People ex rel. McGrath v. Board of Supervisors

The relator held a bill for constables’ fees' for conveying prisoners from Yonkers to the Albany Penitentiary, under a conventional arrangement between that institution and the board of supervisors of Westchester, county. •

All the persons so transported, were convicted by a court ¡ of special sessions in Yonkers, of misdemeanors perpetrated within the boundaries of that city.

At the annual meeting of the board of supervisors, the" bill of the relator was presented for audit and allowance, as a county charge, and was rejected by that body.

Thereupon, an application was made to the specia term of the supreme court for a peremptory writ of mandamus,

The respondent appealed from the order, and so the case comes to us to determine whether the bill in question is a town or a county charge, and a satisfactory solution of the question will involve the examination of the statutory provision relating to the subject.

Under the Revised Statutes, the compensation allowed by law to constables for services and expenses in conveying criminals to jail, which are the only services involved in this examination, were county charges (1 R. S., 375, section 3,) and that provision of the statute remained unrepealed and undisturbed until the enactment of chapter 180 of the Laws of 1845, and section 26 of that act, which pertains to the question before us, was amended by chapter 455 of the Laws of 1847, so as to read as follows:

“All fees and accounts of magistrates and other officers, for criminal proceedings, including cases of vagrancy, shall be paid by the several towns or .cities wherein the offense shall have been committed, and all accounts rendered for such proceedings shall state where such offense was committed, and the board of supervisors shall assess such fees and accounts upon the several towns or cities designated by such accounts; but when any person shall be bound over to the oyer and terminer or court of sessions, or committed to jail to await a trial in either of said courts, the costs of the proceedings had before the single magistrate shall be chargeable upon the towns or cities as aforesaid, and the costs of the proceedings had after the person shall have been so bound over or committed shall be chargeable to the county, but nothing herein contained shall apply to cases of felonies, nor where the proceedings or trial for the offense shall be had before any court of oyer and terminer or court of sessions of "the county, and the fines imposed and collected in any such cases shall be credited to such towns or cities, respectively. And whenever any criminal warrant or process shall be issued by any magistrate residing out of the town or city wherein the offense shall have been committed, it shall authorize the officer executing the same to carry the person charged with an offense under this act before any magistrate resident and being in the town or city wherein such offense shall have been committed, to be proceeded against according to the provisions of the fifteenth section of this act, and the magistrate issuing such warrant or process shall not lose any jurisdiction over the trial or proceeding against any such persons by reason of. anything herein contained, nor shall such magistrate be allowed any compensation for any further proceedings in any such case beyond issuing such warrant*or process.”

By the twenty-fifth section of this law of 1847, all laws inconsistent with any provisions of that act were thereby repealed.

“Constables shall hereafter be allowed the fees hereinafter stated, for the following services in criminal cases: For serving a warrant, seventy-five cents; for every mile traveled, going and returning, ten cents; tor taking a defendant into custody on a mittimus, twenty-five cents; for every mile traveled in taking a prisoner to jail, going and returning, ten cents; for serving subpoena, twenty-five cents; for every mile traveled in serving subpoena, going and returning, five cents; for notifying a complainant, twenty-five cents; for every mile traveled in notifying a complainant, five cents, going and returning; for taking charge of a jury during their deliberations, fifty cents.”

Under the statute of 1847, as we have seen, all the fees enumerated and prescribed, down to this point, are town charges, and that conclusion is rendered irresistible by the remaining portion of the same statute, which is as follows :

“For attending any court, pursuant to a notice from the sheriff for that purpose, two dollars for each day, and five cents a mile for each mile traveled in going to and returning from such court, which fees shall be chargeable to the county, and shall be paid by the treasurer thereof on the production of the certificate of the clerk, specifying the number of days and distance traveled.”

If all the fees of constables prescribed in the forepart of this amended statute were county charges, then a specific provision, making. the fees for attending court a county charge, was a work of supererogation.

Chapter 108 of the Laws of 187G, amended certain previous statutes, and by the second section, it was enacted as follows:

“It shall be the duty of the sheriffs, deputy-sheriffs, constables or policemen in and for the several counties of this state, to whom any warrant of commitment for that purpose may be directed by any court or magistrate in this act mentioned, to convey forthwith such person so sentenced to the penitentiary referred to in the second section of this a.ct, .and there deliver such person to the keeper of such penitentiary, whose duty it shall be to receive such persons, so sentenced, during the continuance of said agreement, authorized by the first section of this act, to be there safely kept and employed, according to the rules and discipline of such penitentiary, and the officers thus conveying such convicts, so sentenced, shall be paid such1 fees and expenses therefor, as the several boards of supervisors of the several counties of this state shall prescribe and allow.”

So far as we can discover, we have now referred to all the statutes relating to the subject under examination.

The law of 1847 amended the law of 1845, as we have seen, and repealed the provisions of the Revised- Statutes, which made constables’ fees a county charge, because those statutes made all such fees a town charge, and were therefore inconsistent with the old statute.

Thus the radical change intended to be wrought by the statute was effected in a few words, and the remaining portion of the section is devoted to exceptions and provisions to effectuate the purpose intended to be accomplished thereby, which was to impose the charges for criminal proceedings in local criminal tribunals upon the localities-where the offense was perpetrated or the crime committed.

For that purpose, the statute requires all accounts rendered for such proceedings to state where such offense was committed, to the end that the boards of supervisors shall assess such fees and accounts upon the several towns or cities designated by such accounts.

Then follows a discrimination, confirmatory of the design of the legislature to localize the criminal charges, as follows:

“But when any person shall be bound over to the oyer and terminer or court of sessions, or committed to jail to await a trial in either of said courts, the costs of the proceeding had before the single magistrate shall be chargeable upon the towns or cities as aforesaid, and the costs of the proceedings had, after the person shall have been so bound over or committed, shall be chargeable to the county.”

After that follows an exception which renders the entire section inapplicable to the cases of felonies or proceedings or trials for the offense before any court of oyer and terminer or court of sessions of the county. Then still pursuing the same purpose, it is provided that whenever any criminal process shall be issued by a magistrate residing out of the town or city wherein the offense was committed, it shall authorize the officer executing the same to carry the accused person before any magistrate in the town or city wherein the offense was committed, to be proceeded against according to the provisions of section 15 of the Laws of 1845, which had relation entirely to the organization of courts of special sessions.

A non-resident magistrate issuing the process, did not lose jurisdiction of the case, however, by reason of the last requirement, but he could not be allowed' any compensation beyond the issuance of the process.

Thus the primary purpose and the design of the legislature to localize the expenses of criminal proceedings is easily traced through all the provisions of this section of' the statute of 1847. No intention of the legislature to repeal that statute, or interfere with any of its provisions in any way, can be discovered in any of the subsequent statutes. Under the last clause of section 2 of chap. 108 of the Laws of 1876, as we have seen, the officers conveying convicts to the penitentiary are to be paid such fees ■ and expenses therefor as the several boards of supervisors of the

Repeals of statute by implication are disfavored by the law, and never allowed except in cases of repugnancies or inconsistencies, and these statutes construed together clothed the boards of supervisors with power to fix the fees and expenses to be allowed to executive officers for conveying prisoners to the penitentiary, and when so fixed, the charges are to be paid by the town or city wherein the offense was committed.

As we have seen the first part and primary provision of the twenty-sixth section of the law of 1845, is the same as the first part of the amended section in the law of 1847, and section 26 of the law of 1847 received a construction in the old supreme court, in the case of The People v. The Supervisors of Ontario ( 4 Denio., 260 ), and Chief Justice Bbonson, in delivering the opinion of the court in that case, said: “ The fees and accounts of magistrates and other officers for criminal proceedings of every kind, are a charge upon the town where the offense was committed, except in the following cases:

First. Where the proceedings are not had within the county in which the offense was committed.

Second. Where the proceedings are for felonies, and

Third. Where the proceedings or trial for the offense shall be had before any court of oyer and terminer, or general sessions.

The case of The People v. The Supervisors of Orange County ( 18 Hun, 19 ) was decided under the provisions of the Revised Statutes, and no reference was made to any subsequent legislative enactments. The case was, therefore, not well considered, and cannot have any force as an authority here.

The case of The People v. Supervisors ( 67 N. Y., 330 ) bears no analogy, and has no application to this case. That was a case of a sheriff’s bill for receiving, boarding and discharging prisoners.

The only part of section 26 of the Laws of 1847, which received any attention or consideration in that case, was the portion which provided that the costs of the proceed

The bill in that case was held to be a county charge under the Revised Statutes, which require the jail-keepers to receive and keep any persons committed to their custody, and provide them with food at the expense of the county, and make the compensation of sheriffs for commitments and discharges of prisoners, a county charge. 1 R. S., 385.

Judge Church, in his opinion in that case, says: “We think that the language of the act of 1847, above quoted, ‘all fees and accounts of magistrates, and other officers, for criminal proceedings,’ does not include the fees of the sheriff as jailer of the county. The legislature intended that the fees of magistrates and other local officers, for costs in preliminary criminal proceedings, in cases under the grade of felony, should be a town charge.”

This examination discloses no intention of the legislature to repeal or interfere with the statute of 1847, and under that law, all fees and accounts of magistrates and other officers for criminal proceedings, down to the time of the ■delivery of the prisoner to the keeper of the jail or penitentiary are charges against the town within which the •offense with which they are charged, was committed.

The order appealed from is therefore erroneous, and should be reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.

Pratt, J., concurs; Barnard, P. J., not sitting.