169 Ind. 468 | Ind. | 1907
Lead Opinion
Action by appellee to recover from appellant $517 arising out of “demand fees” collected and received by him as treasurer of said county on account of demands made by him during his term of office for the payment of delinquent taxes. The complaint was filed in the Clinton Circuit Court on September 16, 1904, and therein appellee alleged that he was elected treasurer of said county at the November election, 1900, and held the office from January 1, 1901, until January 1, 1903; that it was part of his duties to make demands upon the taxpayers when their taxes became delinquent; that many of the taxpayers of said county of Clinton, during his term of office, permitted their taxes to become delinquent, and that he made demand for the payment thereof during his term of office; that he was. permitted to charge and receive from each taxpayer who paid delinquent taxes upon demand, as an emolument of his office, the sum of twenty-five cents for each and every demand made as aforesaid; that on the quarter ending March', 1901, he collected of such demand fees the sum of $12. (Here the itemized account of the demand fees collected by him is continued on to December 31, 1902, showing that he collected in all the sum of $517.) It is further averred that each and all of said several sums of money belonged to the plaintiff, and that he-was at said time, and yet is, entitled to receive the same as the emoluments of his office; that when he made a settlement with the defendant county he did not retain and keep said sums of money, nor any part thereof, but that he left the full amount aforesaid in the treasury of said county, and the same is yet in possession of the deféndant, and
Counsel for appellee have not referred us to any act of the legislature enacted since the passage of the salary act of 1891, wherein it is in any manner specified or provided that county treasurers shall, in addition to their salaries, be allowed the money arising out of the demand and levy fees accruing on account of the performance of their official duties in the collection of delinquent taxes. In providing in §6525, supra, that the treasurer should be allowed the commission therein designated upon all delinquent taxes collected, the legislature was careful to specify that such commission should be “in addition to the salary provided by
Rehearing
On Petition for Rehearing.
A petition for rehearing is presented in this case, based upon the grounds that the court erred, (1) in holding that the county and not the treasurer is entitled to the demand fees in the collection of delinquent taxes; (2) in holding that the complaint in this case does not state a cause of action.
We have again given the questions presented by appeEee’s