10 U.S.C. § 1479
Section 1479 · Death gratuity: delegation of determinations, payments
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case Hiatt v. Brown (1950)
Most recently applied in United States v. Jewson (August 1952)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
For the purpose of making immediate payments under section 1475 of this title, the Secretary concerned shall—
(1) authorize the commanding officer of a territorial command, installation, or district in which a survivor of a person covered by that section is residing to determine the beneficiary eligible for the death gratuity; and
(2) authorize a disbursing or certifying official of each of those commands, installations, or districts to make the payments to the beneficiary, or certify the payments due them, as the case may be.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
The word “territorial” is substituted for the words “military or naval”, since the subsection could only apply to that type of command, installation, or district. Clause (2) is substituted for 38:1132(2).
Amendments
1982—Par. (2). Pub. L. 97–258 substituted “official” for “officer”.