County of Carroll v. Durham

120 Ill. App. 330, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 657
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedApril 25, 1905
DocketGen. No. 4,435
StatusPublished

This text of 120 Ill. App. 330 (County of Carroll v. Durham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
County of Carroll v. Durham, 120 Ill. App. 330, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 657 (Ill. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Dibell

delivered the opinion of the court.

During the impanelment of á jury in the case of The People against Estelle and others in the Circuit Court of Carroll County, the regular panel of the petit jury was exhausted by challenges. The court ordered a venire to issue for fifty persons having the qualifications of jurors, to fill the panel for that trial. The defendants objected to the service of said writ by the sheriff. 'The court then appointed Greorge S. Durham a special bailiff to serve said writ, and he served it, and afterward brought this suit against the county of Carroll to recover the fees and mileage to which he claimed to be by law entitled for that service. He recovered a verdict and a judgment for §50.30, from which the county prosecutes this appeal.

Section 19 of the act of March 29, 1872, relating to Fees and Salaries (being chapter 53 of the Revised Statutes of 1874), is headed, “ Sheriff’s Fees,” and contains the following: ‘‘ For summoning each juror in counties of first class, fifty cents; second class, thirty cents; third class, twenty cents; with five cents mileage each way in all counties.” Carroll county is in the first class. Section 13 of chapter 78 of the Revised Statutes relating to jurors, enacts that when, by reason of challenge in the selection of a jury for xthe trial of any cause the regular panel shall be exhausted, “ the court may direct the sheriff to summon a sufficient number of persons having the qualifications of jurors to fill the panel for the pending trial; but, upon objection by either party to the cause to the sheriff summoning a sufficient number of persons to fill the panel, the court shall appoint a special bailiff to summon such persons; provided, the same person shall not be appointed special bailiff more than once at any term of court.” Plaintiff introduced the writ directed to him, and his return thereon, showing service upon fifty persons, for which service he charged upon the writ $25, and also showing rather blindly that he had traveled 506 miles in serving the writ, for which he charged upon the writ $25.30 for mileage, making a total of $50.30. Plaintiff was a witness in his own behalf, and was asked by his counsel what he did in reference to serving that writ. Defendant objected upon the ground that the return should show how he executed the writ, and that it could not be explained by parol. The court held with defendant, and plaintiff’s counsel then elicited from the witness that his return on the writ was true and correct as to the number of miles and as to the names and numbers of persons served, and that he did the work. While we are of opinion that in this suit the return was not conclusive and that the lack of definiteness as to the number of miles traveled by plaintiff in serving the writ should have been aided by parol proof on that subject, yet as defendant kept out such proof by its objection, we think it should be held that the return and the oral proof which was admitted sufficiently shows that he traveled 506 miles in serving the writ. Hahl v. Brooks, 213 Ill. 134. The court instructed the jury that if plaintiff was so appointed special bailiff to summon persons to serve as jurors in said court, and under authority of such appointment did summon persons to act as jurors, then he was entitled to recover from defendant fifty cents for each person served, together with five cents mileage each way traveled in serving each person so summoned. The verdict followed the proof and said instruction, and if such special bailiff is entitled to the fees prescribed by the statute for the performance of like services by a sheriff, then the verdict and judgment should stand.

Defendant showed by plaintiff on cross-examination that at the time he was so appointed special bailiff he was a constable of the town of Woodland in said county, but the court, on motion of plaintiff, excluded that answer. Defendant sought to prove that fact affirmatively in making its case, but the court sustained an objection thereto. Section 41 of said Act of 1872 relating to “ Fees and Salaries ” reads, in part, as follows: “ The fees of constables in counties of the first and second class, for any service to be rendered by them, shall be as follows: * * * For each day’s attendance in the Circuit Court when required, to be paid out of the county treasury, two dollars and fifty cents.” Plaintiff performed the service in question in two days. Defendant claims that plaintiff was a constable attending in the Circuit Court, and that under the statute just quoted he was entitled to $2.50 per day for that service, and no more; and after the suit was begun, it tendered him $7.05, the total costs then due in the case, and $5 as his compensation for the two days’ time spent in serving said venire, and $10 in addition, and kept said tender good by bringing the money into court; and sought to plead said tender, though the sufficiency of the pleading is questioned. The first question is, therefore, whether, if defendant had been permitted to prove that plaintiff was a constable at the time he was selected to perform those services, it would have followed that it was his official duty to execute the writ, and whether in such case the compensation fixed therefor by law was $2.50 per day. Section 55 of the Act of 1827 concerning “ Justices of the Peace and Constables ” (Eevised Laws of 1833, page 400), made it the duty of the clerk of the County Commissioners Court to notify the sheriff whenever a person was appointed and qualified as constable, and required the sheriff to keep a list of the constables within his county and to summon four constables (if necessary) of his count}*- to attend at each term of the Circuit Court, taking them in rotation; and required constables so summoned to attend and act under the sheriff as his deputies during the sitting of such court, under penalty of being fined for contempt of court for failing to attend or refusing to act. The Act of 1827 in relation to fees (Eevised Laws of 1833, p. 294), gave constables a per diem to be paid out of the county treasury for “ each day’s attendance on the Circuit Court when required.” These acts were repealed by chapter 90 of the Bevised Statutes of 1S45. The same provision substantially, requiring the sheriff to summon constables to attend each term, and requiring constables so summoned to attend, was re-enacted in section 87 of chapter 59, entitled “Justices of the Peace and Constables,” in the Bevised Statutes of 1845 (Bevised Statutes of 1845, p. 329). The same provision for a per diem, to be paid constables out of the county treasury for “ each day’s attendance on the Circuit Court when required,” was embodied in section 19 of chapter 41, entitled, “ Fees and Salaries,” of the Bevised Statutes of 1845 (Bevised Statutes of 1845, p. 247), and in section 41 of the Act of March' 29, 1872, entitled, “ Fees and Salaries” (now known as chapter 53 of the Bevised Statutes of 1874), the compensation having been increased to $2.50 per day. The statutory provision which had been in force from 1827 requiring constables, when summoned by the sheriff, to attend the Circuit Court and act under the sheriff as his deputies during the sitting of the court, was still in force when the provision giving constables fees for attendance on the Circuit Court, when required, was reenacted in 1872; but the law requiring such attendance was repealed in 1874, and was not re-enacted. The fee remained, but there was no longer a statute under which constables could be required to perform the service.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 Ill. App. 330, 1905 Ill. App. LEXIS 657, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-carroll-v-durham-illappct-1905.