Majority
p. 126N. Y. SUPERIOR COURT. Joseph H. Brown agt. Henry Prouse Cooper. Special Term, May, 1883.
Headnote
Sheriff's fees—Agreement to pay keeper’s fees—When mil he enforced.A contract made between the sheriff and defendant’s attorney, whereby the latter agreed to pay keeper’s fees and incidental expenses, provided the property levied upon under attachment was permitted to remain intact in defendant’s stores, is valid and binding.
Moneys paid the sheriff under such an agreement are not fees, and are not subject to taxation.
Oh a motion to tax sheriff’s fees on an attachment, defendant alleged that larger sums of money had been claimed by, and paid to, the sheriff during his (defendant’s) absence in Europe, and insisted that such moneys were paid as fees; that such fees were illegal and were liable to taxation. The sheriff alleged that after making a levy the attorney of defendant, in order to protect the property from being disturbed in the stores, agreed to pay costs and expenses for preservation of said property, if it were allowed to remain intact. In pursuance of such agreement certain sums of money were paid to him from time to time, not as fees, but for the payment of keeper’s fees and other expenses incidental to keeping the property of defendant in his or his agent’s hands.
W. H. Leonard, for defendant.
Edward J. Cramer, for the sheriff.
No fees have been charged or collected. The money paid was for expenses under an agreement by defendant’s attorney, which, on the papers, was not invalid. The papers show no facts that tend to the conclusion that defendant is not bound by the agreement
Motion denied; ten dollars costs.