Court Fund of Tulsa County v. Cook

• Decision Date: 07 December 1976
• Docket Number: No. 47866,47866
• Citation: 1976 OK 180,557 P.2d 875
• Parties: ., Petitioners, v. Honorable R. Jay COOK, District Judge, Respondent. Supreme Court of Oklahoma
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Page 875

557 P.2d 875

COURT FUND OF TULSA COUNTY, Oklahoma, et al., Petitioners, v. Honorable R. Jay COOK, District Judge, Respondent.

No. 47866.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

Dec. 7, 1976.

Application to Assume Original Jurisdiction and Issue Writ of Prohibition prohibiting the Respondent Judge from further proceeding in an action to enforce a claim against the Court Fund, Tulsa County, Oklahoma.

APPLICATION TO ASSUME ORIGINAL JURISDICTION GRANTED. WRIT OF PROHIBITION GRANTED.

S. M. Fallis, Jr., Dist. Atty., Tulsa County by Marvin E. Spears, Asst. Dist. Atty., Tulsa, for petitioners.

Stephen C. Wolfe, Tulsa, for respondent.

SIMMS, Justice.

The issue presented is whether the District Court of Tulsa County, Small Claims Division, could entertain and adjudicate a previously rejected Court Fund claim.

Russell K. Hunt was employed as a full time bailiff having been appointed to that position by an associate district judge of Tulsa County. At all times hereinafter mentioned, Hunt was acting in the capacity of full time bailiff, and drawing statutory compensation therefor.

A criminal case was commenced before an associate district judge, other than the one who had employed Hunt, on or about the 12th day of March, 1973. The bailiff of the associate district judge before whom the criminal case was being tried became incapable of performing his duties and Hunt volunteered his services for the court before whom the criminal case was being tried, in exchange for the services of the bailiff appointed by the judge conducting the criminal case serving the judge who had appointed Hunt.

There was, thereby, existent a situation where Hunt was a full time bailiff for one associate district judge, being paid a monthly salary and due to disabilities of another bailiff, exchanged courtrooms temporarily to assist another associate district judge whose bailiff was not able to properly perform all of his necessary functions in connection with a jury in a criminal case which had been sequestered.

Thereafter, Hunt filed a claim against the Tulsa County Court Fund for compensation in connection with his services in attending the sequestered jury. The claim was denied by the Court Fund Board and Hunt commenced an action in the small claims division of the District Court of Tulsa County, naming the Court Fund, and the individual administrators of the Court Fund as defendants. The action was brought to recover 'salary and earnings * * * in connection with services rendered re: jury sequestration * * * $187.50 principle (sic) plus double damages--$375.00 total.'

Petitioners then challenged the jurisdiction of the district court to hear and determine the claim arguing that original administrative jurisdiction over Court Funds is vested exclusively in the Supreme Court. Respondent Judge held the district court had jurisdiction to adjudicate the claim. In this original proceeding, petitioners seek to prohibit the Respondent Judge from further proceeding in the cause.

Respondent asserts that the Supreme Court should not assume original jurisdiction on the theory that prohibition is an extraordinary writ, and resort to it cannot be had when the ordinary and usual remedies are available and the writ cannot take the place of, or be a substitute for, an appeal. Watchorn Basin Assn. v. Oklahoma Gas and Elec. Co., Okl., 525 P.2d 1357 (1974). It is urged that petitioners have a good and sufficient remedy at law by way of appeal and there is no need or necessity at this time for this Court to take any affirmative action.

Title 20, O.S.1971, § 1301, provides that all fees, fines and forfeitures shall, when collected by the court clerk, be deposited by him in a fund in the county treasurer's office designated 'The Court Fund', and shall be used, from year to year, in defraying the expenses of holding court in said county. Section 1302 prescribes who shall serve on the Governing Board of the Court Fund (a district judge, an associate district judge, and the county treasurer); and § 1304 states that claims against the Court Fund must be approved by the district judge who is a member of the governing Board and either, the local court clerk, or the associate district judge who is also a member of the governing Board.

Created by legislative enactment, the Court Fund Board is not an independent governmental institution or even an entity, but rather a fiscal arm of the judicial system through which claims may be considered, disbursements made and yieldable revenue transferred to the State Judicial Fund. The Court Fund Board is indeed an inseparable part of the district court, all of whose operations are subject to the administrative control granted to the Supreme Court by Article 7, Sec. 6, Okl. Const. ¹

A Court Fund claim presented to the Board stands in fact before The district court and that court must act upon it through its fiscal arm--the governing Board of the Court Fund. It is the duty of the Board to process the claim to final determination. When the claim is finally denied, all proceedings in that court stand effectively completed. Claimant may not proceed further in that court. No other legal process is either provided by statute or otherwise available. The Board's determination is entitled to the same presumption of correctness as a judgment and is similarly immune from collateral attack.

There can be, therefore, no remedy through a common-law action in the same or any other court. Rather, the only corrective process available to the aggrieved claimant is by proceeding in the nature of mandamus in this Court.

A claim against the Court Fund may arise in one of two ways. The first of these is based on a preadjudicated...