Northampton County v. Yohe

• Decision Date: 01 May 1855
• Citation: 24 Pa. 305
• Parties: Northampton County versus Yohe.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

24 Pa. 305

Northampton County versus Yohe.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

ERROR to the Common Pleas of Northampton county.

Ihrie, for plaintiff in error.—The accounts of the county treasurer are to be settled every year by the then existing board of auditors, and their report, when not appealed from, is final. The county commissioners had no power to bind the county to pay the amount certified by the auditors: 4 Harris 461; 6 Id. 493; 3 W. & Ser. 542-3; 8 Watts 127.

Maxwell, for defendant in error.—Though the report was by but two of the auditors, there was no allegation that the other auditor was not notified, and it should not be presumed. The treasurer was elected for two years. The auditors made no report for the year 1848 to the Court, and their account was not filed in the prothonotary's office at the time of the trial of this case. So also with respect to the account for the year 1849; and the county commissioners who are required by law to examine the accounts of the treasurer, and submit them to the auditors, directed the submission of the alleged errors in this case. The county was bound by the submission: Russel on Powers, 38 Law Lib. 74; 4 Barr 13; 16 Ser. & R. 290; 1 W. & Ser. 328; 5 Id. 426-7; 4 Harris 458; 6 Watts 360. By the act of submission, a promise to abide the award is implied: 1 Ld. Raym. 248; 2 Id. 965, 1039-40; Kyd. on Awards 9-11; 7 Barr 283; 4 W. & Ser. 144; 10 Pick. 31; 14 Eng. Com. Law 256; 11 Mass. 152.

The opinion of the Court was delivered by WOODWARD, J.

The system of accounting for public moneys prescribed for county officers by the Act of 15th April, 1834, is most necessary to be rigidly enforced. The report of the board of auditors filed in the Common Pleas has the effect of a judgment against the real estate of the accounting officer, who appears to be indebted to the county. Sixty days are allowed for an appeal, and if none be entered, execution is to issue, as upon judgments recovered in the usual course of law.

It seems to be an obvious deduction that after a board of auditors have filed their report they have no further power over it. It passes into the custody of a Court of record, becomes a judgment, and is no more subject to the supervision and review of the auditors who made it, than a judgment entered on an award of arbitrators is liable to be overhauled by them.

But if the auditors who made the report may not review and alter it, much less may a subsequent board. One auditor is elected every...