LAWS RELATIVE TO THE DROPPING OF THE NAMES OF

PENSIONERS FROM THE ROLLS.

SEC. 4706. Abandonment by widow of minor child or children forfeits pension.

SEC. 4719. Failure to claim pension for three years.

SEC. 4720. Special acts.

Act December 21, 1893, pension not to be withheld or suspended until after notice.

Abandonment

children forfeits

Sec. 12, 3 Mar., June, 1866; Sec. 8, 27 July, 1868. See Act 7 Aug., 1882, p. 53.

1873; Sec. 11, 6

SEC. 4706. If any person has died, or shall hereafter die, by widow of leaving a widow entitled to a pension by reason of his death, minor child or and a child or children under sixteen years of age by such pension. widow, and it shall be duly certified under seal, by any court having probate jurisdiction, that satisfactory evidence has been produced before such court, upon due notice to the widow, that she has abandoned the care of such child or children, or that she is an unsuitable person, by reason of immoral conduct, to have the custody of the same, on presentation of satisfactory evidence thereof to the Commissioner of Pensions, no pension shall be allowed to such widow until such child or children shall have attained the age of sixteen years, any provisions of law to the contrary notwithstanding, and the said child or children shall be pensioned in the same manner, and from the same date, as if no widow had survived such person, and such pension shall be paid to the guardian of such child or children; but if in any case payment of pension shall have been made to the widow, the pension to the child or children shall commence from the date to which her pension has been paid. SEC. 4719. The failure of any pensioner to claim his pen-Unclaimed pensions;disposition sion for three years after the same shall have become due of. shall be deemed presumptive evidence that such pension, Sec. 26, 3 Mar., has legally terminated by reason of the pensioner's death, July, 1868. remarriage, recovery from the disability, or otherwise, and of 6 Apr., 1838; the pensioner's name shall be stricken from the list of pen- Aug., 1842. sioners, subject to the right of restoration to the same on a new application by the pensioner, or, if the pensioner is dead, by the widow or minor children entitled to receive the accrued pension, accompanied by evidence satisfactorily accounting for the failure to claim such pension, and by medical evidence in cases of invalids who were not exempt from biennial examinations as to the continuance of the disability.

Pension to mifrom the time the widow was paid.

nors to commence

Sec. 12, 3 Mar.,

1873.

1873; Sec. 3, 27

See Sec. 1, Act

Sec. 3, Act 23

Pensions under special acts.

Sec. 27, 3 Mar.

*SEC. 4720. When the rate, commencement, and duration of a pension allowed by special act are fixed by such act, 1873; Sec. 15, 27 they shall not be subject to be varied by the provisions and July, 1868; Sec. 1, 7 July, 1870. limitations of the general pension law; but when not thus ment Act 6 June, fixed, the rate and continuance of the pension shall be

See amend.

1874.

subject to variation in accordance with the general laws, and its commencement shall date from the passage of the special act, and the Commissioner of Pensions shall, upon satisfactory evidence that fraud was perpetrated in obtaining such special act, suspend payment thereupon until the propriety of repealing the same can be considered by Congress.

1893.

Act 21 Dec., AN ACT making appropriations to supply further urgent deficiencies in the appropriations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and for prior years, and for other purposes.

Pension not to

be withheld or

after notice.

Provided, That any pension heretofore or that may heresuspended until after be granted to any applicant therefor under any law of the United States authorizing the granting and payment of pensions, on application made and adjudicated upon, shall be deemed and held by all officers of the United States to be a vested right in the grantee to that extent that payment thereof shall not be withheld or suspended until, after due notice to the grantee of not less than thirty days, the Commissioner of Pensions, after hearing all the evidence, shall decide to annul, vacate, modify, and set aside the decision upon which such pension was granted. Such notice to grantee must contain a full and true statement of any charges or allegations upon which such decision granting such pension shall be sought to be in any manner disturbed or modified.

Approved, December 21, 1893.

* Amended by Act of June 6, 1874 (see p. 135), and Sec. 5, Act of July 25, 1882 (see p. 54).

MISCELLANEOUS LAWS RELATIVE TO THE GRANTING OF PENSIONS,

SEC. 4716. No money on account of pension shall be paid Loyalty requi to any person, or to the widow, children, or heirs of any deceased person, who in any manner voluntarily engaged in, or aided or abetted, the late rebellion against the authority of the United States.

1877.

The above Section amended by the following Act.

Act 3 Mar., AN ACT amending the pension-law so as to remove the disability of those who, having participated in the rebellion, have, since its termination, enlisted in the Army of the United States, and become disabled.1

R. S.

Removal of disability.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of See Sec. 4716, the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the law prohibiting the payment of any money on account of pensions to any person, or to the widow, children, or heirs of any deceased person, who, in any manner, engaged in or aided or abetted the late rebellion against the authority of the United States, shall not be construed to apply to such persons as afterward voluntarily enlisted in the Army of the United States, and who, while in such service, incurred disability from a wound or injury received or disease contracted in the line of duty.

Approved, March 3, 1877.

Continuance of pension.

Pensions are not to be withheld.

SEC. 4733. All pensioners whose names are now on the pension-roll, or who are entitled to restoration to the roll under any act of Congress, shall be entitled to the continuance of such pensions under the provisions and limitations of this Title, and to such further increase of pension as is herein provided.

SEC. 4734. The provisions of law which allow the withholding of the compensation of any person who is in arrears Act 20 May, shall not be construed to authorize the pension of any pensioner of the United States to be withheld.

1836.

Pension not lia

ble to attachment.

SEC. 4747. No sum of money due, or to become due, to any pensioner shall be liable to attachment, levy, or seizure Sec. 25, 3 Mar.. by or under any legal or equitable process whatever, whether 1873; Sec. 3, 6 June, 1866; sec. the same remains with the Pension Office, or any officer or 2, 7 July, 1838. agent thereof, or is in course of transmission to the pensioner entitled thereto, but shall inure wholly to the benefit of such pensioner.

Special medical examinations

and therefrom.

SEC. 4774. Superseded by Section 4, Act of July 25, 1882, which Act was subsequently amended by Act of March 3, 1885.

SEC. 4775. Examining surgeons duly appointed by the appeals Commissioner of Pensions, and such other qualified surgeons as may be employed in the Pension-Office, may be required by him, from time to time, as he deems for the

Sec. 37, 3 Mar., 1873

1 Amended August 1, 1892, to include navy cases. See p. 49.

interest of the Government, to make special examinations of pensioners, or applicants for pension, and such examinations shall have precedence over previous examinations, whether special or biennial; but when injustice is alleged to have been done by an examination so ordered, the Commissioner of Pensions may, at his discretion, select a board of three duly appointed examining surgeons, who shall meet at a place to be designated by him, and shall review such cases as may be ordered before them on appeal from any special examination, and the decision of such board shall be final on the question so submitted thereto, provided the Commissioner approve the same. The compensation of each of such surgeons shall be three dollars, and shall be paid out of any appropriations made for the payment of pensions, in the same manner as the ordinary fees of appointed surgeons are or may be authorized to be paid.

SEC. 4776. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to appoint a duly qualified surgeon as medical referee, who, under the control and direction of the Commissioner of Pensions, shall have charge of the examination and revision of the reports of examining surgeons, and such other duties touching medical and surgical questions in the PensionOffice as the interests of the service may demand; and his salary shall be two thousand five hundred dollars per annum. And the Secretary of the Interior is further authorized to appoint such qualified surgeons (not exceeding four) as the exigencies of the service may require, who may perform the duties of examining surgeons when so required, and who shall be borne upon the rolls as clerks of the fourth class; but such appointments shall not increase the clerical force of said Bureau.

(See appropriation bill, June 30, 1890, p. 87.)

Medical referee ining surgeons.

and other exam

Sec. 38, 3 Mar., 1873.

1873; Sec. 8, 14

July, 1864.

SEC. 4777. The Commissioner of Pensions is empowered Appointment of civil examining to appoint, at his discretion, civil surgeons to make the surgeons. periodical examinations of pensioners which are or may be, Sec. 35,3 Mar. required by law, and to examine applicants for pension, July, 1862. where he deems an examination by a surgeon appointed by him necessary; and the fee for such examinations, and See Sec. 8, 4 the requisite certificates thereof, in duplicate, including postage on such as are transmitted to pension-agents, shall be two dollars, which shall be paid by the agent for paying pensions in the district within which the pensioner or claimant resides, out of any money appropriated for the payment of pensions, under such regulations as the Commissioner of Pensions may prescribe.