Fox v. Lindley
Fox v. Lindley
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from an order for a peremptory writ of mandamus to compel the treasurer of Los Angeles County to pay the respondent certain fees for taking down the testimony and proceedings in a criminal proceeding before a justice of the peace, pursuant to the provisions of § 869 of the Penal Code as amended March 3rd, 1881.
It is admitted that the respondent was regularly appointed by the justice of the peace to perform the services required; that the services were rendered; and that the committing magistrate certified them according to the provisions of the law. But when the respondent presented his demand, certified according to law, to the county treasurer and demanded payment, the treasurer refused to pay, not because for want of funds in the treasury, but because the demand itself was not authorized by law.
To this it is answered that subdivision 2 of § 869, Penal Code, provides that “ the reporter’s fees shall be paid out of the treasury of the county, or the city and county, on the certificate of the committing magistrate.” But are any fees allowed by law to short-hand reporters appointed under the provisions of § 869 of the Penal Code ? If not, the treasurer cannot be compelled to pay the demand of the respondent; for it is made his duty to “ disburse the county moneys only on county warrants issued by the county auditor, based on orders of the Board of Supervisors, or as otherwise provided bylaw.” (Subdivision 6, § 4144, Pol. Code.) Now the law under which the respondent was appointed did not, in any of its provisions, prescribe any fees to reporters for services rendered under it, nor did it authorize the magistrate who appointed the reporter to fix the fees or
In the absence of any law prescribing the fees which the respondent was entitled to charge for his services, the certificate of the magistrate that the services were rendered did not constitute a demand upon the county treasury which the treasurer was bound in law to pay.
Judgment and order for a peremptory mandamus reversed.
Morrison, C. J., Mtrick, J., Boss, J., Sharpstein, J,, and Thornton, J., concurred.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CHARLES J. FOX v. MILTON LINDLEY, Treasurer of the County of Los Angeles
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Short-hand Reporter—Fees—Construction of Statute—County Treasurer.—Section 869 of the Penal Code, as amended March 3rd, 1881, provides that a committing magistrate may order the testimony and proceedings to be taken down in short-hand in all examinations of persons accused of crime, and for that purpose may appoint a short-hand reporter. And § 2 of the amending act provides that the reporter’s fees shall be paid out of the treasury of the county, or the city and county, on the certificate of the committing magistrate; but there is no provision fixing the reporter’s fees, or authorizing the magistrate to fix them. In a. proceeding by a reporter employed by a magistrate under this provision to compel the county treasurer to pay the petitioner his fees as certified by the magistrate, held, that in the absence of any law prescribing the fees which the plaintiff was entitled to charge for liis services, the certificate of the magistrate that services were rendered did not constitute a demand upon the county treasury which the treasurer was bound to pay.