
section 4693 who has been, since the fourth day of March, eighteen
hundred and sixty-one or who is hereafter disabled under the
conditions therein stated shall . . . be placed on the list of
invalid pensioners of the United States, and be entitled to receive
for a total disability, or a permanent specific disability, such
pension as is hereafter provided in such cases, and for an inferior
disability, except in cases of permanent specific disability for
which the rate of pension is expressly provided, an amount
proportionate to that provided for total disability, and such
pension shall commence as hereinafter provided and continue during
the existence of the disability."
Section 4693 specifies who shall be beneficiaries under the
preceding section, among whom is
"any officer of the army, including regulars, volunteers, or
militia . . . , disabled by reason of any would or injury received,
or disease contracted while in the service of the United States and
in the line of duty."
Section 4695 provides that "The pension for total disability
shall be, . . . for lieutenant colonels and officers of higher rank
in the military service, . . . thirty dollars per month." Other
sections fix the amount of pensions in cases of disabilities known
as permanent specific disability and inferior disability. It is
then provided, by section 4702, that
"If any person embraced within the provisions of sections
forty-six hundred and ninety-two and forty-six hundred and
ninety-three has died since the fourth day of March, eighteen
hundred and sixty-one or hereafter dies by reason of any wound,
injury, or disease, which, under the conditions and limitations of
such sections would have entitled him to an invalid pension had he
been disabled, his widow . . . shall be entitled to receive the
same pension as the husband or father would have been entitled
to
Page 116 U. S. 161
had he been totally disabled, to commence from the death of the
husband or father, to continue to the widow during her
widowhood,"
&c.
It would seem to be too clear for discussion that the
construction which the court placed upon these statutory provisions
is correct. It is not to be doubted that the words "total
disability" in the pension laws have a technical signification
which cannot be disregarded. And when the statute fixes $30 per
month as the pension, in case of total disability, of an officer of
the rank of Gen. Burnett, and declares that his widow shall receive
the same pension as her husband would have received had he been
"totally disabled," there is no room left for a construction that
would give her a pension in excess of that amount. If it is
supposed that the law operates unjustly against the officers and
soldiers who became "totally disabled" in the service, or that an
unreasonable distinction is made between different kinds of
disability, the remedy is with another department of the
government. The courts must give effect to the intention of
Congress as manifested by the statute. They cannot make, but can
only declare, the law.
The judgment is
Affirmed.
