55 Kan. 630 | Kan. | 1895
The opinion of the court was delivered by
It was a requirement of §4 of article 15 of the original constitution that all public printing should be let on contract to the lowest responsible bidder ; but in 1868 this section was amended so as to require the work to be done at the capital by a state printer elected by the legislature in joint session, the price for the same to be regulated by law. In pursuance of this amendment, the legislature passed an act, being chapter 78, Laws of 1869, providing for the election of a public printer, and prescribing the duties of his office. He was therein directed, among other things, to “publish in a weekly newspaper to be printed at Topeka all laws ordered to be printed in a newspaper, all proclamations, orders, notices and advertisements” of a defined character. Section 8 of the act divided the state printing into nine classes,
In 1879, by §104 of chapter 166 of the Laws of that year in relation to state departments, the ex
“For publishing any legal notice, or any order, citation, summons, or any other proceeding or advertisement required by law to be published in any newspaper, at a rate not exceeding $1 per square of 250 ems for the first insertion, and 50 cents per square of 225 ems for each subsequent insertion.”
The Kansas Breeze was duly designated by the executive council as the official state paper for one year from April 1, 1895, and it has made certain publications as such which have been paid for at the rates prescribed by said act of 1876, but the plaintiff company, as the owner of said newspaper, claims additional payment based upon said § 17 of the act of 1868.
It was developed in the oral argument that § 105 of the bill as reported to the legislature of 1879 expressly provided that the rates for the printing should be the same as prescribed by the act of 1868 relating to fees and salaries, but this was stricken out and the section was adopted in its present form. This is certainly strong, if not conclusive, evidence that the legislature did not intend to adopt the rates fixed by the act of 1868, but left them to be governed by the act then in force, which remained unrepealed.
The motion to quash the alternative writ will be sustained, and judgment will be entered in favor of the defendant.
I am unable to concur with my brethren in the view that has been taken. In effect it is