Delmar v. Bergen County

• Citation: 189 A. 75
• Decision Date: 22 January 1937
• Docket Number: No. 55.,55.
• Parties: DELMAR v. BERGEN COUNTY.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court (New Jersey)

189 A. 75

DELMAR

v. BERGEN COUNTY.

No. 55.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

Jan. 22, 1937.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. The fixing of salaries of common pleas judges is within the application of article 4, section 7, paragraph 11, of the Constitution, which forbids private, special, or local laws "regulating the internal affairs of towns and counties."

2. Differences in the salaries of common pleas judges must be predicated upon some general principal applicable to the subject.

3. Resolutions of a county board of chosen freeholders passed under the tassumed authority of chapter 17, Pamph. Laws 1933 (N.J.St.Annual 1933, § *136—1320A(10) et seq.), and acts amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto, are void and of no effect to the extent that, without reference to any general classification, they reduce the salaries of the common pleas judges of that county below the salaries of the remaining judicial officers of the class of which those judges are properly a part.

4. Chapter 17, P.L.1933 (N.J.St.Annual 1933, § *136—1320A(10) et seq.), is not accompanied by the statement of a rule or policy adequate to constitute it a valid delegation to the several boards of chosen freeholders of authority to effect a reduction, special to a given county, in the salary of common pleas judges.

5. The fixing of the salary of common pleas judges by the governing bodies of the several counties had no common-law prototype; and the fixing of such salary is not one of the multitude of local problems which of necessity must receive local disposition.

6. A county board of chosen freeholders, purporting to act under the delegated legislative authority of chapter 17, P.L.1933 (N.J. St Annual 1933, § *136—1320A(10) et seq.), may not, without reference to any general classification, reduce the salaries of the common pleas judges of that county below the salaries of the remaining judicial officers of the class of which those judges are properly a part, inasmuch as that would be special legislation contrary to that portion of article 4, section 7, paragraph 11, of the Constitution, which provides that "The legislature shall not pass private, local or special laws * * * creating, increasing or decreasing the percentage or allowance of public officers during the term for which said officers were elected or appointed."

Appeal from Circuit Court, Bergen County.

Suit by A. Demorest Delmar against Bergen County. From an adverse judgment, plaintiff appeals.

Reversed, with directions.

William J. Morrison, Jr., of Hackensack, Merritt Lane, of Newark, and Morrison, Lloyd & Morrison, of Hackensack, for appellant.

Walter G. Winne and Winne & Banta, all of Hackensack, for respondent.

CASE, Justice.

Plaintiff, one of the common pleas judges of the County of Bergen, sued for accumulated arrears in salary, the amount of which was in dispute for the reasons hereinafter stated. The judge of the Bergen County circuit court, sitting without a jury, awarded judgment to plaintiff for $16,978.50, the amount found to be due after the allowance of a series of deductions imposed by the Bergen County Board of Freeholders. Plaintiff contends that he is entitled to the full statutory salary, and therefore appeals.

Plaintiff's five-year term commenced June 16, 1932. His salary was then $13,000 per year, fixed by chapter 316, P.L.1931 (N.J.St.Annual 1931, §§ 50—112t(l) to 50— 112t(3), a general act, which provided: "1. In any county now or hereafter having by any State or Federal census three hundred thousand or more inhabitants, the salaries of all judges of the court of common pleas hereafter appointed in and for such counties shall be thirteen thousand dollars per annum, and in any county now or hereafter having by any State of Federal census five hundred thousand or more inhabitants, the salaries of all judges of the Court of Common Pleas hereafter appointed in and for such counties shall be fifteen thousand dollars per annum, payable in the manner now provided by law, and such judges hereafter appointed shall devote their entire time to their judicial duties and shall not engage in the practice of law." N.J.St. Annual, 1931, § 50—112t(l).

The population of Bergen County was "between 300,000 and 500,000.

On February 4, 1933, the Legislature enacted chapter 17 of the Pamphlet Laws of that year (N.J.St.Annual 1933, § *136— 1320A(10) et seq.) which provided that: "The governing body of every county or municipality may, by resolution, direct that the treasurer or other like officer of any county or municipality, deduct from the salary or compensation to be paid to any officer or employee of or person holding a position under the government of this State, whose salary or compensation is paid by any such county or municipality, beginning with the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and thirty three, and ending on the thirty-first day of December, one thousand nine hundred and thirty-three, such sum of money as such governing body shall deem proper, but such deductions shall not exceed in percentage the amount authorizied to be deducted in any schedule adopted or to be adopted by any such county or municipality for officers, employees and persons holding positions in any such county or municipality; provided, however, that in making deductions from salaries or compensation there shall be no discrimination among or between individuals in the same class of service." Section 1 (N.J.St.Annual 1933, § *136—1320A(10).

By chapter 446, Pamph.Laws 1933 (N.J.St.Annual 1934, §§ *136—1320A(10), *136 —1320A(12), and chapter 3, Pamph.Laws 1935 (N.J.St.Annual 1935, § *136—1320A (10), the provisions of the last-named statute were continued until January 31, 1936. On January 6, 1933, before the statute was passed, appellant had voluntarily agreed that his salary for the year 1933 should be reduced by $1,640. On September 13, 1933, the Board of Chosen Freeholders of the County of Bergen, acting under the statute and without plaintiff's consent, imposed an additional deduction of five per centum. In January, 1934, the freeholders, again without plaintiff's consent, continued the deduction which totaled $2,290 for the year. On January 28, 1935, the freeholders, no longer pursuing the formality of a percentage reduction, passed a resolution fixing Judge Delmar's salary, effective February 1, 1935, at $10,734, payable in semimonthly installments of $447.25.

There are two basic principles, one laid down in the language of our Constitution, the other a judicial construction of that language, which must be observed in fixing the compensation of common pleas judges. The first is a portion of article 4, section 7, paragraph 11, of the Constitution, which provides that "The legislature shall not pass private, local or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, that is to say: * * * Regulating the internal affairs of towns and counties." It is clear, for reasons presently to be stated, that that compensation is an "internal affair" of the counties. The second, laid down in our cases, is, that a law regulating these salaries differently in the several counties must be predicated upon-population, services rendered, or some other general principle applicable to the subject. We proceed to give the reasons for this observation and to name the results that, in our opinion, flow therefrom.

While the administration of justice within a county may not properly be termed an internal affair of the county, State v. Taylor, 68 N.J.Law, 276, 53 A. 392, the amount of compensation which public officers who administer the laws, such as county prosecutors and common pleas judges, shall receive from the county treasurer, is an affair internal to the county and is within the purview of the constitutional provision, article 4, section 7, paragraph 11, supra, which forbids private, special, or local laws "regulating the internal affairs of towns and counties." Freeholders of Passaic County v. Stevenson, 46 N.J.Law, 173, 187. We quote from the opinion written for this court by Mr. Justice Van Syckel in the case last cited: "The beneficial operation of this salutary constitutional provision will be greatly impaired by an interpretation which permits inequalities to any extent to be created throughout the state by special and local laws for the compensation of prosecutors of the pleas and judges of the Common Pleas of the several counties. Such a construction would withdraw from the people of the counties the protection of this amendment where it is most needed. * * * If laws increasing or decreasing the annual expenses of a county are to be regarded as laws regulating its internal affairs, then surely the subject matter of this controversy must be governed by general and not by local laws. Such I take to be the correct interpretation of the constitution."

In the application of that language we do not distinguish between the salary of a county prosecutor, which was there the subject of litigation, and the salary of a common pleas judge; and quite clearly the court then perceived no distinction. If the fixing of plaintiff's salary were not an internal affair of the County of Bergen, it would be difficult to understand upon what theory the control of the amount thereof was in any wise left to the Board of Chosen Freeholders.

If, as we find, the Legislature is inhibited from fixing compensation for common pleas judges by local laws, it follows that the judges of one county may be put upon a salary basis different from the judges of the remaining counties only as there is a distinction, whether by population or otherwise, which forms a reasonable line of demarcation. A law to be general must operate equally upon all of a group of objects which, having regard to the purposes of the legislation, are distinguished by characteristics sufficiently marked and important to make them a class by themselves. Burlington v. Pennsylvania R. R. Co., 104 N.J.Law, 649, 654, 142 A. 23. In...