Bovaird v. City of Bradford
Bovaird v. City of Bradford
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The city of Bradford is a city of the third class. The act of assembly governing cities of this class creates the office of city treasurer, and provides that such officer “shall receive a fixed annual salary to be provided by ordinance:” Act of May 23, 1889, art. 8, sec. 1, P. L. 277, as amended by Act of May 16,1901, sec. 23, P. L. 224. The act makes no provision for the election, appointment, or employment of a clerk to the treasurer; but the city council, by ordinance approved March 19, 1902, directed “That the clerk to the City Treasurer from and after the first Monday in April, 1902, shall receive an annual salary of $720, to be paid in monthly installments in the same manner that the salaries of other city officials are now paid.” At a municipal election in 1905 appellant was elected to the office of city treasurer, for the term of three years beginning the first Monday in April, 1905; he duly
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- Public officers — Municipalities—Treasurer—Compensation—Acts of May 23, 1889, P. L. 277, and May 18, 1901, P. L. 224 — Clerk hire— Failure of plaintiff to establish case. 1. In an action of assumpsit by the city treasurer of a city of the third class against the city to recover a sum alleged to be due as salary for a clerk to the city treasurer under an ordinance of the city providing “that the clerk to the city treasurer .... shall receive an annual salary of $720. . . .” which ordinance was repealed after his election to the office, his claim being based upon the Act of May 23, 1889, P. L. 277,13 Par., sec. 3, art. 5, which directs that “no ordinance shall be passed increasing or diminishing the salary of any officer after his election or appointment,” a verdict is properly directed for the defendant where the plaintiff, being put to his proofs, did not attempt to show that any clerk had been appointed by himself or the city councils, and the testimony tending to show that a certain person in the office had acted as clerk was entirely insufficient to raise an issue of fact. 2. If in such a case the failure to appoint, cast heavier duties upon the treasurer which he performed, such fact would, under no circumstances, give the treasurer any right to the salary of the clerk, and the increased labor would not be in diminution of his own salary.