Mccalmont v. The County of Allegheny

• Decision Date: 01 January 1857
• Citation: 29 Pa. 417
• Parties: McCalmont versus The County of Allegheny.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

Page 417

29 Pa. 417

McCalmont versus The County of Allegheny.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

ERROR to the District Court of Allegheny county.

Hopkins and McCandless, for plaintiff in error.

Large, for defendant in error.

The opinion of the court was delivered by KNOX, J.

The plaintiff is the prothonotary of the Supreme Court for the Western District, and this action is brought by him against the county of Allegheny to recover money expended by him in paying the necessary expenses of the court. The whole amount of the expenditures for the years 1855, 1856, and 1857, is $340.12½, including $193.75 for the rent of a room for the use of the prothonotary of the court from April, 1855, to November, 1857, and ten dollars for a new seal. The remainder is for dockets for the court, stationery for the use of the judges whilst holding court in the Western District, for advertising the return days and printing argument lists. The amount charged and expended is conceded to be correct, and the only question raised upon the case stated is whether the county is liable for the expenditure. It is also conceded the commissioners of Allegheny county have hitherto refused to furnish the prothonotary a room in the court house or elsewhere, in which to preserve and keep the records and seal of the court, and that the plaintiff has provided a room for that purpose, and that the amount of rent charged is fair and reasonable. The first question that the case suggests is this. Were the expenditures or any of them such as the prothonotary was himself bound to make at his own expense? This question we unhesitatingly answer in the negative. By the 9th section of the Act of 14th April, 1834, "the prothonotary of the Supreme Court is directed to keep the seal and records of the court for his district at the place of holding the court, and in the apartments provided by authority of law for that purpose." This provision excludes the idea that he is bound to provide a place for the safe keeping of the seal and records at his own expense; and he is no more bound to furnish the seal and dockets for the courts, than he is to pay the expenses of fire and light for the court house. Nor is the necessary printing in advertising orders of the court or in preparing trial lists a personal charge upon the prothonotary. He is allowed, it is true, the sum of 12½ cents for stationery in each case by the fee bill, but this does not include the stationery used by the judges whilst holding court or in preparing opinions. It is limited to the stationery used by the clerks and counsel. When a prothonotary is compelled to expend his own money in procuring articles for public use on account of the refusal of the public authorities to procure them for him, he has the right to claim...