ERROR to the Circuit Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
Donovan was surveyor of the port of St. Louis, 'performing the duties of collector,' from January, 1860, to May, 1861. In the settlement of his accounts with the government he retained $6000 per year as his official compensation, claiming that sum as his legal allowance. The Treasury Department was willing to allow him $5000, but no more. And to get the $1000 in dispute the United States sued him on his official bond.
The question was: Are surveyors of ports, 'performing the duties of collectors,' under the act of 1831, entitled to the compensation of $6000 per year? The issue presented turned upon the right construction of certain statutes.
In the early history of the custom-house laws the collectors, naval officers, and surveyors received their compensation from fees earned by them, which were provided for by the various statutes on the subject. As the business of the country increased the aggregate of these fees came to be so large that Congress saw fit to limit the compensation of these various officers, as derived from those fees. The first of these limitations, now in force, was that of the act of May 7th, 1822. This law was a limitation upon existing rights. Without it the officers named would, of course, have received compensation much larger than the sums named.
The statutes bearing on the case were thus:
By an act of May 7th, 1822, it was thus enacted:
'SECTION 9. Whenever the emoluments of any collector of customs of either of the ports of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, or New Orleans, shall exceed $4000, or the emoluments of any naval officer of either of said ports shall exceed $3000, or the emoluments of any surveyor of either of said ports shall exceed $2500 in any one year, after deducting the necessary expenses incident to his office in the same year, the excess shall in every such case be paid into the treasury for the use of the United States.
'SECTION 10. Whenever the emoluments of any other collectors of the customs shall exceed $3000, or the emoluments of any other naval officer shall exceed $2500, or the emoluments of any other surveyor shall exceed $2000 in any one year, after deducting therefrom the necessary expenses incident to his office in the same year, the excess shall in every such case be paid into the treasury for the use of the United States.'
'SECTION 11. The preceding provisions shall not extend to fines, penalties, or forfeitures, or to the distribution thereof.'
At the time of this enactment, St. Louis, of which Donovan was the surveyor, & c., was not 'a port.'
By an act of March 2d, 1831, 'allowing the duties on foreign merchandise imported into Pittsburg, Wheeling, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Nashville, and Natchez to be secured and paid at those places,' and making St. Louis a port, a change is in some respects made in former laws.
This act makes St. Louis and other places ports, which they were not before. By this law, as will be seen by reference to it, when any merchant in St. Louis imports goods he deposits with the surveyor a schedule of such goods, with an estimate of their cost. Upon this the surveyor makes an estimate of the amount of duties accruing, and the importer gives bond, approved by the surveyor, to pay these duties. The surveyor then sends to the collector at New Orleans a copy of this bond and schedule.
The importer then enters the goods at New Orleans, and the collector then certifies to the surveyor at St. Louis the amount of duties, and delivers the goods to the importer to be shipped to St. Louis. Upon reaching their destination, the surveyor having informed himself of the correctness of the entire proceeding, gives a permit for the landing of the goods.
These duties are, to some extent, in the nature of those performed in other ports by a collector.
The act enacts:
'SECTION 5. That where surveyors are not already appointed in any of the places mentioned, a suitable person shall be appointed for such places; and on all such surveyors, whether appointed or to be appointed, shall devolve the duties prescribed by this act, in addition to the customary duties performed by that officer in other places; and the surveyor at each of said places shall . . . receive, in addition to his customary fees, an annual salary of $350.'
This act first anywhere made surveyors perform the duties in any respect like those of collectors.
Next came an act of March 3d, 1841, thus: