Greene v. Monroe County
Greene v. Monroe County
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The remarkably ingenious and able argument of counsel for appellant places beyond doubt, if any ther.e were, the common law power of the coroner to bind the county for reasonable compensation for the services of a physician or surgeon ren
The code of 1880, § 359, omits all these provisions for compensation for dissection and chemical analysis, and re-enacts the provisions of the code of 1857, except that the $10 are to be " paid on the' allowance of the board of supervisors. ’ ’ The annotated code of 1892 is a copy of this provision of the code of 1880.
Here, then, we have from 1822 to 1871 the policy of the state, as declared by legislature, allowing no compensation to the physician or surgeon, either as an expert witness, testifying from his professional knowledge and skill, or for making a dissection or chemical analysis. Thereafter, for nine years, such
It is to be noted, also, that under § 824, code 1892, the coroner only calls in the physician or surgeon with the written consent of a majority of the jurors.
The contention that under § 289, code 1892, the board of supervisors may allow for such services, as one of the “ other matters of county police,” is unsound, because the very subject-matter under discussion has been legislated about specifically elsewhere, and we must presume the legislature, in such specific legislation, with its attention directly drawn to such subject, has declared not a part, but the whole of its purpose on this sxibject. “ Other matters ” must mean matters ejusdem generis with those specified. Nor do we think aid is to be derived from § 827, code 1892. “The cost of all inquests” is to be paid, as to manner of payment and authority for allowance, by the board of supervisors, but what that " cost ’ ’ is, as to amount, must be gathered from the law as written. The board of supervisors shall direct, etc., but shall not appropriate the same to an object not authorized by law (§ 317, code 1892), and § 320 is stringent and imperative in its provisions that the board shall lay its finger on the very statute authorizing an allowance.
This review of our legislation on the subject leaves no room for doubt that, for reasons satisfactory to the legislature, with the wisdom of which we have nothing to do, but by the sanction of which as expressed in the statute we are bound, beyond the ten dollars provided in § 824, code 1892, no allowance can be made by the board of supervisors for compensation to a physician or surgeon, in the state of case named, viewed as a " fee ’ ’ for testifying from professional skill and knowledge, or as a " fee ’ ’ for the services rendered in the dissection and chemical analysis required in examining as to the cause of death. The remedy whereby such latter services, often indispensable
Affirmed.'
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.