Charles M. Berkey v. The United States

ON DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOE SUMMARY JUDGMENT AND PLAINTIFF’S CROSS-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

DAVIS, Judge.

This case calls upon us to X-ray an opaque piece of legislation relating to veterans who die while institutionalized in federal facilities. The basic issue is whether Congress has forbidden the payment to plaintiff of the retirement pay accumulated by his late father, a retired Army officer, during the many years the father was an incompetent patient in a Veterans Administration hospital.

Plaintiff is the only child of Captain Charles M. Hurt, Jr., who entered the Veterans Administration…