Abbey v. Fish

23 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403
Ohio Supreme Court·Decided December 15, 1872·Published

Opinion

McIlvaine, J.

The original action, in which Abney was plaintiff and Fish defendant, was brought into the Court of Common Pleas of Cuyahoga county by appeal, and the record therein made, shows the following state of facts:

1. In the year 1858, one William Hamilton recovered a judgment against one Robert Martin, in the same court, for $150 .damages, and $63.73, his costs therein taxed.

2. Of the fees taxed in Hamilton’s bill of costs were $6.45 earned by the plaintiff' Abbey as sheriff of said county, which, together with other fees of the plaintiff in the costs of increase, had not been paid.

3. On the 17th of October, 1854, Hamilton sold and assigned to the defendant Fish, who had been his attorney of record in the action, “all his right, title, and interest in and to said judgment for $150 damages, and $63.73, his costs.”

4. Fish, as such assignee, having received partial payments from Martin, afterward, on the 20th of March, 186», recovered a judgment, in his own name, against Martin, for the balance of said judgment for damages and costs, and also the costs of increase.

5. On the 18th of May, 1860, Fish, by an arrangement [410]*410with Martin and one Wagner, received full payment of the last-named judgment, and the same was discharged.

Upon this state of facts, the Court of Common Pleas rendered judgment against Fish, and in favor of Abbey, for the amount of his unpaid fees taxed in the judgment of Hamilton v. Martin.

On petition in error in the District Court,, the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas was reversed, and this-proceeding is prosecuted to reverse the judgment of the District Court.

Whether the District Court erred or not depends upon the effect to be given to several acts of the legislature, in pari materia, in force at the time Hamilton recovered the-judgment for his costs against Martin.

The defendant in error claims that the judgment for costs-in favor of Hamilton, vested in him “the absolute and exclusive ownership of the property” therein, and “the absolute and exclusive right to control, and have and enjoy the fruits of it,” and rests his claim upon the provisions of the act of March 9, 1885, entitled “an act to regulate the-taxation and collection of costs,” S. & C. 643-645; and section 8 of an act of the same date, entitled an “ act to amend the act entitled an act to regulate the practice of the judicial courts,” which provided, “ that in all cases, except in those where it is otherwise provided by this act or the act to which this is an amendment, the party recovering final judgment shall be entitled to recover costs.” The first-named act provides:

“ Sec. 1. That in all suits, motions, and proceedings,, either at law or in chancery, prosecuted after the taking effect of this act, in any of the courts of this state, the costs of the parties shall be taxed and entered of record separately.
“Sec. 2. That on the rendition of judgment, in any ease, the costs of the party recovering only, together with Ms debt or damages, shall be carried into his judgment;, and the costs of the party against whom judgment shall be-[411]*411rendered shall be stated in a separate clause of the record or docket entry.
“ Sec. 3. That the clerk or justice of the peace, issuing execution for such judgment, as aforesaid, shall indorse thereon the amount of the costs of the party condemned, which costs shall be collected by the officer to whom the writ may be directed, in the same manner and at the same time in which the judgment mentioned in the execution shall be collected.
“ Sec. 4. That when the party recovering shall neglect to sue out execution immediately, or after execution shall be returned without satisfaction of costs, the clerk may, for his own benefit, or shall, at the request of any person entitled to fees in the bill of costs, taxed against either party, and by order of the court, issue against the party, indebted to such clerk or other person, for such fees, whether plaintiff or defendant, an execution to compel the party to pay his own costs, in the following form,” etc.

On the other hand, the plaintiff in error claims that the judgment for costs in favor of the successful party is taken and must be held for the benefit of the persons entitled to-fees in the taxed bill of costs, that is to say, for the benefit-of the officers or other persons who have earned the fees-taxed in the bill of costs to the extent that they have not been paid, and for the benefit of the party in whose favor the judgment was rendered to the extent he may have paid fees. And in support of this claim he insists that the act of March 18, 1839, entitled “an act for the disposition of’ unclaimed costs,” must be construed in connection with the-acts above named.

The latter act provides as follows:

“ Sec. 1. That the'sheriff of each county shall pay to the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of his said county all costs collected, or which may hereafter be collected by such sheriff' or his deputies;” .... “but nothing herein contained shall prevent a sheriff from paying costs to parties, entitled thereto.”

Section 2 provides for the advertisement of certified lists of moneys remaining in the hands of clerks for a certain period.

[412]*412“ Sec. 3. All such advertised fees or costs, debt or damages, as shall remain in the hands of the clerk or former clerk, at the expiration of one year from the first day of the term at which the said certified list shall be set up on the door of the court-house, shall be by said clerks paid over to the treasurer of the county; and any person entitled to any costs or fees, debt or damages, so paid over, shall be entitled to an order for the same upon the county treasury, upon the certificate of the clerk by whom they have been paid over, or his successor in office.”

The question for determination is one of legislative intent simply, and whatever might be, or may have been, the construction placed upon the several acts of March 9, 1835, we are satisfied that the law, as it stood at the time Hamilton recovered his judgment for costs against Martin, can not be ascertained without considering the policy and purpose of the legislature as manifested in the act of 1839. And we are all agreed that the terms, “the parties entitled thereto,” .and “any person entitled to any costs or fees” contained in this act, were intended to and do include and mean the persons, whether officers or others, who earned the fees taxed in the bill of costs, and whose fees have not been paid, as well as the party in whose name the judgment for costs was taken; and we are further satisfied that the party in whose name the judgment is rendered, is entitled to receive the costs collected by the sheriff, only to the extent that he may have paid them to the persons who earned them.

This being the true construction of the latest expression of legislative will upon the subject, it follows that the party in whose name a judgment for costs may have been rendered, is not the absolute owner thereof, and entitled in his own right and for his own benefit to moneys collected thereon, except to the extent that he may have paid the taxable fees.

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Abbey v. Fish, 23 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403 (Ohio 1872).

23 Ohio St. (N.S.) 403 (Abbey v. Fish) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.