State ex rel. Starry v. The Board of Commissioners of Warren County
| Decision Date | 02 January 1894 |
| Docket Number | 16,440 |
| Parties | The State, ex rel. Starry, v. The Board of Commissioners of Warren County |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
From the Warren Circuit Court.
The judgment is reversed, with instructions to overrule the demurrer to the alternative writ of mandate and for further proceedings.
J. F Hanly and E. C. Stansbury, for appellant.
C. V McAdams, for appellee.
This was a petition for an alternative writ of mandate, to require the appellee, board of county commissioners, to approve a claim filed before the board by the appellant relator for services as township trustee, for the year ending August 3 1891.
A demurrer to the alternative writ was sustained by the court, and this ruling is assigned as error.
From the writ, it appears that in April, 1890, the relator was elected trustee of Steuben township, in Warren county, Indiana, and entered upon his duties August 4, 1890; that during the year ending August 3, 1891, he served his said township as trustee one hundred and fifty days; that on August 3, 1891, he filed with the county commissioners his annual report of receipts and expenditures, which report was approved as filed, except as to the following voucher:
That the board refused to allow said sum as so receipted for, but in lieu thereof allowed the relator, as such trustee, the sum of two hundred dollars.
It also appears that afterwards the relator prepared and offered to file with the board an itemized and verified statement of his services, as required by the statute, but the board refused to receive it.
The statute in force during the time when the services named were rendered, provided that the pay of township trustees should be two dollars per day. Elliott's Supp., section 1978.
Provision was also made in the statute, for the annual report and settlement of trustees with county commissioners. R. S. 1881, section 5998.
And under the statutes then in force, the annual report in this case was not made at an improper time. Elliott's Supp., sections 1273, 1390, 1392 and 1395.
It would therefore seem, under the state of facts admitted by the demurrer, that, at least after the filing of the itemized statement of services, the board of commissioners should have approved the trustee's report as filed.
Our statute (R. S. 1881, section 5811) has expressly provided that settlements made by county commissioners with county township, and school officers shall not be final or conclusive. It has been accordingly held that in such settlements the commissioners do not act judicially, but in their administrative or supervisory capacity, and, consequently, that no appeal lies from their...
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