Board of County Com'Rs v. Nelson
| Decision Date | 23 August 1892 |
| Citation | 51 Minn. 79 |
| Parties | BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF RAMSEY COUNTY <I>vs.</I> ANDREW N. NELSON. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
This action was brought by the plaintiff, The Board of County Commissioners of Ramsey County, against the defendant, Andrew N. Nelson, to recover the sum of $15,599.50, being the amount of fraudulent certificates for jury duty paid by him as County Treasurer of Ramsey County. To the complaint, which is fully stated in the opinion, the defendant demurred on the grounds, (1) that plaintiff had not legal capacity to sue; (2) several causes of action improperly united; (3) that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The demurrer was overruled and defendant appeals.
G. J. Lomen and Munn, Boyesen & Thygeson, for appellant.
Thos. D. O'Brien, and Pierce Butler, for respondent.
Appeal from an order overruling a demurrer to the complaint herein, interposed on three distinct grounds, only one of which need be considered, namely, that facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action were not stated therein. The pleading in question was purposely drawn very full and complete, in order that all of the facts on which defendant's liability must rest, if at all, might appear. It seems from the allegations, that during the years 1889 and 1890 defendant was the treasurer of Ramsey county, while during the same period of time R. T. O'Connor and J. P. Davis were clerk and deputy clerk, respectively, of the district court. Between January 5, 1889, and December 1, 1890, Davis, as such deputy clerk, wrongfully and unlawfully prepared and executed a large number of jurors' certificates, (Sp. Laws 1876, ch. 214, § 6; 1878 G. S. ch. 70, § 30,) in each of which he falsely stated and certified that a certain person therein named, the name being different in each certificate, had attended upon the district court as a petit juror a specified number of days, and that there was due to such person from the county treasury a certain named sum of money, which sum was payable to his order. The seal of the court was duly attached to each of these certificates. None of the persons so named had attended said court as jurors or otherwise, nor was there due to any or either of them any sum of money whatsoever from the county treasury. In brief, the certificates were spurious in every particular, and were executed for the purpose of defrauding the county out of a large sum of money; and in furtherance of the scheme, Davis, as they were issued, presented them to the county auditor to be audited and allowed. Laws 1879, ch. 13, § 123. The latter, in writing and over his official signature, indorsed upon the back of each certificate a direction to the county treasurer to "pay within amount from revenue fund," and returned the same to Davis. Thereupon the latter forged and indorsed upon each the name of the person to whom it had been made payable, presented the same from time to time to defendant treasurer for payment, and by him was paid out of the county treasury the amounts for which these certificates were drawn. The magnitude of the scheme, and the extent to which it was carried before detection, will be appreciated when we state that on the argument it appeared that Davis in the same manner obtained from defendant's predecessor in office over $8,000 in a little more than one year, and that, according to the complaint, he issued 1,328 of these fraudulent certificates in the two years before mentioned, and was paid thereon nearly $16,000 by defendant treasurer. According to the allegations of the complaint, we have a case, then, where certificates for jurors' services in district court, valid on their face, but fraudulent in fact, have knowingly been issued by a deputy clerk of said court, each for a stated amount, payable to the order of the alleged juror, his name being given in each instance, on the back of which there was written by the county auditor an order upon the treasurer to pay the amount out of the revenue fund. These certificates, with the auditor's order on the back, were presented to defendant treasurer for payment by the deputy clerk, with the names of the alleged jurors to whom they were made payable, forged and indorsed upon each by this same deputy, and to him defendant made payment with county funds of the various sums purporting to be due.
The question now before us is as to defendant's liability...
To continue reading
Request your trial