Hetfield

The petitioner, Hetfield, a duly commissioned Lieutenant Commander of tho United States Navy, in active service, asks for a writ of *724 mandamus, directed to respondent, Barber, United States naval disbursing officer, commanding said disbursing officer to pay to Hetfield certain amounts of salary withheld from said Hetfield by the disbursing officer under orders of the Secretary of the Navy and the Comptroller General of the United States.

The salary of Hetfield, which is definitely fixed by statute, is made payable monthly in the sum of $365.75. The respondent is now-retaining and refusing to pay over to the petitioner 20 per cent, of the salary due petitioner from April 1, 1924, to September 15, 1924, amounting in the aggregate to $402.35. The retention and withholding of this amount is made because it is asserted by respondent and the Comptroller General that Hetfield has been erroneously paid the sum of $2,870.71 from the Treasury of the United States on account of alleged dependency allowances concerning his mother from April 22, 1919, to March 31, 1922.

It appears that, although at one time it had been determined and decided by the government that Hetfield was entitled to…