Before me, the undersigned authority, on this day personally appeared James McConnachie, who being by me duly sworn deposes and says: That in January or February 1938, when he signed and agreed to accept $3,900 as full settlement of his claim for loss and damages to his stucco duplex apartment at 1204 West Twenty-second Street, Austin, Tex., a result of United States Army airplane crash on December 7, 1937, that he was under the impression that the money would be available in a reasonable time and did not anticipate the delays or the necessity of a bill having to be passed by Congress on his behalf. One year ago in January or February 1938, agreement with claim board, Kelly Field, Tex., based on lowest replacement bid, $3,900. April 1938: Extra itemized statement and affidavits from contractions, $26. Approximate loss of rent or use of money since agreement to date, $660. JAMES MCCONNACHIE Subscribed and sworn to before me this the 30th day of March 1939. о T. E. WILEY, Notary Public. 1st Session No. 1182 HARRY BRYAN AND ALDA DUFFIELD MULLINS, AND OTHERS JULY 14, 1939.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed Mr. KENNEDY of Maryland, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 377] The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 377) for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: Strike out all the wording of the bill after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following: That the Act entitled "An Act for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others", approved August 28, 1937, is hereby amended by renumbering section 2 thereof as section 3, and by adding thereto the following section: SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to pay, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, in accordance with such certifications as may be made by the Works Progress Administrator, or his duly authorized representative under this Act, claims for hospital, medical, and other reasonable expenses necessarily incurred by, in behalf, or at the request, of the claimants named in this Act as a result of the explosion that occurred in Gassaway, West Virginia, on November 7, 1936: Provided, That such payments as may be made hereunder shall be deemed to be in full settlement of all claims against the United States and against the claimants named in this Act for said expenses: Provided further, That the total amount that may be paid hereunder by the Secretary of the Treasury in settlement of said claims shall not exceed the sum of $18,000. No claim, or part thereof, for expenses incurred after January 1, 1939, shall be considered, nor shall any claim be considered or paid under the provisions of this Act unless application therefor shall be filed with the Works Progress Administration by or on behalf of the person entitled to payment within six months from the date of approval of this Act. The Works Progress Administrator, or his duly authorized representative, shall determine the amount due on any application, and the person entitled thereto under the provisions of this Act, and shall certify such determinations to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment of the claims, which determination shall be final and conclusive upon the accounting officers of the Government. Amend the title so as to read: "A bill to amend the Act entitled 'An Act for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others'." STATEMENT OF FACTS This proposed legislation, as amended, authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to pay, in accordance with certifications of the Works Progress Administrator, all hospital, medical, and other expenses necessarily incurred by the claimants in Private Act No. 398, Seventyfifth Congress, as a result of the explosion in Gassaway, W. Va., November 7, 1936, in full settlement of claims for such expenses against the United States, and against the claimants named in this act. By the said private act, the Congress awarded approximately $52,925 for payment of 17 claims for personal injuries and death which resulted from negligence of employees of the Government in heating a barrel of tar which exploded and threw its burning contents on claimants, most of whom are children. Liability of the Government was conceded by the Works Progress Administration which, in the handling of the results of this tragic occurrence, has assisted claimants in every possible manner and thoroughly developed all the facts, and damages individually suffered, so that a reasonable settlement could be effected. The burns received by some of the children are the severest yet to come to the attention of your committee. Complete facts regarding the accident itself and the injuries sustained by the claimants may be found by reference to House Report No. 1172, Seventy-fifth Congress, which accompanied the original bill, S. 1640. That bill, as reported and passed in the Senate, carried, in addition to payments for the injuries and death, authorization for payment by the Works Progress Administration of the medical, hospital, and other expenses incurred by claimants, from its own funds. The bil was approved and reported by this committee with said provision in it, but the provision was stricken from the bill upon its consideration in the House of Representatives, August 3, 1937. The Senate disagreed to that amendment and the bill went to conference where the conferees are reported to have agreed on reinstatement of the questioned provision in the bill. Through some inadvertency, the provision was not reinstated and the conference report was agreed to in both Houses and the bill approved by the President, without its inclusion. Your committee is cognizant of the fact that sizable awards were made to claimants by the original bill, some of which exceeded the amounts usually awarded by the Congress. We feel, however, that they were fully justified because the large awards, one was $11,000, went to children who were hopelessly burned and crippled for life, and we believed at the consideration of the original bill that ample justification existed for payment by the Government of the expenses incurred by these people, in addition to the awards for the injuries and death. None of the expenses appear to have been paid as claimants were evidently advised the Government would bear the cost. That cost, in some of the cases, would practically consume the awards made in the original bill. The total of the cost as estimated by the Works Progress Administration investigators is approximately $18,000, and the appropriation called for in this act is to be limited to said amount. As before stated, in the consideration of the original act, both the House and Senate committees plainly agreed on the provision for payment of the expenses, as did the conference committee, and it was only through some error that the bill was not finally submitted for the President's approval with this provision in it. In view of this, your committee recommended a similar bill to the one now in question, in the Seventy-fifth Congress, and it was learned that the objection which caused the amendment in the House removing the provision from the original bill had been overcome and the bill as recommended passed both the House and Senate and was referred to the President for his approval. The President, however, vetoed this measure, submitting the following memorandum of disapproval: I am withholding my approval of H. R. 8515, "An act to amend the act entitled 'An act for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others', approved August 28, 1937." The bill proposes to pay all hospital medical, and other expenses necessarily incurred by claimants named in the act of August 28, 1937. The act of August 28, 1937, provided that the sums contained therein, totaling $52,925, would be in full settlement of all claims against the Government for personal injuries and death caused by the accident which resulted in the filing of said claims. In view of this provision of the act of August 28, 1937, and of my belief that the amounts therein appropriated for the purpose represent adequate compensation in these cases, I do not feel that I would be justified in approving the bill. It is, of course, true that the act of August 28, 1937, provided that the sums contained therein totaling $52,925 were to be accepted in full settlement of all claims against the Government for personal injuries and death caused by the explosion. However, as explained before, the original bill was also meant to carry the provision that the Works Progress Administration be authorized to pay the medical, hospital, and other expenses incurred by the claimants from its own funds. This was agreeable to the Works Progress Administration. Had it been the intention of Congress in the previous act to take care of the expenses through a subsequent act of Congress, instead of to provide for the payment of same in the original act, such intention would have been expressed in the wording of the act. It must be emphasized here again that it was never the intention of either committee of Congress or the conferees to exclude payment of the expenses over and above the amounts allowed for the personal injuries and deaths. At the time of the original consideration of the first relief measure, the total amount of the expenses was so undetermined, due to the uncertain condition of the children at the time, that it was impossible to provide for the payment of same by a direct appropriation at that time, and for that reason the unusual method heretofore described was used. Enough time has now elapsed to permit the Works Progress Administration to estimate the amount of expenses and the present bill limits the amount to be expended under this act to $18,000, and provides that no claim or part thereof for expenses incurred after January 1, 1939, shall be considered, nor shall any claim be considered or paid under the provisions of this act unless application therefor shall be filed with the Works Progress Administration by or on behalf of the person entitled to payment within 6 months from the date of approval of this act. The expenses involved in this act are outstanding against the claimants in the original act and for any part of the money allowed in the original act to have to be expended for these expenses will spoil the intent of the original act where it was felt that the amounts allowed for the extreme pain and suffering of these children and their deaths were as small as could be conscientiously recommended. With this explanation of the facts, it is recommended that the present bill receive the approval of Congress, and it is also felt that the President will not again disapprove, in view of the circumstances as outlined. Appended hereto is the report of the Works Progress Administration, wherein it will be noted that they favor the enactment of the proposed legislation and recommend the form of the bill which has been used. WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION The Honorable AMBROSE J. KENNEDY, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN KENNEDY: Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of March 8, 1939, enclosing copies of H. R. 377, a bill for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others, and requesting a report thereon The bill proposes to amend the act entitled “An act for the relief of Harry Bryan and Alda Duffield Mullins, and others," approved August 28, 1937, by adding at the end thereof the following section: "SEC. 3. That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to pay out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, in accordance with certifications of the Works Progress Administrator, or his duly authorized representative, under this Act, all hospital, medical, and other expenses necessarily incurred by the claimants named in this Act as a result of the explosion in Gassaway, West Virginia, November 7, 1936, and such payments, when made, shall be in full settlement of all claims against the United States for said expenses. No payment shall be made under the provisions of this Act for any of said expenses incurred after January 1, 1939, and application for any of said expenses shall be filed with the Works Progress Administration by or on behalf of the person entitled to payment within six months from the date of approval of this amendatory Act. The Works Progress Administrator, or his duly authorized representative, shall determine the amount due on any application, and the person entitled thereto under the provisions of this Act, and shall certify such determination to the Secretary of the Treasury, which determination shall be final and conclusive upon the accounting officers of the Government. Similar bills, S. 3065 and H. R. 8515, designed to accomplish the same purpose as the proposed legislation, were introduced in the Seventy-fifth Congress, second session. În reporting to you upon H. R. 8515, the Administration, in its letter of February 9, 1938, stated, "This Administration realizes that the payment by the claimants of the hospital, medical, and other expenses would work a great hardship upon them in view of the severity of the burns in certain cases, and, accordingly, would have no objection to, and, therefore, recommends enactment of, such legislation as would provide for payment of such expenses by the Government." (See H. Rept. No. 2120, 75th Cong., wherein the Administration's letter of February 9, 1938, is printed.) Recent investigation discloses that, in most cases, claimants have not paid the expenses incurred as a result of the explosion, in view of the provision contained in section 1 of Private Act No. 398, approved August 28, 1937, that "The sums above appropriated to guardians are for the sole and exclusive benefit of the minors for whom such guardians are appointed." The Administration, believing that reasonable expenses necessarily resulting from the explosion should be paid, therefore recommends that the proposed legislation be enacted. The attention of your committee, however, is invited to the fact that, although H. R. 8515 was passed by both the Senate and the House of Representatives, it was vetoed by the President on June 25, 1938 (Congressional Record, July 5, 1938, p. 13383). Claims already presented to this Administration for expenses incurred up to January 1, 1939, amount to approximately $25,000. However, analysis and consideration of these claims leads to the conclusion that settlement thereof would be in the approximate sum of $18,000, and it is suggested that the bill be amended |