Under § 51 of the Revised Statutes, a person elected a
representative in Congress to fill a vacancy caused by a resolution
of the House that the sitting member was not elected and that the
seat was vacant, the sitting member having received the proper
credentials and been placed on the roll and been sworn in and taken
his seat and voted and served on committees and drawn his salary
and mileage, is entitled to compensation only from the time the
compensation of such sitting member ceased.
The case is stated in the opinion.
MR. JUSTICE BLATCHFORD delivered the opinion of the Court.
This is an appeal by the claimant from a judgment of the Court
of Claims, dismissing his petition on the following facts found by
that court:
An election was held on the 4th of November, 1884, in the Second
Congressional District of Rhode Island, for the purpose of electing
by the people a
Page 127 U. S. 68
representative in the 49th Congress for that district. William.
Price was declared by the proper authority to have been elected,
received a certificate of election from the governor of the state,
and was sworn in and took his seat in the Congress of the United
States on the 4th of March, 1885. His election was contested by
Charles H. Page. On the 25th of January, 1887, the House of
Representatives of the 49th Congress agreed to the following
resolution, to-wit:
"Resolved that William A. Price was not elected a member of the
House of Representatives of the Forty-Ninth Congress from the
Second Congressional District of Rhode Island, and that the seat be
declared vacant."
An election was thereafter held in Rhode Island to fill such
vacancy, and, on the 25th of February, 1887, Charles H. Page
presented to the House of Representatives a certificate from the
Governor of Rhode Island setting forth that he was, on the 21st of
February, 1887, regularly elected a representative from that state
in the Forty-Ninth Congress, to fill the vacancy caused by the
action of the House of Representatives in declaring the seat of
William A. Pirce vacant. Thereupon Page was sworn in, and took his
seat. Pirce occupied the seat from March 4, 1885, to January 25,
1887, was recognized as the sitting member, voted, served on
committees, and drew the salary for that time, amounting to
$9,468.18, and also received mileage in the sum of $344. Page
occupied the seat from February 25, 1887, to March 3, 1887, was
recognized as the sitting member for that time, voted, served on
committees, and drew the salary from January 25, 1887, to March 3,
1887, amounting to $531.82, and also received mileage in the sum of
$175.20.
Page, by his petition to the Court of Claims, claimed that he
was entitled to the full pay of $5,000 a year for the two years
from March 3, 1885, to March 3, 1887, and that therefore he was
entitled to the further payment of $9.468.18. The contention of
Page is that, on the facts found, Pirce, not having been elected a
member of the forty-ninth Congress, was never such member; that
therefore he was not the predecessor of Page within the meaning of
§ 51 of the Revised Statutes, and that the member of the House of
Representatives
Page 127 U. S. 69
from the Second Congressional District of Rhode Island in the
Forty-eighth Congress was such predecessor.
Section 51 of the Revised Statutes provides as follows:
"Whenever a vacancy occurs in either house of Congress by death
or otherwise of any member or delegate elected or appointed
thereto, after the commencement of the Congress to which he has
been elected or appointed, the person elected or appointed to fill
it shall be compensated and paid from the time that the
compensation of his predecessor ceased."
The argument made is that under this section, no person could
have been the predecessor of Page unless he was a member elected
for the Forty-ninth Congress, and that Pirce was declared by the
House of Representatives not to have been elected such member. But
although Pirce may not have been so elected, it does not follow
that he was not the predecessor of Page within the meaning of § 51,
or that the representative in the Forty-eighth Congress was such
predecessor.
The proper construction of § 51 is that the predecessor of the
person elected to fill a vacancy must be a person who was the
predecessor in the same Congress. If no such person is to be found
because no such person was duly elected, Page had no predecessor in
the sense of § 51, and that section does not apply to his case. But
we think that under the proper construction of § 51, Pirce was the
predecessor of Page as to compensation or salary. His credentials
showed that he was regularly elected; he must have been placed on
the roll of representatives-elect under § 31 of the Revised
Statutes; he was sworn in, took his seat, voted, served on
committees, and drew the salary and the mileage. Under §§ 38 and
39, he was entitled to his salary because his credentials, in due
form of law, had been duly filed with the clerk under § 31, and
because he took the required oath. Section 51 refers only to a
vacancy occurring after the commencement of a particular Congress,
and in the membership of that Congress, and the reference to a
"predecessor" is plainly intended to apply only to a predecessor in
that Congress. If there was any such predecessor of Page, it was
Pirce. If there was no predecessor of Page in that Congress, § 51
does not apply to the case.
The judgment of the Court of Claims is affirmed.