It will be observed that whatever services were performed by clerks in
the way of writing down testimony, and paid for by the beneficiaries,
were performed and paid for after July, 1877, and after they had in
effect received notice that such employment and payment would not be
approved by the Government.
Upon this statement the claim covered by the Dill can hardly be urged on
legal grounds, whatever the Government may have allowed prior to such
notice.
I am decidedly of the opinion that the relations, the duties, and the
obligations of subordinates in public employment should be clearly
defined and strictly limited. They should not be permitted to judge of
the propriety or necessity of incurring expenses on behalf of the
Government without authority, much less in disregard of orders. And yet
there are cases when in an emergency money is paid for the benefit of
the public service by an official which, though not strictly authorized,
ought in equity to be reimbursed.
If there is any equity existing in favor of the beneficiaries named in
the bill herewith returned, it is found in the fact that during the
nineteen months from the 1st day of July, 1877, to the 1st day of
February, 1879, they paid out certain moneys for which the Government,
in the receipt of the fees which they paid over, received the benefit.
Manifestly such equity in this case, if it can be claimed at all in view
of the facts recited, is measured by the sum actually paid by these
officials to the persons, if such there were, who did the work from
which the fees arose which were paid over to the Government.
Pages:
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946