State ex rel. Davis v. Cornell
| Decision Date | 08 November 1900 |
| Docket Number | 11,641 |
| Citation | 84 N.W. 87,60 Neb. 694 |
| Parties | STATE, EX REL. MRS. A. M. DAVIS, TRUSTEE, RELATOR, v. JOHN F. CORNELL, AUDITOR, RESPONDENT |
| Court | Nebraska Supreme Court |
ORIGINAL application for mandamus to require the respondent to issue a warrant to the relator for certain money allowed her as trustee of the Home for the Friendless. Writ allowed.
WRIT ALLOWED.
J. H Broady and H. A. Babcock, for relator.
The relator, Mrs. A. M. Davis, as trustee of the Society of the Home for the Friendless, exhibited to the auditor of public accounts a claim for $ 6,017.31 against the state and demanded that the same be examined and adjusted as required by law. The auditor, after some delay, considered and allowed the claim; but the secretary of state, to whom it was presented on August 3, 1899, refused to approve it. Afterwards, however, the district court of Lancaster county by a peremptory mandamus, commanded him to approve it, and he did so. The present action was then commenced to require respondent to issue a warrant upon the treasury in favor of the relator for the amount allowed. The answer admits the recitals of the alternative writ, but calls attention to the fact that, while the claim was presented in due time to the auditor and secretary of state, it was not approved by the latter officer until after the appropriations made by the legislature of 1897 were exhausted. The question thus raised, and it is the only one argued by counsel, is whether the appropriation of 1897 for the Home of the Friendless ceased, under the circumstances here disclosed, to be available at the end of the first fiscal quarter after the adjournment of the legislature of 1899. No adjudged case has been brought to our notice that seems to be at all in point. Authorities cited by the attorney general, State v Babcock, 22 Neb. 33, 33 N.W. 709, People v. Needles, 96 Ill. 575, People v. Lippincott, 64 Ill. 256, People v. Swigert, 107 Ill. 494, sustain the view that no lawful claim against an appropriation can come into existence after the end of the period for which the appropriation was made; but beyond this they do not go. Section 19, article 3, of the constitution requires that "Each legislature shall make appropriations for the expenses of the government until the expiration of the first fiscal quarter after the adjournment of the next regular session, and all appropriations shall end with such fiscal...
To continue reading
Request your trial