United States v. Marsh

106 F. 474, 45 C.C.A. 436, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3984
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 22, 1901
DocketNo. 973
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 106 F. 474 (United States v. Marsh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Marsh, 106 F. 474, 45 C.C.A. 436, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3984 (5th Cir. 1901).

Opinions

SHELBY, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

1. Schedule A, forming part of the bill of particulars, consists of “charges for entering proceedings of court in criminal causes made in journals of court in particular cases, as arraignment, plea, sentence, verdict, judgment, counting each separate proceeding as one folio.” It is stated in the petition that these items “were disallowed by the comptroller on the ground that- they must be counted consecutively and allowed as a single entry for any and all proceedings on a particular day.” The clerk’s fees are fixed by section 828 of the Revised Statutes. Paragraph 8 of that section is as follows: “For entering any return, rule, order, continuance, judgment, decree, or recognizance, or drawing any bond, or making any record, certificate, return, or report, for each folio, fifteen cents.” Section 854 defines the term “folio” to mean 100 words, counting each figure as a word. It also provides that, when there are over 50 and under 100 words, they shall be counted as one folio; but a less number than 50 words shall not be counted, “except when the wh.ole statute, notice, or order contains less than 50 words.” Previous to the rendition of the services involved in' the suit, the court of which Marsh, the petitioner, was clerk, adopted the following rule: “It appearing to the court that the adoption of forms, as a guidance to the clerk of this court in making the journal entries in criminal cases, would be both expedient and a protection to said officer, the following forms are hereby adopted and declared to be proper entries in criminal cases; each motion, order, plea, or sentence to be made separate and distinct.” This rule seems to us a very proper one. It will naturally tend to the orderly keeping of the journals of the court. The rule, however, would not authorize the clerk to charge any fees which were not allowed by the statute. The right of an officer to charge fees or costs exists only when it is conferred by legislation. The courts have no inherent power to award costs. They can only be taxed in any case, or proceeding by virtue of express statutory authority. Coggill v. Lawrence, 2 Blatchf. 304, Fed. Cas. No. 2,957; Kneass v. Schuylkill Bank, 4 Wash. C. C. 106, Fed. [477]*477Cas. No. 7,876; O’Neil v. Railroad Co. (C. C.) 31 Fed. 663; 5 Enc. Pl. & Prac. 110. In U. S. v. Shields, 153 U. S. 88, 91, 14 Sup. Ct. 735, 38 L. Ed. 645, the court said: “Fees allowed to public officers are matters of strict law, depending upon the very provisions of the statute. They are not open to equitable construction by the courts nor to any discretionary action on the part of the officials.” It is true that, where a rule of court imposes additional work on the clerk, he is entitled to compensation for such additional work, if a statute exists which by fair construction will compensate him. In U. S. v. Kurtz, 164 U. S. 49, 17 Sup. Ct. 15, 41 L. Ed. 346, the clerk was allowed to charge by the folio for making out a record of lists of jurors when acting with the jury commissioner, the court having required such record to be kept. The clerk’s duties may be regulated by rules of court, but his right to fees must be based on legislation.

Construing subdivision 8 of section 828 of the Eevised Statutes, the supreme court held that, where the circuit court adopted a rule requiring the clerk to keep a final record book in which should be recorded the indictment or information, and all recognizances, warrants, and process judgments and other proceedings, the clerk was not allowed to charge by computing folios, by treating as a separate document each judgment, indictment, and order. By this method the clerk, said the court, would charge for each entry, “many of which are less than a dozen words, as for one hundred words.” The court added: “This may be proper when the charge is made under the first clause of the paragraph, ‘for entering any return, rule, order,’ etc., upon the journal of the court.” U. S. v. Kurtz, 164 U. S. 49, 17 Sup. Ct. 15, 41 L. Ed. 346. The statute by its terms allows the separate orders to be so computed, but it is not intended that one proceeding, as an arraignment and plea, or a sentence and judgment entered at the same time and as one entry, should be divided so as to count each part of it as a separate folio, regardless of the number of words. The order of the circuit court relied on by the defendant in error is not properly so construed. And, moreover, the clerk and all officers of court must find authority to charge fees in the statutes; otherwise, they cannot be charged. Where the judge of the court requires orders or entries to be made by the clerk, they may be charged for under existing statutes, which include the services rendered. In Cavender v. Cavender (C. C.) 10 Fed. 828, we find one brief sentence about the statute here construed: “It should be remarked that when an original entry of an order is made, though less than a folio, it is chargeable as a folio, each entry of a kind standing by itself, distinct from all others.” This is clearly so by virtue of the statutes. And the rule of court we have quoted means nothing more. No rule of court, which separated a single order or proceeding into separate parts, would justify the clerk in doubling the charge. The congress by legislation fixes the clerk’s fees. The court’s order as to making up the records seems to us a proper one. "We do not understand it as conflicting with the statutes, but, if there was a conflict as to the clerk’s fees, the statutes must control.

[478]*478The clerk’s petition alleges- that the services were rendered “as stated in the current accounts.” This refers, as we understand it, to the bill of particulars. This account, which we have already quoted, does not show that the arraignment or the verdict or the judgment and other entries charged for in Schedule A were not separate and distinct orders. It does not appear that any two entries were one and the same transaction, or that they were entered on the same day, or even the same week. In the agreement, signed by the United States attorney for the Northern district of Florida, on which the case is submitted, it is stipulated that “the acts and services set forth in the said petition were actually rendered by the petitioner in the manner and under the circumstances set forth in the petition.” The account of the clerk is made part of his petition. The findings of fact by the district court conform to this agreement. It appears, therefore, from the agreed statement of facts, that these charges were made for “separate proceedings,” and the contrary does not appear anywhere in the record, nor does it appear from the record that any two of the orders charged for were parts of the same transaction, or were made on the same day. We cannot presume against the finding of the court, and the agreement on which the case was submitted, that one order or transaction has been divided needlessly to increase the number of folios, nor can we assume that moré than one of the orders in the same case was made on one day and as a part of one transaction. If we were to adopt the comptroller’s alleged construction of the statute, about which we now express no opinion, it would be immaterial; for it does not appear from the record that the entries charged for were not made bn separate days.

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Bluebook (online)
106 F. 474, 45 C.C.A. 436, 1901 U.S. App. LEXIS 3984, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-marsh-ca5-1901.