Baker County v. Benson

66 P. 815, 40 Or. 207, 1901 Ore. LEXIS 148
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 66 P. 815 (Baker County v. Benson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baker County v. Benson, 66 P. 815, 40 Or. 207, 1901 Ore. LEXIS 148 (Or. 1901).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion.

This is a mandamus proceeding to compel the defendant, as county clerk and ex officio clerk of the circuit court for Union County, to perform an act which it is alleged the law specially enjoins upon him as a duty resulting from his office. The facts are that by an act of the legislative assembly which took effect March 1,1901, purporting to annex a part of Union County to the County of Baker, the clerk of Union County was required, within thirty days after said act should become operative, to make out and deliver to the clerk of Baker County certain transcripts, and also to deliver certain original papers on file in his office: Laws, 1901, p. 435. An alternative writ, averring that the defendant refused and still refuses to discharge the duty so enjoined upon him, having been issued, commanding him to perform the same, or show cause why he had not done so, for return thereto he denied the material averments contained therein, and alleged, in effect, the following separate defenses: (1) That he is entitled to ten cents per folio for mailing transcripts of the records and files of his office; that, having been requested to comply with the provis[210]*210ions of said act, lie demanded that the plaintiff pay or agree to pay him, upon delivery of said transcripts, his legal fees therefor; that the plaintiff refused to pay or to agree to pay such fees, or any part thereof, whereupon he refused and still refuses to make said transcripts, or to deliver the same or the original papers to plaintiff. (2) That the territory attempted to be so annexed includes taxable property of the value of about $450,000; that the taxes levied thereon by Union County for the year 1901 amounted to about $12,000, and the delinquent taxes due thereon about $1,100, which constitute a part of the fund out of which Union County must pay its current expenses and pro rata share of the state taxes for the present year; and that it has a vested right to said tax, of which it cannot be deprived by the legislative assembly. (3) That by an act of the legislative assembly approved February 27,1901 (Laws, 1901, p. 175), the state taxes for the succeeding five years were apportioned among the several counties of the state, based upon their average assessment for the five preceding years, and in the assessment of Union County for that period was included the valuation of the property attempted to be annexed to Baker County; that the rate of taxation so demanded from Union County for state purposes is .0262, while that required of Baker County is only .0195; that in the attempt to annex said territory no provision was made for reimbursing Union County for any part of said taxes to be paid by it for the five years ensuing on account of the taxable property in said territory, thereby imposing upon said county an unequal rate of assessment and taxation, which, if upheld, would compel it annually to pay about $3,000 more than its pro rata share of the state tax; and that the defendant is a taxpayer in said county, and as such has a beneficial interest in the rate of taxation imposed upon it. (4) That some of the calls describing the boundary of said territory attempted to be attached to Baker County do not meet or intersect, thereby rendering the description void for uncertainty. (5) That the act attempting to change the boundaries of Union County is local and special, and, not having been submitted to the electors residing [211]*211in the territory attempted to be annexed, to take effect or not upon their vote, the act contravenes Article I, § 21, of the Constitution of Oregon, and is therefore void. (6) That by the act of the legislative assembly filed in the office of the Secretary of State February 7, 1899 (Laws, 1899, p. 7), a regular decennial apportionment bill was passed, repealing all prior acts in relation thereto, whereby the counties of Morrow, Umatilla, and Union were constituted the Twenty-Second, Union and Wallowa the Twenty-Fourth, and Baker, Harney, and Malheur the Twenty-Fifth, senatorial district, each district being entitled to one senator; that, at the time the enumeration was made upon which said apportionment was based, the territory so attempted to be annexed to Baker County contained between three thousand and four thousand inhabitants, and the attempt of the legislative assembly, within the period of ten years from said apportionment, to change the boundaries of the Twenty-Second and of the Twenty-Fourth senatorial districts, and transfer said inhabitants to the Twenty-Fifth, contravenes sections 3, 5, 6, and 7 of Article IV of the state constitution. A demurrer to each of said defenses on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constiüite a defense having been sustained, the defendant declined further to plead or answer, whereupon the court awarded a peremptory mandamus, from which judgment he appeals.

Examining the separate defenses in the order in which they are alleged, the first question to be considered is whether the defendant, as clerk of Union County, can be compelled to deliver the transcripts required without being paid therefor by Baker County. His counsel contend that the statute has prescribed his salary, which is in lieu of all fees or other compensation for his services (Laws, 1895, p. 77), except for furnishing to private parties copies of the records and files of his office, for which he is entitled to charge them ten cents a folio (Laws, 1901, p. 285); that Baker County is a private party, within the meaning of said act, and obliged to pay the fees prescribed for the performance of the duty enjoined, and, not having done so upon a demand therefor, the court erred in [212]*212issuing the peremptory writ. Plaintiff’s counsel maintain, however, that, the act requiring the defendant to prepare and deliver the transcripts and papers not having provided for the payment of any fees, the work required is a part of his official duty, for the performance of which he is entitled to no compensation other than such salary.

1. The rule is well settled that the right of á public officer to compensation results from the constitution or a statute, and, unless the fees or salary is so attached to his office, he is entitled to none: Steubenville v. Culp, 43 Am. Rep. 417; Fitzsimmons v. City of Brooklyn (N. Y.), 7 N. E. 787 (55 Am. Rep. 835); Conner v. City of New York, 2 Sandf. 355; Butler v. Pennsylvania, 51 U. S. (10 How.) 402. When the compensation of a public officer is not limited by the constitution, he takes his office subject to such additional burdens as the legislative assembly may impose, and must discharge the attached duties without remuneration, unless the law provides for the payment thereof: Haynes v. State, 3 Humph. 480 (39 Am. Dec. 189); Turpen v. Commissioners, 7 Ind. 172; Board v. Blake, 21 Ind. 32; People v. Devlin, 33 N. Y. 269 (88 Am. Dec. 377); Palmer v. City of New York, 2 Sandf. 318. The constitution makes no provision for the payment to a county clerk of any compensation, and, his duties being subject, to legislative control, the question arises, has the statute under consideration imposed upon him the burden of preparing the transcripts required, without providing for any fees therefor Í The rule is inflexible that a public officer can demand only such fees as the law has prescribed for the performance of his official duties: Jackson v. Siglin, 10 Or. 93; Pugh v. Good, 19 Or. 85 (23 Pac. 827); Houser v. Umatilla County, 30 Or. 486 (49 Pac.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
66 P. 815, 40 Or. 207, 1901 Ore. LEXIS 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baker-county-v-benson-or-1901.