62 Wis. 572 | Wis. | 1885
The following accounts were presented by the appellant to the board of supervisors of Jefferson county: “ Jefferson County to C. Grimm, Justice of the Peace of the Town and City of Jefferson, Dr.: To his fees in the cases of the State of Wisconsin vs. [the several defendants named].”
It appears by the records that the board allowed a part only of said accounts and disallowed the remainder. The claimant thereupon appealed to the circuit court from the decision of said board disallowing a part of said claim. In the circuit court the defendant county demurred to said account as the complaint in the action, on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action, and the court sustained said demurrer, with leave to the plaintiff to amend said complaint, and from the order sustaining the demurrer the plaintiff has appealed to this court.
Treating the account as an original complaint in an action commenced in the circuit court, the brief and argument of the very able counsel of the respondent, to sustain a general demurrer thereto, are perfect in both law and logic, and unanswerable But his brief, however able on the general principles of pleading, and his argument, however logical, exhaustive, plausible, and persuasive, we cannot but think are inapplicable to the case. Yarious claims may be presented to the county board for allowance which are not in the form of an account, in contemplation of sec. 676, R. S., which uses the language “ any account, demand, or cause of action;” and of sec. 678, which requires the board, “in case
The account or statement of the appellant in this case must be tested by these provisions, and by these provisions only. The county board, in acting upon this claim of the appellant, and other similar claims of justices of the peace in Jefferson county at that session, calls in their record such claims “ justices’ accounts.” The question is whether their accounts or these accounts of the appellant are made out and presented in the form and manner required by these special provisions: (1) “ A correct statement of all actions and proceedings had before him during the year preceding, in which the county shall have become liable for costs, giving the names of the parties in each action or proceeding.” This seems to have been done substantially in the heading and body of the accounts. (2) !< The nature and result of the same.” These two requisites are clearly complied with in the body of the accounts. (3) “ The amount of the costs in detail in each case.” This also is complied with, with great strictness. (4) “ And what items, if any, have been paid, and the amount thereof.” The affidavit of the appellant, appended to his account, shows that'nothing whatever had been paid. The further requisites by the amendment of said section are that “ the titles of all criminal actions tried before him during the same period in which the defendant or any defendant shall have been convicted,” and a statement therein “that he filed a certificate of conviction in each case, as and within the time required by law,” are made necessary as a part of his return; but the account of the justice of his costs which the county is liable to pay, need not necessarily require this statement any further than it may relate to such costs, and to that extent such statement appears in said accounts.
It would seem that if a justice of the peace made out his
It is plausibly argued by the learned counsel of the respondent, that inasmuch as sec. 685, R. S., gives the county on such appeal the right to answer or cLemxor, that such an account must stand the test of a formal complaint for the recovery of money against the county. Whatever may have been the design of such a provision as to a demurrer, it is quite apparent that as to such an account, a part of which has been rejected and a part allowed, either by items or in gross, and which was sufficient for the action of the
In this case we have, then, the anomaly that the accounts of the appellant were deemed sufficient by the county board for their action thereon, and they did act thereon, and allowed a part thereof, and in the circuit court on appeal a demurrer is sustained to the whole account as a complaint, and the appellant is given leave to amend. When such an account is amended by adding thereto any substantial averments of fact, it is then most certainly not “ the statement filed with the county clerk.” Has the circuit court in such a case jurisdiction to try a different case from that presented to the county board? The accounts in these cases do show that they were criminal cases, and if the board has failed in this instance to designate particularly each item disallowed, their allowance of a part and disallowance of the other part of the claim clearly gives the right of appeal under sec. 683, R. S. The revisers’ notes do not explain why the former statute was changed so as to allow a demurrer to the claim as a complaint on appeal in such cases, but all the use of such a demurrer readily apprehended would seem to be in a case where the whole claim, or some part thereof, was rejected by the county board on the ground of an insufficient statement thereof.
The construction of the provisions of the' statute above indicated is approved in the late case of French v. Dunn Co. 58 Wis. 402. The chief justice says in that case: “The section requires the statement to be in writing, setting forth the nature of the claim and the. facts upon which it is founded. Where the claim is an account, the items are to be stated separately.” In that case the claim was stated as an account as follows: “Dunn County to S. B. French, Dr., March 1, 1881. Fov [certain land described] purchased by committee of county board for a poor farm, 80 acres, $1,900; ■interest and damages, $100; ” total, $2,000. The county •board disallowed the whole claim. The objection on appeal •was that the claim was insufficiently stated to authorize the •action of the board thereon, and that, therefore, the board had no jurisdiction of it. The chief justice further says: “ Where the claim is an account, the items are to be stated separately. The statement in question conforms to these essentials. It contains a description of the land purchased by the committee for a poor-farm, states the number of acres and the purchase price. • It is true it contains an item or charge of $100 for ‘ interest and damages.’ The board might have refused to act upon this item until it was made more -definite, so as to show the nature of the damages claimed. But that the statement was sufficient, both in form 'and substance, to give the board jurisdiction, seems to us too plain for discussion.” Now there was a claim, if sued upon in the circuit court and a complaint filed, such a complaint ■would -be -required .to state a great many more facts than
We have extended this opinion out of deference to the learned counsel of the respondent, whose able and elaborate brief seems to have been made for a case requiring an original complaint in an action to state all the facts necessary to show a right of recovery, and not for a case like this under the statute. We think it more reasonable and in accordance with the statute to hold, according to the theory and able argument of the learned counsel of the appellant, that the statement or account acted upon by the county board and in part állowed was sufficient in the circuit court on appeal in this case. That the county is liable for such costs in criminal cases before a justice of the peace has been recently-decided by this court in Chafin v. Waukesha Co., ante, p. 463, and Nickell v. Waukesha Co., ante, p. 469. An account of a justice of the peace for such costs, filed with the county clerk for allowance, which is good and sufficient enough in form and substance to be allowed in part, is equally good and sufficient for the allowance of the whole claim, which constitutes a legal charge against the county, either before the board-or in the circuit court on appeal.
By the Court.— The order of the circuit court sustaining the demurrer to the complaint is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings according to law.