58 So. 682 | Ala. Ct. App. | 1912
The defendant (appellant here), by motion to strike from the bill of costs in the case as taxed against him the item of $3 for the court stenographer’s fee, raised the question of the constituional validity of section 5 of the act, “to provide for the appointment of an official stenographer for each of the circuit courts and courts of like jurisdiction for which a stenographer is not now provided by law of the state of Alabama; to prescribe his duties; tO' fix his compensation, and to provide for the payment of the same.”— Acts Special Sesion 1909, p. 263. The section which is assailed is as follows: “Sec. 5. That in all cases reported by the official stenographer or his assistant, there shall be taxed as a part of the costs of the case a fee of $3.00, to be collected as other costs, and when such fee is collected it shall be paid by the clerk into the county treasury of said county in which such case is tried and reported.” It is objected that this section of the act offends the constitutional provision which declares that “each law shall contain but one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title,” etc. — Constitution, § 45. The point made is that the provision for the taxing of a
“ When there .is a fair expression of the subject in the title, all matters reasonably connected with it, and all proper agencies or instrumentalities, or measures, which will or may facilitate its accomplishment, are proper to be incorporated in the act, and, as usually said, are cognate or germane to the title.”—Lindsay v. United States Savings & Loan Association, 120 Ala. 156, 178, 24 South. 171, 176 (42 L. R. A. 783). Plainly the provision for the payment into the county treasury of a fee in each case reported by the official stenographer or his assistant is one for compensation for such special services rendered in that case, though the payment is to the county and not to the official, and is in a measure calculated to facilitate the meeting by the county of the
Another objection urged against the validity of the provision of section 5 of the act for the taxing of a stenographer’s fee as part of the costs in a case is that it contravenes the provision of section 96 of the Constitution that “the Legislature shall not enact any law not applicable to all the counties in the state, regulating costs and charges of courts, or fees, commissions or allowances of public officers.”. The contention in effect is that, as at the time of the ena.ctm.ent of the statute there were in force in some of the counties of the state local or special statutes providing for official stenographers and their compensation, the result of the constitutional provision just quoted was to prohibit the enactment of any provision for a fee for official stenographic services which is different from the provisions on that subject contained in existing local or special laws, without repealing all such local or special laws. This contention is strikingly analogous to the one which was disposed of by the ruling made in the case of State ex rel. Covington v. Thompson, 142 Ala. 98, 38 South. 679. In that case the effort was to enforce the conclusion that an election law, general in its terms, could not be regarded as a general law, within the meaning of the constitutional definition of such a law, because at the time of its passage there were in force in certain localities in the state inconsistent special laws on the same subject which were not repealed. In disposing of the proposition the court said: “We hold that, under the wording of said section of our Constitution, a law which
The defendant was sentenced for the costs at the rate of 40 cents per day, instead of at the rate of 75 cents per day, as required by law. In this respect the judgment may be corrected here, and, as so corrected, will he affirmed.
Corrected and affirmed.