Michigan Cent. R. v. Harsha

134 F. 217, 67 C.C.A. 145, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4510
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided December 1, 1904·No. No. 1,313·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

BURTON, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from an order of the court below requiring the appellant to pay to W. D. Harsha, as clerk of the Circuit Court, $2,660 for receiving, keeping, and paying out $266,-000, within the meaning and intent of section 828, Rev. St. [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 635], This order was made upon á petition filed by the clerk praying that the Michigan Central Railroad Company be required to show cause why it should not be required to pay certain costs claimed by him, consisting of three items, to wit:

“One per cent on $266,000.00.................................... $2,660 06 For special services in examining, identifying, checking, canceling,
and assigning bonds....................'...................... 50 00
For service as clerk filing papers and entering orders............ 85
$2,710 85

The railroad company appeared in pursuance of the order to show cause, and did not contest the item of $50, nor that of 85 cents, but filed a demurrer to the claim for a commission of 1 per cent, upon $266,000. The demurrer was overruled, and, the defendant declining to plead further, there was a decree as prayed, with direction that execution should issue in favor of said Harsha. An appeal from this order was denied, upon the ground “that no appeal lies from an order or decree allowing costs only.” Upon application to this court and full argument we held that the appeal had been wrongly denied, and awarded a writ of mandamus. The appeal is now heard upon the merits. The question arises upon the petition and demurrer.

The petition stated the facts and circumstances upon which Mr. Harsha’s claim must stand or fall, and the substantial averments of that petition, together with those orders and decrees which were exhibits thereto, are stated in our opinion in the mandamus proceeding, reported as In re Michigan Central Railroad Company, 124 Fed. 727, 59 C. C. A. 643, and reference is now made to that opinion for a more detailed statement of the history of the claim now in question.

1. The motion to dismiss, upon the ground that the appeal is from a decree or order for costs only, must be overruled. The appealability of the decree, whether for technical costs or an allowance for special services, was fully considered and decided in the contest over the issuance of a mandamus.

2. Section 828, Rev. St. [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 635], provides, among other clerk’s fees, that he may receive “for receiving, keeping, and paying out money, in pursuance of any statute or order, one per centum on the amount so received, kept, and paid.” The foreclosure sale but of which this controversy arises was made by a special master. By the decree of sale the master was ordered to pay the proceeds of sale, except enough to pay costs, etc., to the mortgage trustee, complainant in the cause, the Farmers’ Eoan & Trust Company, as trus[219] tee for the bondholders. This the master did. The clerk, therefore, neither received, kept, nor paid out one dollar of the proceeds of sale thus received, kept, and paid out by the master, and was not entitled to any commission under the provision quoted. Whether, under section 995 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 711], the court should have made a different disposition and brought the fund into the care and under the responsibility of the clerk, and had it paid out by the clerk, we need not consider. A clerk’s commissions do not attach, as they did prior to this act, whenever money is subject to the order of the court, as was the case when Ex parte Prescott, 2 Gall. 146, Fed. Cas. No. 11,388, was decided, but only when he has actually received, kept, and paid it out.

In Re Goodrich, 4 Dill. 230, 10 Fed. Cas. 603, the order was that the defendant pay the money “into the registry of the court for the purpose of satisfying judgment and costs.” The defendant paid direct to the plaintiff’s attorneys. The clerk claimed 1 per cent, commission, under section 828, supra, upon the sums so paid. Judge Dillon disallowed the claim, saying that the 1 per cent, allowed by the statute “is for compensation to the clerk for the trouble and responsibility of actually receiving, keeping, and paying out money,” and that he “was not entitled to a commission on moneys which, although ordered to be, were not in fact, paid to him under the writs of mandamus.” In this construction, Judge Dillon followed Justice Miller in Upton v. Tribilcock, 10 Fed. Cas. 604, note. In Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. v. Dart, 91 Fed. 451, 33 C. C. A. 572, an opinion by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the claim of the clerk for a commission upon the surplus earnings of a receivership deposited by the receiver, by direction of the court, in a designated depository of the United States, to be paid out by the receiver under orders of the court, was disallowed. The ground of the decision was that, although deposited in the registry of the court, the fund was not subject to the clerk’s check, nor was he under any responsibility for it. To the same effect are the cases of Ex parte Plitt, 2 Wall. Jr. 453, Fed. Cas. No. 11,228; Leech v. Kay (C. C.) 4 Fed. 72; Easton v. Houston, etc., Ry. Co. (C. C.) 44 Fed. 718; N. W. Life Ins. Co. v. Quinn (C. C.) 69 Fed. 462; Johnson v. Southern B. & F. Ass’n (C. C.) 95 Fed. 922. This also seems to be the view of the Supreme Court. U. S. v. Kurtz, 164 U. S. 49, 53, 17 Sup. Ct. 15, 41 F. Ed. 346.

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Michigan Cent. R. v. Harsha, 134 F. 217, 67 C.C.A. 145, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4510 (6th Cir. 1904).

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