155 Iowa 527 | Iowa | 1912
The plaintiff addressed the following proposition to the board of supervisors of Mahaska county: “I agree to collect the fines and costs due the county in the justice and mayor’s courts and the district courts in and for Mahaska county, and agree to accept in full compensation 33 1-3 percent of the amount paid in to the
The legal fees which the county treasurer may retain out of such money is 2 percent thereof. Section 719. No deduction for the benefit of the county can lawfully be made by the county treasurer from the fines paid to him, unless the same is authorized by law. It is for the Legislature to determine what deductions are to be made, and not the county treasurer, or the country board of supervisors. Even the power of the Legislature in this respect is limited, as appears from the cases of Lynch v. The Steamer Economy, 27 Wis. 69, and Dutton v. Fowler, 27 Wis. 427. To permit each board of supervisors to determine for itself, or daeh county treasurer for himself, what' expense .shall be deducted from fines collected, would be to introduce inextricable confusion. Uñder such a system there would be no fixed, certain rule by which the ‘clear proceeds’ of fines could be determined; or, what is very probable, there would be no such ‘clear proceeds’ left for the school fund. The system would be unjust and intolerable, and its practical effect would be doubtless to dry up one of the sources which the Constitution has ordained to replenish and increase the school fun-d of the state. The Legislature has provided for no deduction from such fines except 2 percent thereof, which the treasurer may retain. Hence, under existing laws, the clear proceeds of fines received by the county treasurer» is ninety-eight percent thereof, which must be paid into the state treasury for the benefit of the school fund.
In People v. Treasurer of Wayne County, 8 Mich. 392, the court held that deductions of expenses for collecting the fines and prosecuting the offender might not be made therefrom, but the Constitution there provided that
Eeally the question simply is, What is the meaning of the words ‘clear proceeds,’ as used in the Constitution? That it does not mean ‘entire’ proceeds is we think too clear for argument. ‘Clear’ ■ implies that something is to be or may be deducted, so that the balance is ‘clear’ from all charges or demands. It seems to us that the word ‘clear’ is here used in tbe sense that it is frequently used colloquially when we speak of the ‘clear profit’ in a business transaction, meaning tbe ‘net profit’ after all expenses or losses are deducted. Obviously, if this is the meaning of tbe word in this connection, it was contemplated that there would be power resting 'Somewhere to provide for and define wbat deductions from tbe gross fine could properly be made. If that power exists (and we hold that it does), it must rest in the Legislature, as said by Mr. Justice Lyon in State v. Miles, supra. This view of • the intent of the framers of the Constitution in using tbe words ‘clear proceeds is strengthened when we consider that tbe system of paying a moiety of fines in many penal actions
See State v. Ry., 133 Ind. 69 (32 N. E. 817, 18 L. R. A. 502); Southern Express Co. v. Commonwealth, 92 Va. 59 (22 S. E. 809, 41 L. R. A. 436). As to fines under municipal ordinances, see Village of Platteville v. Bell, 43 Wis. 488. As to who may question validity of statute, see Pennsylvania Co. v. State, 142 Ind. 428 (41 N. E. 937); Ex parte McMahon, 26 Nev. 243 (66 Pac. 294).
Without saying that deductions from fines and forfeitures must in all circumstances be limited to those allowed the informen, we are of the opinion that these are never permissible, unless authorized by statute in procuring the assessment of fines, and the Legislature has always proceeded on this theory. Section 4338 of the Code declares that “fines and forfeitures, not otherwise disposed of, go to the treasury of the county where the same are collected, for the benefit of the school fund,” and, save when a part is given the informer or for prosecuting, no portion thereof, when assessed for any breach of the penal laws, is undertaken to be diverted from the school fund by any statute of the state. Thus, in addition to his regular salary, the county attorney receives “the fees as now allowed to attorneys for suits upon written instruments where judgment is obtained for all fines collected where he appears for the state but not otherwise.” Section 308, Code Supp. 1907. Such fees are “on the first two hundred dollars, or
The judgment dismissing the petition is affirmed.