62 Wis. 463 | Wis. | 1885
The claim for $41.84 and the claim for $5.32 are each for fees accruing to the plaintiff as a justice of the peace, on prosecutions in the name of the state under sec. 1561, R. S. By sec. 679, R. S., the plaintiff, as justice, was required, on or before the first Monday of November in each year, to forward to the county clerk a correct statement of all actions or proceedings had before him, during
The statute contemplates the payment of fees to the justice for his services in criminal cases (sec. 3774, R. S.); and that all fines collected by him in such cases be paid over to the county. Sec. 4772, R. S. The liability of the count}’' for such services,-thus assumed by the statutes, is thus recognized, if not expressly declared, as an absolute statutory liability. This construction is supported by the repeated decisions of this court to the effect that the county is liable for the necessary, expenses and services incident to the administration of the criminal laws of the state. Carpenter v. Dane Co. 9 Wis. 274; Dane Co. v. Smith, 13 Wis. 585; Hall v. Washington Co. 2 G. Greene (Iowa), 473; Bright v. Supervisors, 18 Johns. 242. See Sanborn & Berryman’s notes to sec. 677, R. S. Some of the decisions cited were made prior to the enactment of ch. 257, Laws of 1862, and ch. 31,
As to the plaintiff’s claim for $149.44, for services in trying cases for drunkenness occurring in the village in violation of the village ordinance, and prosecuted thereunder, an entirely different question is presented. That ordinance went into effect March 19, 1878, and was entitled “ An ordinance to suppress intemperance.” The power to enact the ordinance seems to have been given by the charter. Sec. 18, ch. 30, P. & L. Laws of 1859. Under sec. 1561, R. S. (sec. 17, ch. 179, Laws of 1874), “any person found in a public place in such a state of intoxication as to disturb others, or tonable, by reason of his condition, to care for his own safety or the safety of others, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine not exceeding ten dollars, or hy imprisonment in the county jail for not more than five days, ,op by both such fine and imprisonment; but this section £h,a.ll not abridge the powers of cities and villages to provide ja different mode of punishment for such offenses.” The right-here given upon conviction to punish by imprisonment instead fit fine, or by both fine and imprisonment, makes the .offense described therein a misdemeanor. Sec. 3294, R. S.; Oshkosh v. Schwartz, 55 Wis. 487, 489. True, this section do.es pot undertake to “ abridge the powers of cities .and villages ,to provide a different mode of punishment for such toffepges:; ” but this applies only to “ such offenses.”
The ordinance before 'us did not undertake “ to provide a different mode .of punishment for such offenses.” It authorized the .arrest .of -“all persons found in the streets or public planes of .s.aid village .intoxicated, or guilty of any disorderly
It follows, from what has been said, that prosecutions for the violation of the ordinance were civil actions merely, for the collection of forfeitures. Sec. 3294; State v. Smith, 52 Wis. 134; Oshkosh v. Schwartz, 55 Wis. 483. The mere fact
Eor the reasons given, the judgment of the circuit court is l-eversed, and the cause is remanded with directions to enter judgment in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for the sum of $47.16, with interest at seven per cent, from November 3, 1883.
By the Oourt.— Ordered accordingly.