Stone v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 19 February 1897
• Citation: 39 S.W. 49
• Parties: STONE, Auditor, v. WILSON.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

39 S.W. 49

STONE, Auditor, v. WILSON.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

February 19, 1897

Appeal from circuit court, Kenton county.

"To be officially reported."

Agreed case between Wes B. Wilson and S. H. Stone. Judgment for Wilson, and Stone appeals. Reversed.

W. S Taylor, for appellant.

J. W Bryan, for appellee.

GUFFY J.

The judgment appealed from was rendered in an agreed case between Wes B. Wilson, clerk of the Kenton county court, and S. H Stone, auditor of public accounts. The questions stated are First. Is said Wilson required to pay to the auditor fees he may receive as clerk in excess of $3,000 per annum, and the sums paid his deputies as fixed by the county judge? Second. Is section 1776, St. Ky. special legislation, inhibited by the constitution? And the facts upon which they depend are: Wilson was at November election, 1894, elected, duly qualified, and ever since has been, such clerk. Kenton county then contained, and now has, a population of over 40,000 and under 75,000, being the only one of that class in the state. There are in it two county seats, 12 miles apart,-one at Covington and the other at Independence,-and the county court clerk is required by law to keep an office at each place, and at each a county court is required to be held every month.

The judge of the Kenton county court, assuming that it was his duty to do so, has fixed the annual salary of each of seven deputy clerks of said court. The fees received by said Wilson as clerk have not, during any year, amounted to $5,000, after paying his deputies' salaries as fixed by the county judge. Determination of the two questions requires us to not only ascertain the proper meaning,-which is, however, plain,-but also inquire as to the validity, of section 1776, as follows: "Each jailer, county clerk, circuit clerk, commissioners, receivers, examiners and sheriff in a county having a population of over forty thousand and under seventy-five thousand shall, in a suitable book kept in his office, keep and enter therein a true and faithful account of the amounts earned by him or due him for official services from each person, company, corporation, county, state and United States government, and what part thereof, if any, has been paid, and when paid, and shall annually, in the month of January, report to the auditor, under oath, the amount received by him on account of his official duties or position, from all sources, during the preceding year, as well as the amount paid out by him for deputies or assistants, giving the amount paid to each, and for expenses of his office, and if it shall appear from such statement that any such officer received as compensation on account of his office from all sources more than three thousand dollars after payment of his deputies or assistants and all the expenses of his office, such officer shall with such statement pay to the auditor the amount so received in excess of three thousand dollars, and any officer who shall fail to keep said book, account or report as required by this section, he shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and upon conviction a judgment shall be entered declaring his office vacant. The annual salary of each deputy, or assistant, employed by said officers, or either of them, shall be fixed by the judge of the county court, by an order entered of record, and shall not exceed one thousand two hundred dollars per annum, and a copy of said order, as well as a copy of any changes made therein, shall be filed with the auditor by the clerk of the county where made."

Section 106 of the constitution provides that the fees of county officers shall be regulated by law, though without that section legislative power to do so would have existed, and might have been exercised, as was the case under the former constitution, which contained no express grant of such authority. But as fees for specified services of county officers of the same class, for obvious reasons, should be and always have been, uniform throughout the commonwealth some sort of legislative plan or device became necessary in order to restrict their compensation within the limit prescribed by section 246, as follows: "No public officer except the governor shall receive more than five thousand dollars per annum as compensation for official services, independent of the compensation of legally authorized deputies and assistants, which shall be fixed and provided by law. The general assembly shall provide for the...