Sargent v. Board of County Commissioners

21 Colo. 158
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedApril 15, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 21 Colo. 158 (Sargent v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sargent v. Board of County Commissioners, 21 Colo. 158 (Colo. 1895).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Campbell

delivered the opinion, of the court.

The plaintiff in error for the first time urges in this court that the fee act is unconstitutional, in that the manner of its passage, prescribed by the constitution:, was not observed by the legislature; but this point was not raised in the court below, nor is it preserved in the record or in the assignment [162]*162of errors. Under the decision of Marean v. Stanley, ante, p. 43, plaintiff in error cannot now be heard to make this objection. Hence the questions to be determined in this controversy involve merely the construction of section 4 of the fee act and section 11 of the salary act.

The provisions applicable to this case are as follows: From said section 4 : First. “ Mileage for each mile actually and necessarily traveled, in serving each writ, sirbposna or other process, in counties of the * * * fourth class, ten cents.” Second. “ For transporting prisoners, besides actual expenses, necessarily incurred, per mile, in counties of the * * * fourth class, twenty cents.” From section 11 the following two excerpts: Third. “The sheriffs in the several counties in this state shall receive as their only compensation for their services rendered, an annual salary, to be paid quarterly out of the fees, commissions and emoluments of their respective offices, and not otherwise.” Fourth. “ In counties of all other classes (than those of the first class) he (the sheriff) shall be allowed actual traveling expenses which shall be paid out of and not exceeding a mileage at the rate of ten cents per mile, actually and necessarily traveled in the performance of duty.”

It must be remembered that in the discharge of his official duties the sheriff gets no per diem except for his attendance upon courts of record when in session, and even this is to be accounted for by him and turned into his fee fund. He gets a salary, but whether or not that salary is paid depends upon whether the fees to be charged and collected by him will in amount be sufficient therefor. The fees which he is entitled to charge under the fee act are certain compensation by way of lump sums for the doing of the various things required of him, and mileage at a certain rate per mile necessarily traveled in the performance of such duties. There are many services performed by the sheriff for which, if the fee act alone is considered, he gets either no compensation at all, or a fee less in amount than the actual cost to the sheriff in the rendering of such service. A large part of a sheriff’s official [163]*163duty consists in summoning jurors, serving process upon parties and subpoenas upon witnesses in civil and criminal cases. To do this, he must travel, frequently in counties where there are no railroads, and where the actual traveling expenses exceed the compensation which the fee act prescribes for such services. The fees for transporting prisoners and for certain other duties as prescribed in this act were doubtless based upon this fact known to the legislature, and while the compensation in a given case may seem disproportionately large to the service rendered in that case, yet-, considering the fact to which we have just adverted, and the general nature and scope of the sheriff’s official duties, the fees prescribed in this act, together with the provision for traveling expenses found in the salary act, may be considered as a fair way of equalizing his compensation.

Bearing these considerations in mind, we will proceed first to dispose of the controverted questions embraced in causes of action Nos. 2, 4, 5, and 6.

1. Under the second cause of action, the sheriff was paid by the county the fee and mileage prescribed by the fee act for serving a venire for jurors. A deputy sheriff served the writ. The compensation prescribed is given for the service,, whether performed by the sheriff or his deputy; and out of such fees the sheriff must, if the writ is served by his deputy, compensate the latter. The first item was properly disallowed. The second and third items, if they were necessary parts of the traveling expenses paid, should have been allowed, but the facts given are too indefinite to enable us to pass upon this question.

2. Services such as were rendered and described under the fourth cause of action relate to a preliminary examination before a justice of the peace, and the costs thereof are to be paid or not by the county commissioners, in their discretion, and we are not at liberty to review the same. Mills’ An. Stats., sec. 699; Session Laws (1889), p. 100; Board of Commissioners v. Graham, 4 Colo. 201.

3. The fee claimed by the sheriff as stated in the fifth [164]*164cause of action was for one day’s attendance by him before a justice of the peace in the trial of a criminal action. While a constable is allowed a per diem for his attendance at a trial before a justice of the peace, we find no statutory authority for giving to the sheriff any such compensation. He is allowed his per diem for attendance before a court of record, but not before a justice of the peace.

4. As to the sixth cause of action, it appears that at the trial of a criminal action in a court of record a bailiff was appointed to attend the jury in its deliberations. Three dollars were allowed by the board of commissioners as a per diem for such services; but this amount was ordered by the board to be covered into the county treasury, and the same was to be deducted from the amount to be paid to the sheriff for his deputy’s salary for the year 1898. The county court, however, ruled otherwise, and held that the sheriff was not to be charged therewith. The construction put upon this by the commissioners necessarily makes of the bailiff a deputy sheriff, and puts him on a salary. Such is not a fair interpretation. The bailiff frequently, as a matter of fact, is not a deputy sheriff. No salary is provided for him by the statute, and only a per diem is allowed, and this only while he serves as a bailiff. Even if the bailiff was a deputy sheriff, it was not proper to order this money handed over to the treasurer. Board of Commissioners v. Bransom, 4 Colo. App. 274; Henderson v. Board of Commissioners, 4 Colo. App. 301.

Indeed, we are cited to no statute that authorizes the sheriff to appoint a bailiff for a court of record. We know that the practice in some of the district and county courts is for the court at the beginning of the term to make an order authorizing the sheriff to appoint necessary bailiffs for the term. But, however appointed, or what may be the character of his office, the services of the bailiff are necessary for the orderly and proper conduct of the business of the court, and the expenses incurred thereby should be paid by the county as part of the expenses of the court, the same as expenses incurred by the employment of a janitor to care for the court room.

[165]*1655. The items embraced in the first, third and seventh causes of action may be disposed of together. It will be observed from the foregoing statement of facts that the court allowed to the sheriff as one item the sum of $35.00 for mileage for returning from Canon City to Durango. This allowance must have been based upon the provision of the statute first above quoted.

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Bluebook (online)
21 Colo. 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sargent-v-board-of-county-commissioners-colo-1895.