Fay v. Barber

47 A. 180, 72 Vt. 55, 1899 Vt. LEXIS 128
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedNovember 23, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 47 A. 180 (Fay v. Barber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fay v. Barber, 47 A. 180, 72 Vt. 55, 1899 Vt. LEXIS 128 (Vt. 1899).

Opinion

Thompson, J.

The defendant is state auditor. The petitioner is a justice of the peace and acted as such in the cases hereinafter mentioned. He brings this proceeding to compel the petitionee as such auditor, to allow and draw an order on the treasurer of the State for certain costs alleged to have accrued in said cases. For the purposes of this trial, it is taken that the allegations of the petition are true, and that the fees constituting such costs were reasonable and correct, if authorized by law. In disposing of the questions presented by this case, the court does not in any way consider or pass upon the discretionary power of the state auditor to refuse to allow bills of costs which he believes to be unjust, unreasonable or fraudulent, although the same may have been taxed by a court.

The first bill of costs mentioned in the petition, accrued in the case of State v. Fred Darling, in which the respondent was [57]*57convicted of being an habitual truant and sentenced to be confined in the Vermont Industrial School for the term of four years. The costs in question in this case are $7.32, costs of prosecution, and $13.49, costs of commitment. The only punishment for habitual truancy is confinement in the Vermont Industrial School for not less than twenty-sis weeks. V. S. 718. Justice and municipal courts are given concurrent jurisdiction with the County Courts in prosecutions for this offense. V. S. 721. Unless these costs are payable by the state, there is no provision by law for their payment from any treasury.

V. S. secs. 2016 and 2019 contain the general law relating to the payment of fines and costs. Section 2016 is as follows:

“ Fines, forfeitures and penalties, imposed on a person for an offense, or for the breach of a penal law,with costs, unless the same are otherwise disposed of by law, shall, if the prosecution is commenced and tried before a justice, belong and be paid to the treasury of the town, or if the prosecution is upon complaint of a village police officer, to the treasurer of the village in which the offense is committed; but if the prosecution is commenced and tried before the County or Supreme Court, the same shall belong and be paid to the treasury of the state, provided that in all cases appealed and entered in County Court, the fines and costs when imposed, shall be payable to the State, and the State shall pay the justice bill of costs.”

Section 2019 is as follows :

The costs of prosecution for the breach of a penal law or other offense shall be paid out of the treasury to which the penalty by law belongs; but if the respondent is committed to the House of Correction they shall be paid'out of the state treasury.”

The words “ for the breach of a penal law or other offense ” in section 2019, clearly include habitual truancy. It is quite clear that the legislature did not intend to provide for prosecutions for this offense before a justice of the peace, but at the same time to provide that no costs should be paid in such prosecution from any treasury, unless the punishment imposed was a fine. [58]*58There is no construction of section 2019 which will impose the payment of these costs upon the City of Barre. It is apparent that the intention in enacting this section was to cast the burden of paying the costs of the prosecution upon the state, if the punishment imposed accrued to its benefit or use by reason of its having the custody of the respondent and such service as he might render, if the punishment was by confinement in any of its institutions maintained for the detention of offenders against the criminal laws. The word “penalty ” as used in this section includes such punishment, as well as fines and forfeitures. Habitual truancy is a criminal offense, the only penalty for which, as we have seen, is confinement in the Yermont Industrial School. Under this section, as we construe it, the state must pay the costs of prosecution and commitment in prosecutions for this offense.

In tlie case of State v. Nicholas, the question presented is whether the justice is entitled to the following items of costs: thirty-four cents for the warrant, twenty-five cents for record, twenty-four cents for subpoena for four witnesses, and seventeen cents for a continuance of the cause. In the case of State v. Abbott, the question is whether the justice is entitled to twenty cents for the venire summoning a jury in said cause.

By Acts 1882, No. 103, sec. 3, it was enacted as follows :

“ There shall be paid to justices in criminal cases in lieu of fees heretofore paid in cases disposed of without trial, one dollar and fifty cents; a trial by court two dollars; a trial by jury two dollars and fifty cents; for making and returning copy of record in cases where the respondent is bound up, one dollar; for taking and returning an inquest on the dead or on the burning of buildings, three dollars.”

By this section it was expressly provided that the fees therein given should be in lieu of fees theretofore paid in such cases and such was the unquestioned law from 1882 to 1894.

Said section 3 was amended by Acts 1894, No. 153, sec. 1, so as to read as follows : “ There shall be paid to justices in criminal causes, one dollar and fifty cents, if disposed of without trial; [59]*59if by trial, two dollars; if by trial by jury, two dollars and fifty cents; and if the trial (by court or jury) requires continuous attendance to the exclusion of other cases before the same court for more than one day, two dollars additional for each subsequent day of snch actual attendance.” This section as amended is now incorporated into Y. S. 5387. The petitioner contends that the omission of the words, “ in lieu of fees heretofore paid,” in the section as amended and in Y. S. 5387, shows that the legislature intended that the sums named in section 3 as amended should be received by the justice as compensation for his time spent in disposing of a criminal case by trial or otherwise, and in addition to services necessarily performed by him, represented by the items in question. The defendant contends that section 5387 is to be construed in respect to criminal causes as if the words “ in lieu of fees heretofore paid,” were retained in it. Acts 1894, No. 153, being an enactment independent of the revision of the laws made at the same session of the legislature, and now embodied in Y. S., it cannot be said\that these words were omitted by the revisers to condense the language of the statute, but under the apprehension that its meaning was not thereby changed. Y. S. 5387 so far as it embodies Acts 1894, No. 153, sec 1, must be construed as a continuation thereof. Y. S. 5460. Among other fees to justices enumerated in Y. S. 5387 omitted from Acts 1882, No. 183, sec. 3 by the amendment thereof by Acts 1894, are the following: “If the respondent is bound up, one dollar for making and returning copy of record; for taking and returning inquests on the dead, or buildings burned three dollars for the first day and two dollars for each day thereafter actually spent in the hearing of the evidence.” Acts 1898, No. 134. Among other fees enumerated in this section, relating solely to criminal causes are the following : “ For each warrant for criminals, thirty-four cents ;” for each mittimus thirty-four cents.” These provisions of this section are inoperative, if it is construed so as to limit the fees of justices in criminal causes to the fees mentioned in sec. 1, No. 153, Acts 1894.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Forant
719 A.2d 399 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1998)
State v. Lewis
711 A.2d 669 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1998)
United States v. Leslie Salt Co.
350 U.S. 383 (Supreme Court, 1956)
State v. Howard
74 A. 392 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1909)
Campbell v. State
87 N.E. 212 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1909)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 A. 180, 72 Vt. 55, 1899 Vt. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fay-v-barber-vt-1899.