Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 71.djvu/174

 138

PUBLIC LAW 85-56-JUNE 17, 1957

[71 S T A T.

amount as would equal the total sum by which his pension, compensation, or retirement pay has been reduced under this section. If treatment or care is terminated by the veteran against medical advice or as the result of disciplinary action the amount by which any pension, compensation, or retirement pay is reduced hereunder, shall be paid to him at the expiration of six months after such termination or, in the event of his prior death, as provided in paragraph (2) of this subsection; and the pension, compensation, or retirement pay of any veteran leaving against medical advice or as the result of discil)linary action shall, upon a succeeding readmission for treatment or care, be subject to reduction, as herein provided, from the date of such readmission, but if such subse(iuent treatment or care is continued until discharge therefrom upon certification, by the officer in charge of the hospital, institution, or home in which treatment or care was furnished, that maximum benefits have been received or that release is approved, the veteran shall be paid in a lump sum such additional amount as would equal the total sum by which his pension, compensation, or retirement pay has been reduced under this section after such readmission. (2)(A) In the event of the death of any veteran subject to the t)rovisions of this section, while receiving hospital treatment, institutional or domiciliary care, or before payment of any lump sum authorized herein, such lump sum shall be paid in the following order of precedence: First, to the spouse; second, if the decedent left no spouse, or if the spouse is dead at time of settlement, then to the children (without regard to their age or marital status) in equal parts; third, if no spouse or child, then to the father and mother in equal parts; fourth, if eitlier the father or mother is dead, then to the one surviving; fifth, if there is no spouse, child, father, or mother at the time of settlement, then to the brothers and sisters in equal parts. If there are no persons in the classes named to whom payment may be made under this paragraph, no payment shall be made, except there may be paid only so much of the lump sum as may be necessary to reimburse a person who bore the expenses of last sickness or burial, but no part of the lump sum shall be used to reimburse any political subdivision of the United States for expenses incurred in the last sickness or burial of such veteran. (B) No payment shall be made under this paragraph (2) unless claim therefor is filed with the Veterans' Administration within five years after the death of the veteran, except that if any person so entitled under this paragraph is under legal disability at the time of death of the veteran, such five-year period of limitation shall run from the termination or removal of the legal disability. (b)(1) Where any veteran having neither wife, child, nor dependent parent is being furnished hospital treatment, institutional or domiciliary care by the Veterans' Administration, and is rated by the Veterans' Administration in accordance with regulations as being incompetent by reason of mental illness, the pension, compensation, or retirement pay of such veteran shall be subject to the provisions of subsection (a) of this section; however, no payment of a lump sum herein authorized shall be made until after the expiration of six months following a finding of competency. (2) In any case where the estate of such incompetent veteran derived from any source equals or exceeds $1,500, further payments of such benefits (except retired pay, but including emergency officers' retirement pay) shall not be made until the estate is reduced to $500; however, the amount which would be payable but for this subsection shall be paid to the veteran as provided for the lump sum in paragraph (1) of this subsection but in the event of the veteran's death no part thereof shall be payable.

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