2 F. Cas. 269 | U.S. Cir. Ct. | 1823
The parties concede, that the court have jurisdiction of this case under the act of 3d March, 1815, [3 Stat. 245,] c. 101, § 4. I meddle not, therefore, with that question; but shall content myself with the only point now in controversy.
' The fifth section of the act of 1822, c. 107. [3 Stat. 694,] authorizes the president, among other things, to appoint “a surveyor for the port of Eastport, in the district of Passamaquoddy.” The plaintiff was duly commissioned for that office, and claims in virtue thereof to be surveyor for the district of Passamaquoddy; and he supports his claim by reference to the eighth section, which grants ‘‘to the surveyor at Eastport for the district of Passamaquoddy five hundred dollars,” as his salary. There is no other surveyor authorized by law to be appointed in the district; and under this description the plaintiff is certainly entitled to receive this salary. But the defendant nevertheless as serts, that the surveyor appointed by this act, is merely surveyor of the port of Eastport; is entitled to perform duties only at that port; and can receive no fees accruing from services done out of that port. It appears to me, that this construction of the act is incorrect. It is true, that the first clause provides for the appointment of a surveyor “for the port of Eastport in the district of Passamaquod-dy;” and if there had been several surveyors authorized by law to be appointed in several other ports in that district, there might have been grounds to confine him to the duties connected with the port of Eastport. But no other surveyors are so authorized; and the clause, granting the salary, explains the ambiguity in the first clause, and shows that the surveyor so appointed is “the survey- or at Eastport” (that is, to reside at Eastport) “for the district of Passamaquoddy.” Indeed, it does not appear, that by law any such port as the “port of Eastport” is, in terms, recognized as a port of entry or delivery. The act of 1799, c. 128, § 2, [Bio. & D. Laws, —1 Stat. 027, c. 22,] provides that in Massachusetts “there shall be twenty-two dis