Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

nationality and a member of the crew, was certified to be afflicted with a loathsome and contagious disease.

Under existing law, the owner of a vessel arriving from a foreign port is required to pay all expenses for treatment and burial in event of death of a seaman afflicted with such a disease. It is also provided that a vessel shall be denied clearance unless such expenses are paid or appropriately guaranteed (U. S. C., title 8, secs. 169-171).

Since no adequate hospital facilities were available at San Diego, the officers of the steamship Luckenbach were instructed to place the seaman in the Seaside Hospital at Long Beach, Calif., when the vessel arrived at San Pedro. These instructions were complied with. Bills were sent to the claimant from time to time for payment of the hospital expenses but no payment was made until March 19, 1941, when the claimant, under protest, in order to obtain a clearance for the vessel, paid the sum sought to be recovered.

The seaman was hospitalized upon the instructions of the Immigration Service, and the claimant assumed that the expenses thereof would be borne by the United States Public Health Service, it being the position of the claimant that the ship was not arriving from a foreign port, the nature of her transit of the Panama Canal not interrupting the continuity of her domestic voyage. In other words, the contention of the claimant is that at the time the vessel arrived at San Diego, it was not a vessel arriving from a foreign port since it stopped at the Canal Zone port merely to discharge a seaman for hospitalization.

The Immigration Service took the contrary position, claiming that the vessel's transit of the Panama Canal changed the voyage of the vessel from a domestic to a foreign one, and that thus the vessel was arriving from a foreign port when it reached San Diego.

As stated, in order to obtain clearance, the claimant paid the expenses of hospitalization, and also of burial, since the seaman subsequently died. Payment was made under protest. The total of expenses is $1,577.74, and receipts showing payment thereof by the claimant are on file with your committee.

Your committee feel that the vessel's transit of the Panama Canal, and its momentary pause in the Canal Zone to discharge a seaman for hospitalization, did not change the character of the voyage from domestic to foreign, but that the voyage was a continuing domestic one, and that the ship was not one arriving from a foreign port when it reached San Diego. They further feel that the voyage being a domestic one, the claimant was under no obligation to pay the expenses in question, but that they should have been borne by the United States Public Health Service.

Your committee, therefore, recommend favorable consideration of the proposed legislation. Appended hereto is the report of the Attorney General, together with other ertinent evidence, all of which is made a part of this report.

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY General,
Washington, D. C., April 2, 1943.

Hon. DAN R. McGEHEE,
Chairman, Committee on Claims,

House of Representatives, Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This acknowledges your letter of February 18, 1943, requesting my views relative to a bill (H. R. 1890) to provide for the payment to the Luckenbach Steamship Co., Inc., of the sum of $1,577.74, said to have been expended by that company on the allegedly erroneous instructions of the Immigration Service in connection with the hospitalization and death of one John Marcusson.

It appears from the files of the Immigration and Naturalization Service of this Department that the steamship Dorothy Luckenbach, owned by the claimant, left New York about August 16, 1940, and proceeded to San Diego, Calif., via the Panama Canal. It stopped at a Canal Zone port to discharge a seaman for hospitalization and arrived in San Diego on September 4, 1940. Upon examination by the United States Public Health Service, John Marcusson, an alien of Norwegian nationality and a member of the crew, was certified to be afflicted with a loathsome and contagious disease.

Under existing law, the owner of a vessel arriving from a foreign port is required to pay all expenses for treatment and burial in event of death of a seaman afflicted with such a disease. It is also provided that a vessel shall be denied clearance

unless such expenses are paid or appropriately guaranteed (U. S. C., title 8, secs. 169–171).

Since no adequate hospital facilities were available at San Diego, the officers of the steamship Dorothy Luckenbach were instructed to place the seaman in the Seaside Hospital at Long Beach, Calif., when the vessel arrived at San Pedro. These instructions were complied with. Bills were sent to the claimant from time to time for payment of the hospital expenses, but no payment was made until March 19, 1941, when the claimant, under protest, in order to obtain a clearance for the vessel paid the sum sought to be recovered in the bill under consideration.

It appears to be the position of the claimant that it was not liable for this amount because at the time the vessel arrived at San Diego, it was not a vessel arriving from a foreign port since it stopped at the Canal Zone, port merely to discharge a seaman for hospitalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Service took the contrary position. The claimant has not pursued the judicial remedies which are available to it and no reason appears discernible why relief should be extended to it by legislative action. If the claimant is entitled to a refund of the money, it may be assumed that the courts will so hold. On the other hand, if the Immigration and Naturalization Service was right as a matter of law in requiring the claimant to make these payments, no reason appears discernable for relieving it of liability.

In view of the foregoing considerations, I am unable to recommend the enactment of the bill.

I have been informed by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget that there is no objection to the submission of this report.

Sincerely yours,

FRANCIS BIDDLE,
Attorney General.

MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF A BILL FOR THE RELIEF OF LUCKENBACH

STEAMSHIP Co., INC.

John Marcusson, a native of Norway, signed on at New York as a member of the crew of the Dorothy Luckenbach on August 16, 1940.

The vessel was in the intercoastal trade and stopped at the Canal Zone to discharge for hospitalization a sick oiler, C. P. Dailey. No cargo was loaded or discharged at the Canal, and no one was signed on to take Dailey's place. No other business was transacted.

Upon arrival at San Pedro on September 4, 1940, the alien was found by the immigration officials to be afflicted with gonorrhea and ordered hospitalized. Under date of October 18, 1940, the steamship company was notified the alien had been released as cured and was ordered to remove him from the United States.

An attempt was made to sign the alien on the steamship Harry Luckenbach to bring him to New York, but he was found to be too weak to even walk from the ship's hospital to the messroom for his meals. It was decided that it would be dangerous to take him through the tropics so he was returned to the immigration station.

He, on November 5, 1940, was certified as being afflicted with insanity and as needing institutional care. He was confined in the Compton Sanitarium or the California State Hospital until his death.

Upon the instructions of the Immigration Service the Luckenbach Steamship Co., Inc., paid all his expenses until his death upon the assumption that the vessel was arriving from à foreign port, whereas the nature of her transit of the Panama Canal did not interrupt the continuity of her domestic voyage, and the seaman should have been cared for by the United States Public Health Service. The Department of Justice did not decide the case until after the death of the seaman, and it does not have authority to refund the amounts paid in error, as will be noted from the attached letter.

Hence, the necessity of the relief legislation.
Supporting vouchers are attached.
Respectfully submitted.

LUCKENBACH STEAMSHIP Co., INC. By IRA L. EWERS, Attorney.

Expenses incurred by Luckenbach Steamship Co., Inc., on account of John Marcusson

[blocks in formation]

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,
IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE,
Philadelphia, December 26, 1942.

Re John Marcusson, alien seaman, ex-Steamship Dorothy Luckenbach.
Mr. IRA L. EWERS,

Washington, D. C.

SIR: Further reference is made to your petition that the owners of the above named vessel be released from further liability for hospital expenses in the case of this alien and that the sums heretofore paid for such hospital expenses be refunded.

Since we wrote to you on October 2, 1942, a report has been received from the Los Angeles office of this Service to the effect that this alien died at the Norwalk State Hospital, Norwalk, Calif., on July 29, 1942.

Regarding the request contained in your petition that the moneys which have heretofore been paid by the owners of the vessel in connection with this case be refunded to them, it is necessary to advise that this Service is without authority to take such action.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

FEBRUARY 9, 1945.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered to be printed

Mr. FERNANDEZ, from the Committee on Claims, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 1550]

The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 1550) for the relief of E. Sullivan, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill

as amended do pass.

The amendment is as follows: At the end of bill add:

: Provided, That no part of the amount appropriated in this Act in excess of attorney on account of services rendered in connection with this claim, and the same shall be unlawful, any contract to the contrary notwithstanding. Any person violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $1,000.

The facts will be found fully set forth in House Report No. 1138, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, which is appended hereto and made a part of this report.

The

(H. Rept. No. 1138, 78th Cong., 2d sess.]

purpose of the proposed legislation is to appropriate the sum of $1,613.25 to E. Sullivan, colonel, Air Corps, Army of the United States, such sum repre

senting stoppage in his pay on account of the embezzlement by E. J. Barricklow, a civilian employee, of public funds for which E. Sullivan was held accountable as agent finance officer at Kelly Field, Tex., from June 1927 to June 1928.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

It appears that because of irregularities, neglects, and frauds in quartermaster activities at Kelly Field, Tex., extending over the period June 1924 to June 1928 there occurred a shortage in appropriated and other funds amounting to more than $9,000. Of this amount, $1,613.25 was assessed against Captain Sullivan (now colonel), as agent finance officer. An investigation was immediately started upon discovery of the irregularities, and agents of the Department of Justice and of the Secret Service, Treasury Department, and the inspectors of the Army collaborated. It was found that for a period of some 2 years the civilian employee had been preparing false short-form rolls, bearing fictitious names of one to five alleged employees to which rolls he forged the name of the quartermaster as certifying officer, and also forged the names of the fictitious employees. Some of these fraudulent rolls were submitted to the local agent finance officer, accompanied by forged hand receipt of the quartermaster. The civilian employee through this procedure obtained the money in cash and misappropriated it to his own use and benefit.

Special attention is called to the fact that the report of the inspector which was concurred in by the corps area commander, was to the effect that there was no carelessness or negligence on the part of the several agent officers in making cash payments of the sums charged against them and that "they took every precaution required of them." This finding, based on the careful investigation of the corps area authorities, was overruled by the War Department, and it was held that these men were responsible, including E. Sullivan.

The committee has been favorably impressed by the findings and the reasoning of the commanding general and the inspector general of the Eighth Corps Area at the time of this incident, which findings found Sullivan in no way responsible for this misappropriation of funds. The commanding general had a second investigation made of the matter, with a view to determining insofar as practicable the exact procedure followed by Sullivan and the other officers involved in connection with cash payment for civilian employees on short pay rolls and particularly the character and extent of the measures adopted by these officers to insure the delivery, to the persons to whom payable, of these funds.

Among his conclusions reached through this second investigation, the following are cited: (a) That until very recently it has been the practice for some time at Kelly Field for the money for the payment of civilian employees, on both longand short-form pay rolls, to be turned over by the agent finance officers to the quartermaster or to his representative for actual payment to the civilians concerned; (b) that this practice was based upon the representations of the quartermaster, Lt. I. D. Van Meter, that such practice was necessary, in-view of local conditions, in order to pay this personnel without undue loss of time; (c) that this practice conformed in general to the procedure prescribed by the commanding officer, Kelly Field, Tex., for the payment of the enlisted men of the organizations and detachments at that post; (d) that the agent finance officers, Captain Wright Lieutenant Kuhn, and Lieutenant Sullivan, personally supervised every voucher paid by them; (e) that it was the general practice of Lieutenant Sullivan either to secure the personal approval of Lt. I. D. Van Meter before turning money over to Barricklow or later to check with Lieutenant Van Meter personally any such payments to Mr. Barricklow or to do both: (ƒ) that the preponderance of evidence is that Captain Wright, Lieutenant Kuhn, and Lieutenant Sullivan, in turning funds for the payment of civilian employees over to the quartermaster, Lt. I. D. Van Meter, another commissioned officer, or in turning such funds over to Mr. Barricklow under the conditions set forth above, did adopt reasonable and proper measures to insure the delivery of the funds involved to the persons to whom payable.

Therefore, your committee recommends favorable consideration to the proposed legislation. Appended hereto is the report of the War Department, together with other pertinent evidence.

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »