UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

A cadet at the West Point Military Academy is not an officer of the United States Army within the. meaning of §§ 1229, 1342, Rev.Stat., and, if delinquent, may be dismissed by the President without trial and conviction by court-martial.

Appellant filed a petition in the Court of Claims to have declared void his dismissal from the United States Military Academy at West Point, and for judgment for his pay as a cadet from July 27, 1883, to July 1, 1889, amounting to $3,417.

The appellant was duly appointed a cadet in the Military Academy on the first day of July, 1880, and served as such until the twenty-seventh of July, 1883, when he was summarily dismissed, by order of the President, upon charges of maltreating a new cadet upon guard, as well as other improper conduct. After the dismissal of appellant, another cadet was appointed to succeed him, was duly graduated from the Academy, and appointed and commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army, and subsequently a captain of the Twenty-fifth Regiment of Infantry.

The appellant, subsequently to his dismissal, presented petitions respectively to the Adjutant General of the Army and to the Secretary of War in which he asserted his innocence of the charges made against him, and prayed for reinstatement or trial by court-martial. He also presented a petition April 21, 1888, to the President, asking for a revocation of the order of dismissal, a trial by court-martial, and for an order assigning and appointing him to the Army as of the date of the assignment of the last graduate of his class. The petitions were all denied.

The Court of Claims held that he was not entitled to recover, and dismissed his petition. 38 Ct.Cl. 346. clubjuris

Page 196 U. S. 171