In re Brown
| Decision Date | 31 January 1884 |
| Citation | 50 N.W. 273,15 Neb. 688 |
| Parties | IN RE BROWN. |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
Under the provisions of Laws 1879, p. 82, § 19, in connection with section 8, art. 6, of the constitution, the reporter of the supreme court is only entitled to draw from the state treasury the cost of printing, stereotyping, and binding each volume of Reports, not exceeding $2.25 per volume. Expenses incurred by the reporter in preparing copy, reading proof, and packing and shipping are not properly chargeable against the appropriation made by the legislature for payment of said volumes. The salary paid to the reporter is exclusive of any and all other modes of compensation for work on the Reports.
This was a matter coming before the court upon the report of Guy A. Brown, reporter of the supreme court, stating, in substance, as follows:
(1) The receipt and disbursement of funds for the supreme court and library:
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¦Jan. 1, 1875. Balance on hand ¦$ 16 50 ¦
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¦Jan. 1, 1884. Receipts to date¦10,178 12¦
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¦Total ¦10,194 62¦
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¦Disbursements, 1875 to 1884 ¦10,167 85¦
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¦Balance on hand ¦$ 26 77 ¦
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(2) Library fund for purchase of books:
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¦Jan. 1, 1875, to Jan. 1, 1884, from sales¦$18,292 44¦
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¦Paid into state treasury ¦18,292 44 ¦
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(3) Charging of fees on admission of attorneys to practice in supreme court.
(4) Publication of reports of supreme court. Eleven volumes published, and 11,000 printed. Draw from the treasury therefor, $24,484.50. Disbursements, for printing, stereotyping, and binding, $22,202.85; for employes assisting in preparing MS. for publication, reading proof, and packing and shipping, $2,281.65.
(5) The method and manner of drawing money, disbursing the same, and settling therefor with the state.
In support of his action in disburse ment of money for publishing the Supreme Court Reports, the reporter submitted the following opinions, in answer to questions submitted, viz.: (1) When the reporter of the supreme court shall have completed a volume of Reports not less than 600 pages, and bound the same equal to volume 4, and delivered 1,000 copies, with plates, to the auditor, and voucher or claim for “1,000 copies of vol. ____, $2,250,” has the auditor any discretion, and is it not his duty, to draw his warrant upon the treasury in favor of said reporter for the sum specified? (2) Has the auditor any legal right to enter upon any inquiry as to the actual cost of printing and binding and mechanical work involved in the production of said volumes? (3) Are the words, “or so much thereof as may be necessary,” in the appropriation acts, words of limitation, applicable to a statute which, like section 19, fixes a designated and definite sum payable for a certain service? In such case, is it not the law that determines the “amount necessary,” and not the individual officer? (4) Under the law, is not the reporter made the publisher of the Reports, and has he not the right to obtain the printing and binding wherever he sees fit, and, when completed, to draw pay at the rate of $2.25 per volume?
OPINION OF GEORGE B. LAKE.
OMAHA, Feb. 16, 1884.
Guy A. Brown, Esq., Lincoln, Neb.:
DEAR SIR: I have examined the four questions propounded by you, and give the following answers: There are two statutes governing the subject of your inquiry, viz., section 19, c. 19, p. 200, of the Compiled Statutes, and the general appropriation act of 1883. The first clause of said section 19 relates exclusively to the duty of the reporter in the publication of the Reports, and the character of the mechanical work of the volumes produced. It requires the reporter, from time to time, as “sufficient material (opinions) is accumulated to form a volume of not less than six hundred pages,” (there may be more, doubtless, in the discretion of the reporter,) to “cause the same to be printed, stereotyped, and bound in a good and substantial manner,” and equal in these respects to the fourth volume of the Nebraska Reports, this volume being made the test of mechanical excellence. The next clause of the section requires the reporter, upon the completion of a volume, to deliver a thousand copies, neither more nor less, together with the stereotyped plates thereof, to the auditor of public accounts, for the use of the state, for the fixed price of “two dollars and twenty-five cents per volume.” This price is fixed by the legislature, and is to be paid to the reporter without regard to what the cost of the work may have been to him, whether more or less than that amount. If he be so fortunate as to produce a book which comes fully up to the standard of excellence given for less than this fixed price, it is that much to his advantage pecuniarily; but if it happen to cost him more, it is his loss. There is nothing in the law which requires the reporter to have the work done by any particular person, nor by the one who will do it for the least compensation. Neither is he obliged to furnish or keep an account of his expenditures attending the publication and delivery of the books. The state has no interest in these matters. He must deliver books which at least come up to the statutory standard, but by what particular means he does this, or what it has cost him to do it, is not of the least consequence to the state. Upon the delivery of the required number, of the required excellence, the state becomes his debtor at the rate of $2.25 per volume, which the auditor is required to pay by his warrant on the state treasurer. The only matter upon which the auditor is required to exercise his judgment or has any discretion is simply as to whether the books answer the above-mentioned requirements of the statute. With the cost to the reporter he has nothing whatever to do. With the particular expenses incurred in the publication of the Reports the state has not seen fit to concern itself. By an act of the legislature it has simply agreed to become the purchaser of a given number of copies of each volume as they successively appear, provided they reach a given standard of mechanical excellence.
Such being my views of the law, (and I do not see how it is possible to take any other,) my answer in brief to your first question is that, upon the delivery of 1,000 copies of any volume of Nebraska Reports, together with the stereotyped plates thereof, to the auditor, if he find that they are equal to volume 4 of said Reports, it is his duty to draw his warrant upon the state treasury in favor of the reporter for what they come to at $2.25 per volume, viz., $2,250.
And, second, I answer that the auditor has no right to enter upon an inquiry as to the cost of printing and binding of the books, nor as to any other expense incurred in their production.
To your third question I answer that the clause, “or so much thereof as may be necessary,” found in the appropriation act of 1883, has no possible application to the amount to be paid for each thousand copies of the Reports. As I have before said, section 19, above referred to, fixes the price for the auditor to pay per volume, which price he has no authority either to increase or diminish. He should see to it that the books delivered fairly reach the standard of required excellence, and, if they do, he must pay for them. The only possible application these words could have would be upon the contingency of the non-publication of one or more of the volumes, which the legislature seem to have anticipated. The appropriation for this particular purpose seems to have been made with the view that at least three volumes--14, 15, 16--would be published before the next session of the legislature, and a gross sum, viz., $6,750, to cover the entire cost of 1,000 copies of each at the rate of $2.25 per copy, was named in the act. Now, if but one or two volumes shall be published during the life of this appropriation, which, under section 19, article 3, of the constitution, will extend to the end of the first fiscal quarter after the adjournment of the next regular session of the legislature, then the whole of the appropriation will not be “necessary.” But if all three volumes shall be published,...
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