City of Des Moines v. Polk County

78 N.W. 249, 107 Iowa 525
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 4, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 78 N.W. 249 (City of Des Moines v. Polk County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Des Moines v. Polk County, 78 N.W. 249, 107 Iowa 525 (iowa 1899).

Opinion

Granger, J.

[528]*5281 [527]*527Appellant contends that the city is not ■competent to maintain this suit, even though the county is [528]*528liable for the fees. It will be well to recall, as facts in the case, that the fees which the city seeks to recover were earned by its police judge and its marshal, each of whom is paid, by the city, a salary in "full payment for all services rendered by him. The following is a part of chapter 56, Acts Seventeenth General Assembly:

“Section 1. . All cities of the first class, organized undei the general incorporation law, and cities organized under special charter, may provide by ordinance that all judges of police courts, or other city courts, and city marshals * *. * shall receive in lieu, of all fees now allowed by law or ordinance, such fixed salary, in monthly or quarterly installments, as may be provided by ordinance^ when not provided by law, which salary, when it shall have been fixed, shall not be increased or diminished during their terms of office.
“Sec. 2. No such officer of any such city shall receive, for his own use, any fees or other compensation for his services for such city, other than that which shall be provided as contemplated in section one of this act; but all such fees as are now or may hereafter be allowed by law for such services, shall by such officers, when collected, be paid into the city treasury, at such time and in such manner as may be prescribed by ordinance.
“Sec. 3. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed: provided that the intent of this act is not to abolish any fees now allowed by law, but to require the same to be paid into the city treasury.”

By the stipulation of facts, it appears that the city of Des Moines did, by ordinance, provide for the payment of its police judge and marshal fixed salaries, payable in monthly installments in lieu of all fees earned by them, and that all such fees belong to the city, and are to be paid into the city treasury. Notwithstanding these provisions of the law, and the facts as stipulated, it is urged by appellant that the city cannot maintain the suit; that it is not the assignee of the [529]*529police judge or of the city marshal; aud that the effect of the sections above quoted is not to transfer the fees taxed to the city, but that they contemplate that the officers shall themselves collect such fees, and, when collected, they shall, by the officers, 'be turned into the city treasury. As showing the method of collecting fees from a county when due for services of an ■officer, we quote Code 1873, section 3843, as follows: “In all cases where fees or compensation as distinguished from a certain and fixed salary, are, by the provisions of this title, to be paid any officer or other person out of the county or state treasury, no part of the same shall be-audited or paid, until a particular account has been filed in the auditor’s office of the county or state1, verified by affidavit, and showing clearly for what services such fee or compensation are claimed, and whem the same were rendered.” Reliance is, in part, placed on theprovisions of the foregoing section to show that it is the officer who earns the fee who is to collect it, because of the particular account to be filed, and the verification required-thereto. Reliance is also placed on Labour v. Polk County, 70 Iowa, 568, wherein it is held that an officer who has earned; the fees, and whose compensation is fixed by ordinance, and' paid, as in this case, is a proper party to sue and recover fees that are, when collected, to be paid into the city treasury..

We think appellant’s contention cannot be sustained.. The case of Labour v. Polk County holds that the officer is a proper party plaintiff to bring such a suit to- collect the fees and turn them into the treasury. It is not to be said but that, in doing so-, he acts in some capacity for the city. He is an officer of the city on whom the law enjoins the duty of collecting the' fees. He is to make the required account, verify it, and file it with the county auditor; and, under the'holding in Labour v. Polk County, he may bring suit to collect- them. The law is entirely silent as to who may bring such a suit, other than its general provisions that every action must be prosecuted in the name of the- real party in interest, with certain exceptions. Code 1873, sections 2543, 2544. There is [530]*530no ground for a pretense that the police judge or city marshal of Des Moines has any interest in the fees in question more than any other officer of the city has. There never has been a time that they had an interest in them, other than an authority implied from the law, to collect and turn them over to the city. The city has at all times been the party in interest. Taking the law. as it stood when the fees were earned, they were earned by officers chosen and paid by the city, and the law merely says that, when collected, they shall be turned into the city treasury. They could not be turned in before that time, and the language is a direction or command to any person, so having the fees, to turn them into' the treasury. If this suit should be prosecuted to final judgment, and a recovery be had for plaintiff, the language relied on by appellant would apply to the officer recovering the fees, whoever he might be, and he would be required to turn them into' the city treasury. While the law does, by a clear implication, devolve upon the officer earning the fees the duty of so presenting the accounts as to authorize a payment by the county, if correct, it does not, in terms or otherwise, take from the city the right to maintain a suit to recover what, under the plain terms of the law, belongs to it. The city comes clearly within the general provisions of the law as to being the real party in interest, so as to maintain the suit, unless there is some other provision to defeat its operation; and our attention is called to none. .It is simply thought that the law, by which the city is to own the fees, does not pass the ownership or right to the fees until collected. The fees are a compensation for the services of the officer, who has been paid by the city and has no compensation due him. Ilis only duty is an official one. .for the city. He is its agent. The situation of such an officer is not unlike that of an agent of a corporation, who is paid by it, and does the work for third parties, and is to collect pay therefor, and turn it in to' the corporation. There would be no dispute as to the right of such a corporation to maintain a suit. In such a case it would be the con[531]*531tract that would fix tbe rights of the parties; in this case it is the law. In that case the wages were earned for the corporation ; in this the fees are earned for the city. The cases of Upton v. Clinton County, 52 Iowa, 311, and Howland v. Wright County, 82 Iowa, 164, present no- such question. They deal with the right of an officer to compensation for services.

2 II. It is said that before the city can recover it must present the claims to the county in its own name, under the provisions of section 2610 of the Code of 1873, which provides that no- action shall be brought against any county on any unliquidated demand until the same has been presented to- the board of supervisors, and payment demanded.

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Bluebook (online)
78 N.W. 249, 107 Iowa 525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-des-moines-v-polk-county-iowa-1899.