Blackmore v. County of Allegheny

• Decision Date: 08 January 1866
• Citation: 51 Pa. 160
• Parties: Blackmore <I>et al.,</I> Executors, <I>versus</I> The County of Allegheny.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

51 Pa. 160

Blackmore et al., Executors, versus The County of Allegheny.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

January 8, 1866.

ERROR to the Common Pleas of Allegheny county.

R. & S. Woods, for the plaintiffs in error.—The settlement of the treasurer's account by the county auditors is conclusive, if there be no appeal, both upon the county and the treasurer: Northumberland Co. v. Bloom, 3 W. & S. 542; Northampton Co. v. Yohe, 12 Harris 305.

The tax duplicates are in the commissioner's office, and the treasurer must satisfy the auditors that their amount has not been paid to him by the collectors.

In this case the very claim was contested before the auditors.

An auditor's report, unappealed from, can be set aside only for fraud.

R. B. Carnahan, for defendant in error.—The verdict established that Blackmore received the $1000, and that it was not credited to the county.

Fraud would vitiate the report, and if an officer required to keep proper accounts fails to enter the sums received by him, it is presumptively fraudulent.

The auditors did not pass on this officially. No testimony was taken. The officer charged must be summoned to appear: Nelson v. Clarion Co., 2 Barr 17.

The opinion of the court was delivered, January 8th 1866, by AGNEW, J.

Blackmore, as treasurer of Allegheny county, received of Russell, a collector, $1000, which, though brought to the notice of the county auditors, when settling his account as treasurer, were not charged against him. Blackmore alleged before the auditors his belief that this sum was contained in another receipt, and one of the auditors, in testifying, thought that the receipt for this sum had the appearance of alteration in the date, and stated that, not finding the sum in the treasurer's account, they declined to charge it. The mind of the excellent judge who tried the cause was so impressed with the injustice of freeing an officer from the payment of money which evidently had been received and not accounted for, that he suffered a recovery without any evidence, which we can see, of artifice or fraud used to conceal the item from the scrutiny of the auditors; notwithstanding the effect of this ruling was to open and set aside, thus far, the settlement of the auditors of the proper year, duly filed and approved by the court, and remaining unappealed from. In this we think he erred. Instances of individual hardship or injustice appeal strongly to the conscience; but experience has shown that a faithful administration of the law is productive of greater public advantage, than to suffer it to be turned aside by exceptional cases. It is much safer to suffer the rem adjudicatam to remain, than to open it because it may seem to have been decided erroneously. The death and the forgetfulness of parties and witnesses; the loss and destruction of vouchers and the instruments of evidence, and the difficulty of unravelling those things which have been settled, and therefore relied upon as right, and unnecessary to be remembered in detail; — all combine to set the seal of conclusiveness upon that which has entered into judgment.

The law has made it the duty of the county treasurer to "keep a just and true account of all moneys received and disbursed by him;" and, once in each year, to "state his accounts, and produce his vouchers; which, after examination by the commissioners shall be by them laid before the county auditors for settlement, according to law:" Act 15th April 1834, § 37.

It is made the duty of the county auditors to "audit, settle and adjust the accounts of the commissioners, treasurer, sheriff and coroner of the county; and make report thereof to the Court of Common Pleas of such county, together with a statement...