§ 230. (Act March 4, 1911, c. 285, § 1.) Accommodations for horses, carriages, etc., to be provided by Quartermaster General of the Army. The Quartermaster General of the Army shall provide suitable accommodations for the horses, carriages, and other vehicles of the President and of the Executive Office, in the stables maintained in the District of Columbia by and for the use of his department. (36 Stat. 1404.) This was a provision of the sundry civil appropriation act for the fiscal year 1912, cited above. (R. S. §§ 156, 157. Superseded.) These sections prescribed the duties of the steward of the President's household, and required him to give bond for the faithful discharge of his trust. They were superseded by similar provisions of Act June 25, 1910, c. 384, § 9, post, § 231. Subsequent provisions requiring an inventory to be made annually, by the steward, under the direction of the officer in charge of public buildings and grounds, of all the public property in and belonging to the Executive Mansion, to be submitted to Congress with the annual report of the officer in charge of public buildings and grounds, made by Act April 17, 1900, c. 192, § 1, were also superseded by more comprehensive provisions for the making of such inventory, to be kept for reference in the office of public buildings and grounds, made by Act June 25, 1910, c. 384, § 2, post, § 231. § 231. (Act June 25, 1910, c. 384, § 9.) Custody and annual inventory of public property in and belonging to Executive Mansion. Hereafter the steward, housekeeper, or such other employee of the Executive Mansion as the President may designate, shall, under the direction of the President, have the charge and custody of and be responsible for the plate, furniture, and public property therein, and shall, before entering upon the duties of the office, give bond for the faithful discharge thereof, said bond to be in the sum of ten thousand dollars, and be approved by the Secretary of War. And hereafter a complete inventory, in proper books, shall be made annually in the month of June, under the direction of the officer in charge of public buildings and grounds, of all the public property in and belonging to the Executive Mansion, showing when purchased, its cost, condition, and final disposition. This inventory shall be submitted to the President for his approval, and shall then be kept for reference in the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, which shall furnish a copy thereof to the steward, housekeeper, or other employee responsible for the property. (36 Stat. 773.) This section was part of the sundry civil appropriation act for the fiscal year 1911, cited above. It superseded previous similar provisions of R. S. §§ 156, 157, and Act April 17, 1900, c. 192, § 1, 31 Stat. 97. Other previous requirements of an annual statement and an inventory of such property with other public property were contained in R. S. §§ 1832, 1833, post, §§ 3418, 3419. (84) PROVISIONS APPLICABLE TO ALL THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS Sec. 232. Application of provisions of this Title. 233. Word "Department." 234. Salaries of heads of Departments. 235. Departmental regulations. 236. Hours of business. 237. Closing Department on decease of ex-official forbidden. 238. Hours of labor and leaves of absence of clerks and other employés; monthly reports as to condition of business; bringing up arrears; quarterly reports as to condition of business. 239. Annual leave of absence, notwithstanding leave on account of sickness. 240. Annual leave of absence, exclusive of Sundays and legal holidays. 241. Recording clocks not to be used. 242. Classification of Department clerks. 243. Clerkships open to women. 244. Distribution of clerks. 245. Diminution of number of clerks of higher, and increase of number of clerks of lower grades; preference in making reduction of force, of discharged soldiers and sailors, etc. 246. Salaries of persons employed in the Departments. 247. Temporary clerks. 248. Authority to employ clerks and other employés. 249. Officers, clerks, and other employés to be only as specifically appropriated for; repeal of inconsistent laws; details from places outside District of Columbia for duty within District prohibited lapsed salaries and unusual appropriations. 250. Punishment for violation of prohibition of employment of services except as specifically appropriated for. 251. Transfer of clerks or other employés from one Department to another. 252. Detail of civil officers, clerks, or other employés in public service outside District of Columbia for duty in Department in the District. 252a. Details of persons in classified service at Washington for service outside District of Columbia. 253. Extra compensation to clerks prohibited. 254. Restriction clerks. on employing extra 255. Chief clerks to supervise subordi Sec. 256. Chief clerks to distribute duties, etc. 257. Duty of chief on receipt of report. 258. Disbursing clerks. 259. Vacancies; how temporarily filled. 260. Vacancies in subordinate offices. 261. Discretionary authority of the President. 262. Temporary appointments limited to thirty days. 263. Restriction on temporary appoint ments. 264. Extra compensation disallowed. 265. Oaths to witnesses, authority of officers, etc., to administer. 266. Subpoenas to witnesses. 267. Witnesses' fees. 268. Compelling testimony. 269. Professional assistance; how obtained. 270. Evidence to be furnished by the Departments in suits pending in the Court of Claims. 271. Employment of attorneys or counsel. 272. Persons formerly in the Departments not to prosecute claims in them. 272a. Use of name of member of Congress or officer of Government in advertising practice before departments or office of Government unlawful. 273. Expenditures for newspapers. 274. Expenditures for transportation of remains of deceased employés. 275. Annual reports of expenditure of contingent funds. 276. Reports of expenditure for contingent expenses of sub-treasuries, and in government departments and bureaus. 277. Reports of traveling expenses of officers and employés at Washington. 278. Time of making annual reports. 279. Department reports, when to be furnished to printer. 279a. Copy for annual reports and accompanying documents; time for furnishing. Inventories of property. 280. 281. Transfer of miscellaneous books not required for use of Departments, etc., to Public Library of District of Columbia. 282. Disposition of useless papers in the Departments. 283. Disposition of useless' papers in buildings under control of the Departments. nate clerks. § 232. (R. S. § 158.) Application of provisions of this Title. The provisions of this Title shall apply to the following Executive Departments: First. The Department of State. Second. The Department of War. Third. The Department of the Treasury. Seventh. The Department of the Interior. This section was amended to include the Department of Agriculture, and the provisions of this Title of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto, were made applicable to said Department by Act Feb. 9, 1889, c. 122, § 1, post, § 789. The section was also amended to include the Department of Commerce, and the provisions of this Title of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto, were made applicable to said Department, by Act Feb. 14, 1903, c. 552, § 1, post, § 853. The section was further amended to include the Department of Labor, and the provisions of this Title of the Revised Statutes, including all amendments thereto, were made applicable to said Department, by Act March 4, 1913, c. 141, § 1, post, § 932. Notes of Powers and duties of heads of departments. The powers and duties of all officers of the United States are limited and defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress, and on the question of the authority of the head of one of the Executive Departments, the court must look mainly to the acts of Congress. Pierce v. U. S. (1868) 7 Wall. 666, 677, 19 L. Ed. 169. Departments, offices, etc., included in term "Executive Departments."-The several executive departments are by law established at the seat of government; they have no existence elsewhere. Only those bureaus and offices can be deemed bureaus or offices in any of these departments which are constituted such by the law of its organization. The department, with its bureaus or offices, is, in contemplation of the law, an establishment distinct from the branches of the public service and the offices thereof which are under its supervision. Thus, the office of postmaster, or of collector of internal revenue, or of pension agent, or of consul, is not properly a departmental officenot an office in the department having supervision over the branch of the public service to which it belongs. The official relation which exists between the office and the department, one of subordination of the former to the latter, does not make the office a part of the department. (1877) 15 Op. Atty. Gen. 262, 267; (1907) 26 Op. Atty. Gen. 209, 254. The office of the Surgeon General was held to be a part of the War Department. The Twenty Per Cent. Cases (1873) 20 Wall. 179, 180, 188, 22 L. Ed. 339; Id. (1873) 9 Ct. Cl. 103, 106, 124; Schaeffer v. U. S. (1875) 11 Ct. Cl. 730, 732. The term "executive departments," as used in acts of Congress and in the Revised Statutes, invariably applies to one or more of the several executive Decisions departments mentioned in this section, or included within its terms by subsequent enactments, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context. (1898) 22 Op. Atty. Gen. 62; (1907) 26 Op. Atty. Gen. 209. The Government Printing Office is not a bureau or division of, or under the control of, any one of the executive departments. U. S. v. Allison (1875) 91 U. S. 303, 307, 23 L. Ed. 372. No board, commission, bureau, or office which is not expressly or by implication under the control of the head of one of the executive departments can be considered as belonging properly to one of them. (1898) 22 Op. Atty. Gen. 62. The Civil Service Commission is not attached to any of the executive departments, nor is it subject to the control of any of the heads of those departments. Id. The Government Printing Office, the Interstate Commerce Commission, and the Smithsonian Institution are independent of any of the executive departments mentioned in R. S. § 158, this section. (1907) 26 Op. Atty. Gen. 209. Judicial notice of appointment and tenure of office of heads of departments.-Courts will take judicial notice of the appointment and tenure of office of a member of the President's Cabinet. Frederick v. Goodbee (La. 1908) 45 So. 606. Relation of heads of departments to President and Congress.-Congress can impose upon any executive officer any duty they may think proper, which is not repugnant to any rights secured and protected by the Constitution; and in such cases, the duty and responsibility grow out of and are subject to the control of the law, and not to the direction of the President. Kendall v. U. S. (1838) 12 Pet. 524, 610, 9 L. Ed. 1181. The postmaster general, in the discharge of those duties which are pre-. scribed by law, is not lawfully subject to the control of the President. U. S. v. Kendall (C. C. 1837) Fed. Cas. No. 15,517. Heads of departments have a threefold relation: (1) To the President; whose political or confidential ministers they are, to execute his will, or rather to act in his name and by his constitutional authority, in cases in which the President possesses a constitutional or legal discretion. (2) To the law; for where the law has directed them to perform certain acts, and where the rights of individuals are dependent on those acts, then, in such cases, a head of department is an officer of the law, and amenable to the laws for his conduct. And (3) to Congress; in the conditions contemplated by the Constitution. This last relation is one of the great elements of responsibility and legality in their action. They are created by law; most of their duties are prescribed by law; Congress may at all times call on them for information or explanation in matters of official duty; and it may, if it see fit, interpose by legislation concerning them, when required by the interests of the government. (1854) 6 Op. Atty. Gen. 326, 344. The authority of each head of a department is a parcel of the executive power of the President. To coerce the head of a department is to coerce the President. This can be accomplished in no other way than by a law, constitutional in its nature, enacted in accordance with the forms of the Constitution. (1854) 6 Op. Atty. Gen. 680, 682. Express statutory authority is not required for every administrative act. (1911) 28 Op. Atty. Gen. 549. Heads of departments representatives of President. The direction of the President is to be presumed in all instructions and orders issuing from a competent department, and official instructions, issued by the heads of the several executive departments, within their respective jurisdictions, are valid, without containing express reference to the direction of the President. Wilcox v. Jackson ex dem. McConnel (1839) 13 Pet. 498, 513, 10 L. Ed. 264; U. S. v. Eliason (1842) 16 Pet. 291, 302, 10 L. Ed. 968; The Confiscation Cases (1873) 20 Wall. 92, 108, 22 L. Ed. 320; U. S. v. Fletcher (1893) 148 U. S. 84, 89, 13 Sup. Ct. 552, 37 L. Ed. 378; Scott v. Carew (1905) 25 Sup. Ct. 193, 196, 196 U. S. 100, 49 L. Ed. 403; U. S. v. Cutter (C. C. 1856) Fed. Cas. No. 14,911; U. S. v. Tichenor (C. C. 1882) 12 Fed. 415, 423, 8 Sawy. 142; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Mitchell (D. C. 1913) 208 Fed. 469; Medkirk v. U. S. (1909) 44 Ct. Cl. 469, 482; (1855) 7 Op. Atty. Gen. 453; (1862) 10 Op. Atty. Gen. 171, 183; U. S. v. Bayard (1885) 15 App. D. C. 310, 320. The President speaks and acts through the heads of the several departments in relation to subjects which appertain to their respective duties. Wilcox v. Jackson ex dem. McConnel (1839) 13 Pet. 498, 513, 10 L. Ed. 264; Williams v. U. S. (1843) 1 How. 290, 297, 11 L. Ed. 135; U. S. v. Farden (1878) 99 U. S. 10, 19, 25 L. Ed. 267; Wolsey v. Chapman (1879) 101 U. S. 755, 769, 25 L. Ed. 915; Runkle v. U. S. (1887) 122 U. S. 543, 557, 7 Sup. Ct. 1141, 30 L. Ed. 1167; Lockington v. Smith (C. C. 1817) Fed. Cas. No. 8,448, Pet. C. C. 466; U. S. v. Cutter (C. C. 1856) Fed. Cas. No. 14,911; Northern Pac. Ry. Co. v. Mitchell (D. C. 1913) 208 Fed. 469; (1854) 6 Op. Atty. Gen. 583, 587; (1855) 7 Op. Atty. Gen. 453; (1877) 15 Op. Atty. Gen. 290, 293. An order sent out from the appropriate executive department in the regular course of business is the legal equivalent of the President's own order to the same effect. Wolsey V. Chapman (1879) 101 U. S. 755, 770, 25 L. Ed. 915; Medkirk v. U. S. (1909) 44 Ct. Cl. 469, 482; Medkirk v. U. S. (1910) 45 Ct. Cl. 395, 403. Rules and regulations promulgated through the Secretary of War must be received as the acts of the Executive. U. S. v. Eliason (1842) 16 Pet. 291, 301, 10 L. Ed. 968. Orders issued by the Department of State in relation to such public measures as are not immediately connected with the duties of some other department are to be considered as orders of the President. Lockington v. Smith (C. C. 1817) Fed. Cas. No. 8,448. A proclamation by the Secretary of the Interior creating a forest reserve need not be signed by the President. U. S. v. Blendauer (D. C. 1903) 122 Fed. 703, reversed (1904) 128 Fed. 910, 63 C. C. A. 636. Where the President intervenes personally and prohibits an act of one of his ministers, not specially confided by Congress to that minister, such an act could have no more validity, and be no more binding on the government, than the act of any other person. (1862) 10 Op. Atty. Gen. 171, 182. As to rules and orders promulgated by the Secretary of War, by direction of the President, see notes to § 318. Assistants to heads of departments as representing them.-A letter written by an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to a collector of customs concerning the deposit of money in the collector's custody will be presumed to have been written by authority of the Secretary. U. S. v. Adams (C. C. 1885) 24 Fed. 348. The declaration, by an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, of the amount of foreign sugar bounties, which the Secretary was required to ascertain and declare, under Tariff Act July 24, 1897, c. 11, 5, 30 Stat. 205, will be presumed to have been properly issued in the performance of such duty. Franklin Sugar Refining Co. v. U. S. (C. C. 1910) 178 Fed. 743. The duties of assistants to the heads of departments, or bureaus are generally not specifically defined by law, but are left to the direction and regulation of the superior officers. Such assistants are supposed to be officially engaged in carrying out the will of their principals in the details of the work. When 'their acts, decisions, or directions are reduced to writing, signed by them in their official capacity, filed or recorded among the archives of the department, and do not appear to have been revoked, annulled, or modified by the head of the department or bureau, they must be held, in the absence of fraud, mistake, or irregularity, to have been done within the scope of the authority of the assistant, and to be as binding on the government as though expressly ordered by the superior. McCollum v. U. S. (1881) 17 Ct. Cl. 92, 101. The presumption is that an order from the proper executive department in the regular course of business is sent with the knowledge and approval of the head of the department. Medkirk v. U. S. (1910) 45 Ct. Cl. 395. It being impossible that each head of department should perform in person all the business of his department, the constitution and the laws allow him to appoint clerks, among whom a portion of his duties may be distributed, and whose legal power is included in his, just as his own is included in that of the President. (1854) 6 Op. Atty. Gen. 583, 587. The attestation of commissions, treasury warrants, passports, and the like, by heads of departments, or chiefs of bureaus, or other certifying officers of the government, cannot be delegated, unless when specially authorized by Congress. (1855) 7 Op. Atty. Gen. 594. Decisions of heads of departments conclusive on successors.-The head of a department cannot, in a matter involving judgment and discretion, reverse the decision and action of his predecessor, even in a matter relating to the general officers and management of the department. U. S. v. Bank of the Metropolis (1841) 15 Pet. 377, 400, 10 L. Ed. 774; Lavalette v. U. S. (1864) 1 Ct. Cl. 147; Jackson v. U. S. (1884) 19 Ct. Cl. 504; (1831) 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 463; (1849) 5 Op. Atty. Gen. 122; (1852) 5 Op. Atty. Gen. 664; (1857) 9 Op. Atty. Gen. 32, 34; (1859) 9 Op. Atty. Gen. 300, 302; (1868) 12 Op. Atty. Gen. 355; (1869) 13 Op. Atty. Gen. 33, 35; (1870) 13 Op. Atty. Gen. 226, 228; (1871) 13 Op. Atty. Gen. 387, 388. But see (1861) 10 Op. Atty. Gen. 56, 62. The principle of res judicata applies to departmental action of a final nature. Day v. U. S. (1886) 21 Ct. Cl. 262; (1831) 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 463; (1841) 3 Op. Atty. Gen. 684; (1848) 5 Op. Atty. Gen. 28; (1891) 20 Op. Atty. Gen. 280. It is a rule of action, prescribed to itself by each administration, to consider the acts of its predecessors conclusive as far as the executive is concerned. (1825) 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 8, 9; (1829) 2 Op. Atty. Gen. 280, 283; (1869) 13 Op. Atty. Gen. 33, 35. The right in an incumbent of reviewing a predecessor's decisions extends to mistakes in matters of fact arising from errors in calculation, and to cases of rejected claims, in which material testimony is afterwards discovered and produced. But if a credit has been given, or an allowance made, by the head of a department, and it is alleged to be an illegal allowance, the judicial tribunals must be resorted to, to construe the law under which the allowance was made, and to settle the rights between the United States and the party to whom the credit was given. It is no longer a case between the correctness of one officer's judgment and that of his successor. A third party is interested, and he cannot be deprived of a payment on a credit so given, but by the intervention of a court to pass upon his right. U. S. v. Bank of the Metropolis (1841) 15 Pet. 377, 401, 10 L. Ed. 774. A subject, once disposed of by a department, ought to be regarded as settled, except under peculiarly strong circumstances. (1844) 4 Op. Atty. Gen. 341. There is no law which authorizes the head of any department to supervise the acts of his predecessors, and to award damages for their assumed misconduct, errors, or omissions, to be paid out of the public treasury. (1848) 5 Op. Atty. Gen. 28. A plainly unlawful opinion of a head of department is not closed against future inquiry into the merits of the case. (1856) 8 Op. Atty. Gen. 198, 214. When a Secretary has officially decided or determined any matter or case, and goes out of office leaving the decision on record, his successor cannot lawfully overturn it, unless upon the production of such new evidence as would be sufficient in a court of chancery to sustain a bill of review, or to get a new trial in a court of law. (1857) 9 Op. Atty. Gen. 100, 101. The well-settled principle, that the final decision of a case before a head of department is binding upon his successors in the same department, is subject to some equally well-established exceptions, and these are where there has been a palpable error of calculation, or where new facts are subsequently brought forward, which show that the former decision was erroneous, |