183 S.W.2d 812 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1944
Affirming.
The second section of Chapter 79 of the Acts of 1944, KRS
In urging reversal the appellant insists that the requirement for an alphabetical index is not a duty added to his office for which no compensation may be allowed during his term, but is a duty wholly outside the duties which a circuit clerk is required to perform. The appellees take the opposite view.
The applicable parts of the constitutional sections follow:
161. "The compensation of any city, county, town or municipal officer shall not be changed after his election or appointment, or during his term of office; * *."
235. "The salaries of public officers shall not be changed during the terms for which they were elected; * * *." This Court has been called upon many times to construe these sections of the Constitution. Speaking generally, the decisions are to the effect that a public officer's compensation, regardless of whether he is paid by salary or fees or both, can not be changed during his term of office unless new duties beyond the scope of his office are added by the General Assembly.
The appellant relies upon the cases of James v. Cammack,
We think the case before us falls under the rule laid down in Greenup County v. Spears,
Since 1934 it has been the duty of circuit clerks to issue driver's licenses. The issuance of those licenses has been a definite and specific part of the duties of these *638 officers from that date. The Act under consideration merely provides for the maintenance of a particular type of index for all driver's licenses. As pointed out by the appellees, it would be difficult to conceive of an efficient clerk's office which did not already have a satisfactory indexing system for driver's licenses. We believe the maintaining of such an index is so closely related to and connected with the duty of issuing the licenses that it can not be held to be a new duty outside the present scope of the duties of circuit clerks. There was no imposition of a duty on the clerks as individuals to be performed outside the line of their duties. Of course, clerks who take office at the beginning of 1946 will be entitled to the additional compensation.
Judgment affirmed.
Whole Court sitting.