Stein v. Board of Commissioners
Stein v. Board of Commissioners
Opinion of the Court
Complaint by appellant against appellee to recover $21,942 alleged to be due appellant for services commonly known as per diem in attending ses
A demurrer having been sustained to appellant’s complaint, he reserved an exception and refusing to plead further, judgment was rendered against him. From this judgment he has appealed and . assigns as error the action of the court in sustaining said demurrer.
Appellant concedes that if the opinion of this court in Rauch v. Board, etc., 72 Ind. App. 412, 124 N. E. 704, was correctly decided this cause must be affirmed. In his brief and on oral argument.appellant says the cause was filed, and this appeal is -being prosecuted, for the purpose of having the decision in the Rauch case overruled.
Appellant contends that under §114 of the Fee and Salary Act, Acts 1895 p. 319, as amended in 1913, Acts 1913 p. 235, §7324 Burns 1914, he is entitled to two dollars for each day’s attendance upon the sessions of the several courts of Marion county. A brief review of the acts bearing upon this question may not be amiss although they were fully set out and discussed in the Rauch case. The legislature in 1895 passed an act entitled : “An Act fixing the compensation and prescribing the duties of certain state and county officers, fixing certain fees to be taxed in the offices, and the salaries of officers therein named, providing for certain employes in certain public offices and fixing their compensation. * * *” Section 70 of this act fixed the annual salary of the clerk of the circuit court of Marion county at $19,500. Section 114 of the act (Acts 1895 p. 319) provided that the clerks of the several courts should tax and charge upon proper books “the fees and amounts provided by law, which amounts shall be designated as ‘Clerk’s Costs,’ but they shall in no sense belong to and be the property of the clerk; but
The supreme court in State, ex rel. v. Flynn (1903), 161 Ind. 554, 69 N. E. 159, held that the clerks of the several circuit courts of the state were entitled to be paid and to receive such per diem from the county in addition to the regular salary as fixed by the other sections of the act. Under this construction of the statute the clerk of the Marion Circuit Court was, by §70 of the act of 1895, (Acts 1895 p. 319) allowed a salary of $19,500, and under §114, (Acts 1895 p. 319) he was also entitled to two dollars for each day he, in person or by deputy, attended the several courts in his county.
In. 1911 the legislature passed an act entitled “An Act concerning the appointment and salaries of certain county officials in counties having a population of not less than one hundred fifty thousand.” Acts 1911 p. 308, §1, §7335a Burns 1914, provided: “That in all counties having a population of more than one hundred fifty thousand (150,000) according to the last preceding United States census, the salary of the clerk of the circuit court shall be thirty-one thousand dollars ($31,000) and that he shall receive no additional compensation whatever.” Then followed a provision fixing the salary of the surveyors and assessors in such counties. Section 2 repealed all laws and parts of law in conflict with said act.
Appellant does not question the constitutionality of the act of 1911, fixing the salary of the clerk of the
As said by the supreme court in Gaughan v. State (1918), 187 Ind. 334, 337, 118 N. E. 565, 566: “It is a rule of statutory construction that a later law which is merely the re-enactment of a former law does not have the effect of repealing an intermediate statute which has qualified or limited such former law;.but such intermediate act will remain in force to limit or modify the re-enacted law to the same extent that it did the first.” See, also, Lake Agricultural Co. v. Brown (1917), 186 Ind. 30, 114 N. E. 755; Holle v. Drudge (1920), 190 Ind. 520, 129 N. E. 229.
After further consideration of the questions involved we are satisfied with the result reached in Rauch v. Board, etc., supra, so far as the questions there decided are applicable to the case at bar, and we
The judgment is therefore affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.