Evans v. United States ex rel. Phillips

U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
Evans v. United States ex rel. Phillips, 19 App. D.C. 207 (D.C. Cir. 1902)
1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 5379

Evans v. United States ex rel. Phillips

Opinion of the Court

Mr. Justice Shepard

delivered the opinion of the Court:

Nor the reasons given in the opinion filed this day in the ease No. 1,101, of Evans, Commissioner, etc. v. The U. S. ex rel. Henry D. Phillips, ante, p. 202, it was error to enter judgment against the appellant after the dismissal of the action as against the Secretary of the Interior.

This conclusion, as in that case, renders it unnecessary to consider whether the Commissioner erred in his determination of the relator’s right to the fee claimed, or whether the determination of that question involved the exercise of discretion.

It may be.added, however, that if the relator’s contention be well founded as to his right to demand and receive the fee from the pensioner for his services in the matter of her accrued pension, as well as to recover the same from the Commissioner because illegally exacted under compulsion and paid under protest — in respect of which we express no opinion — he would have a plain remedy by action at law against the Commissioner.

Nor this reason alone, the petition for mandamus ought to have been dismissed. There is nothing better settled than that the writ of mandamus will not be granted in any case *210where the party applying has another remedy. Lochren v. Long, 6 App. D. C. 486, 506.

The judgment will be reversed with costs and the cause remanded with direction to dismiss the petition as to the appellant. It is so ordered. Reversed.

Reference

Full Case Name
EVANS, COMMISSIONER OF PENSIONS v. UNITED STATES, ex rel. PHILLIPS
Status
Published
Syllabus
Mandamus; Parties; Pension Fees. Where a pension attorney sought by mandamus proceedings against the Commissioner of Pensions and Secretary of the Interior, to compel the repayment of an attorney’s fee in a pension case paid by the relator under protest to the Commissioner, who claimed it had been exacted illegally from the pensioner, the Commissioner having declined to make the repayment and on appeal -having been sustained by the Secretary, it was held, reversing a judgment of the lower court dismissing the petition for the writ as to the Secretary, to which the relator took no exception, and directing it to issue as prayed against the Commissioner, (1) that it was error to grant the writ as against the Commissioner after dismissal of the petition as to the Secretary; following Evans, Commissioner, etc. v. U. S. ex rel: Phillips, ante, p. 202; and (2) that if the relator’s contention was well founded as to his right to receive the fee from the pensioner and to recover it from the Commissioner, as' having been paid under protest, he would have a remedy at law against the Commissioner, and was, therefore, not entitled to the writ of mandamus; following Loehren v. Long, 6 App. D. C. 486.