United States to final judgment. And if such debt is not already in suit, it shall be the duty of the Secretary to cause legal proceedings to be immediately commenced to enforce the same, and to cause the same to be prosecuted to final judgment with all reasonable dispatch. And if in such action judgment shall be rendered against the United States, or the amount recovered for debt and costs shall be less than the amounts so withheld as before provided, the balance shall then be paid over to such plaintiff by such Secretary, with six per cent interest thereon for the time it has been withheld from the plaintiff.1 Act of Mar. 3, 1875 (18 Stat. 481).

240. Assignments of claims-Powers of attorneys. - All transfers and assignments made of any claim upon the United States, or of any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities for receiving payment of any such claim, or of any part or share thereof, shall be absolutely null and void, unless they are freely made and executed in the presence of at least two attesting witnesses, after the allowance of such a claim, the ascertainment of the amount due, and the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof. Such transfers, assignments, and powers of attorney must recite the warrant for payment, and must be acknowledged by the person making them, before an officer having authority to take acknowledgments of deeds, and shall be certified by the officer; and it must appear by the certificate that the officer, at the time of the acknowledgment, read and fully explained the transfer, assignment, or warrant of attorney to the person acknowledging the same. Sec. 3477, R. S.

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Set-off. When a person is both debtor and creditor of the United States, in any form, the officers of the Treasury Department in settling the accounts not only have the power, but are required, in the proper discharge of their duties, to set off the one indebtedness against the other, and to allow and certify for payment only the balance found due on one side or the other. The right of set-off in such cases exists independently of these enactments (sec. 1766, Rev. Stat., and the act of March 3, 1875; 1 Sup. to Rev. Stat. 185), and is founded upon what is now section 236 of the Revised Statutes. (Taggart v. U. S., 17 Ct. Cls., 322, 327; McKnight's Case, 13 id., 292; Bonnafon's Case, 14 id., 489; Howes v. U. S., 24 id., 170; Reeside v. Walker, 11 How., 272, 290.) The power in the matter of set-offs conferred upon the Secretary of the Treasury by the act of March 3, 1875 (18 Stat. 481), is exclusive, and can not be exercised by the courts. (U. S. v. Griswold, 30 Fed. Rep., 604.)

*The accounting officers of the Treasury will not approve powers of attorney to demand and receive moneys due upon claims against the United States when such powers are not executed in accordance with the provisions of section 3477 of the Revised Statutes. (1 Comp. Dec., 142.) Section 8477 of the Revised Statutes, making null and void all assignments and powers of attorney to collect any claim or demand against the Government (unless the power of attorney is given after the settlement of the claim and the issuance of the warrant in payment) applies to liquidated, certain, and undisputed demands as well as to those which are unliquidated, uncertain, or disputed. (Id., 276.)

Transfers and assignments of claims. The restrictions of the Comptroller of the Treasury in regard to the allowance of credits to disbursing officers for payments made by them on powers of attorney or other forms of tansfer or assignment being so great as to amount practically to a prohibition of such

241. Checks outstanding three years or more to be covered into the Treasury as “Outstanding liabilities." -At the termination of each fiscal year all amounts of moneys that are represented by certificates, drafts, or checks, issued by the Treasurer, or by any disbursing officer of any Department of the Government, upon the Treasurer or any assistant treasurer, or designated depositary of the United States, or upon any national bank designated as a depositary of the United States, and which shall be represented on the books of either of such offices as standing to the credit of any disbursing officer, and which were issued to facilitate the payment of warrants, or for any other purpose in liquidation of a debt due from the United States, and which have for three years or more remained outstanding, unsatisfied, and unpaid, shall be deposited by the Treasurer, to be covered into the Treasury by warrant, and to be carried to the credit of the parties in whose favor such certificates, drafts, or checks were respectively issued, or to the persons who are entitled to receive pay

payments, disbursing officers will refuse to pay the assignee of any claim, except as to assignments authorized by paragraphs 1258 and 1383 of the Army Regulations of 1913.

When claims or vouchers which have been assigned are presented for payment, the holders will be informed that disbursing officers have no authority to make payments to them as assignees, and that payments can only be made to the original persons to whom the money is due. (Decision Asst. Sec. War, Nov. 7, 95-27033, A. G. O., 95. Circ. 13, A. G. O., 1895.)

Assignments of pay by oficers and enlisted men. The assignment of their pay accounts by any officers, after the same become due, is authorized by paragraph 1258, Army Regulations of 1913, and is legal. (3 Second Comp. Dec., 45; id., 47.) Such transfers are accomplished in accordance with paragraphs 1258 and 1383, Army Regulations of 1913.

Attachments. An attachment can not be enforced against public money in the hands of a disbursing officer of the Government, and he is authorized to pay the Government's creditor without regard to such attempted levy. (1 Comp. Dec., 171; Buchanan v. Alexander, 4 How., 20.)

For later specific authority to make payments on assignments by Army officers see Act of March 2, 1913 (37 Stat. 710), par. 647 post.

The provision of the Revised Statutes (section 3477), making void transfers and assignments of claims against the United States, relates to voluntary assignments, and does not extend to transfers by operation of law, or interfere with the equitable doctrine of subrogation. (Amer. Tob. Co. v. U. S., 32 Ct. Cls., 207; 2 Comp. Dec., 49.) While section 3477 of the Revised Statutes declares null and void all powers of attorney given prior to the settlement of a claim and the issuing of a warrant in payment, yet when payments are made upon valid, unrevoked, and undisputed powers of attorney, credit must be given in settlements of the disbursing officer making them. (1 Comp. Dec., 431; id., 119; id., 453.) Under the decisions of the courts the accounting officers are required, notwithstanding the provisions of section 3477 of the Revised Statutes, to credit disbursing officers with payments actually made by them under powers of attorney. provided it is shown that, at the time of such payment, such powers are undisputed and have not been revoked, either by the voluntary action of the principal or by his death. (Id., 142.) Payments may be made to a corporation under a contract entered into by an attorney duly authorized to act for the corporation in the making of such contract. (2 Comp. Dec., 30; id., 295.) See also decision of Secretary of War of November 7, 1895, in Circular 13, A. G. O., 1895.

The assignment of a quartermaster's voucher, unless made "after the allowance of such a claim" and in conformity with all the other requirements of section 3477 of the Revised Statutes, is "absolutely null and void." The exigencies of the war and of the Government service immediately after the war,

therefor, and into an appropriation account to be denominated "outstanding liabilities."1 Sec. 306, R. S.

242. Outstanding liabilities. The certificate of the Secretary of the Treasury, stating that the amount of any draft issued by the Treasurer, to facilitate the payment of a warrant directed to him for payment, has remained outstanding and unpaid for three years or more, and has been deposited and covered into the Treasury in the manner prescribed by the preceding section, shall be, when attached to any such warrant, a sufficient voucher in satisfaction of any such warrant or part of any warrant, the same as if the drafts correctly indorsed and fully satisfied were attached to such warrant or part of warrant. And all such moneys mentioned in this and in the preceding section shall remain as a permanent appropriation for the redemption and payment of all such outstanding and unpaid certificates, drafts, and checks. Sec. 307, R. S.

which at one time were relied upon to support the practice of paying the assignees of such vouchers, can not be made available in deciding cases now arising. (3 Dig. 2d Comp. Dec., par. 156.)

The mischiefs which this statute was intended to prevent were mainly two: (1) The danger that the rights of the Government might be embarrassed by having to deal with several persons instead of one, and by the introduction of a party who was a stranger to the original transaction; (2) that, by a transfer of such claim against the Government to one or more persons not originally interested in it, the way might be conveniently opened to such improper influences in prosecuting the claim before the Departments, the courts, or the Congress as desperate cases, when the reward is contingent on success, so ofter suggest. In Spofford v. Kirk (97 U. S., 490) the Supreme Court had said that the greater of the two evils was the possible combination of interests and influences in the prosecution of claims which might have no real foundation. (Goodman v. Niblack, 102 U. S., 560; Bailey v. U. S., 109 U. S., 438; Milliken v. Barrow, 65 Fed. Rep., 888, 892.)

The provisions of section 3477 of the Revised Statutes, prohibiting and making void transfers of any claim against the United States before the allowance of such claim, apply only to claims existing at the time of the transfer, in the form of a right to demand money from the United States, and not to cases where at the very inception of the transaction out of which a claim against the United States may arise, one party assigns to another the contingent profits he hopes to make, but which do not then exist, and can only be secured by the loan of the assignee's money to the assignor. (Milliken v. Barrow, 65 Fed. Rep., 888.) The word "claim" as used in section 3477, Revised Statutes, which provides that "all transfers and assignments made of any claim upon the United States * shall be absolutely null and void" unless made as prescribed therein, comprehends all demands against the United States for the payment of money whether liquidated or unliquidated; and an assignment of a judgment against the United States, made before the issuing of a warrant for the payment thereof, is within the meaning of the statute and void. (4 Comp. Dec., 196; I id., 276.) The provisions of section 3477, Revised Statutes, touching transfers and assignments of claims against the United States, and powers of attorney, etc., for receiving payment thereof, do not apply to undisputed claims or any claim about which no question is made as to its validity or extent. (XVII Opin. Att. Gen., 545; XXI id., 75; XX id., 578.)

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When a claim passes into the form of checks, its legal character changes from that of a demand for goods sold and delivered to a claim represented by the checks given in liquidation of the original demand. The fund established by section 306, Revised Statutes, bears upon it the impress of a trust and the statutes of limitation can not be set up against money credited to the claimant in the permanent appropriation for outstanding liabilities. Such money is held as a trust fund payable on demand without limit of time. (32 Ct. Cls., 30; U. S. v. Taylor, 104 U. S., 216.)

243. Payment of checks the amounts of which have been covered into “Outstanding liabilities." -The payee or the bona fide holder of any draft or check the amount of which has been deposited and covered into the Treasury pursuant to the preceding sections, shall, on presenting the same to the proper officer of the Treasury, be entitled to have it paid by the settlement of an account and the issuing of a warrant in his favor, according to the practice in other cases of authorized and liquidated claims against the United States. Sec. 308, R. S.

244. Balances of disbursing officers' accounts remaining unchanged for three years to be covered into the Treasury. -The amounts, except such as are provided for in section three hundred and six, of the accounts of every kind of disbursing officer, which shall have remained unchanged, or which shall not have been increased by any new deposit thereto, nor decreased by drafts drawn thereon, for the space of three years, shall in like manner be covered into the Treasury, to the proper appropriation to which they belong; and the amounts thereof shall, on the certificate of the Treasurer that such amount has been deposited in the Treasury, be credited by the proper accounting officer of the Department of the Treasury on the books of the Department, to the officer in whose name it had stood on the books of any agency of the Treasury, if it appears that he is entitled to such credit. Sec. 309, R. S.

(For provisions of law requiring annual reports to the Secretary of the Treasury by the Treasurer and Assistant Treasurers of all balances unchanged in disbursing officers' accounts for three years or more and by disbursing officers of all checks outstanding and unpaid for same period, see par. 183, ante.)

245. Lost checks-Issuance of duplicates. Whenever any original disbursing officer's check is lost, stolen, or destroyed, the Secretary of the Treasury may authorize the officer issuing the same, after the expiration of six months and within three years from the date of such disbursing officer's check, to issue a duplicate thereof upon the execution of such bond to indemnify the United States as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe: Provided, That when such original disbursing officer's check does not exceed in amount the sum of fifty dollars the Secretary of the Treasury may authorize the issuance of a duplicate at any time after the expiration of thirty days and within three years from the date of such disbursing officer's check: Provided further, That whenever any original check or warrant of the Post-Office Department has been lost, stolen, or destroyed the Postmaster-General may authorize the issuance of a duplicate thereof, at any time within three years from the date of such original check or warrant, upon the execution by the owner thereof of such bond of indemnity as the Postmaster-General may prescribe: And provided further, That when such original check or warrant does not exceed in amount the sum of fifty dollars and the payee or owner is, at the date of the application, an officer or employee in the service of the Post-Office Department, whether by contract, designation, or appointment, the Postmaster-General may, in lieu of an indemnity bond, authorize the issuance of a duplicate check or warrant upon such an affidavit as he may prescribe, to be made before any postmaster by the payee or owner of an original check or warrant. Sec. 3646, R. S., as amended by Act of Feb. 23, 1909 (35 Stat. 643).

In case the disbursing officer or agent by whom such lost, destroyed, or stolen original check was issued is dead or no longer in the service of the United States, it shall be the duty of the proper accounting officer, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, to state an account in favor of the owner of such original check for the amount thereof and to charge such amount to the account of such officer or agent: Provided, That in case a check drawn by any officer or agent of the Post-Office Department is lost, stolen, or destroyed a duplicate thereof may be issued under regulations prescribed by the Postmaster-General, as set forth in section thirty-six hundred and forty-six. Sec. 3647, R. S., as amended by Act of Feb. 23, 1909 (35 Stat. 643).

[For method of procedure in case a check has been lost, destroyed, or stolen, see pars. 602 and 607, A. R., 1913.]

246. Certification of Treasury records-Transcripts. The transcripts from the books and proceedings of the Department of the Treasury, and the copies of bonds, contracts, and other papers, provided for in section eight hundred and eighty-six of the Revised Statutes,1 shall hereafter be certified by the Secretary or an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under the seal of the Department. Sec. 17, Act of July 31, 1894 (28 Stat. 210), as amended by sec. 10, Act of Mar. 2, 1895 (28 Stat. 809).

247. Certain transcripts to be admitted in evidence. When suit is brought in any case of delinquency of a revenue officer, or other person accountable for public money, a transcript from the books and proceedings of the Treasury Department, certified by the Secretary or an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and authenticated under the seal of the Department, or, when the suit involves the accounts of the War or Navy Departments, certified by the Auditors respectively charged with the examination of those accounts, and authenticated under the seal of the Treasury Department, shall be admitted as evidence, and the court trying the cause shall be authorized to grant judgment and award execution accordingly. And all copies of bonds, contracts, or other papers relating to, or connected with, the settlement of any account between the United States and an individual, when certified by such auditor to be true

Paragraph 247, post.