82 Minn. 71 | Minn. | 1900
Application was made to the judge of the district court for Brown county for $200 as a bounty provided, by law for securing the arrest and conviction of horse thieves, under G. S. 1894, §§ 7869-7871. It was, by the court, determined as a fact that the claimants were the only persons entitled to such bounty, but, upon the view that section 7869 had been amended by Laws 1897, c. 144, so as to reduce the amount of such bounty from $200 to $50, the latter sum was allowed, and directed to be divided equally among the claimants, who appeal from such allowance upon the contention that the amendment of 1897 was so ambiguous and uncertain as to have no legal force whatever.
The material portion of the law upon which claimants demand the bounty of $200 reads as follows:
“That the sum of two hundred dollars be paid to any person or persons for the arrest and conviction of each and every person that steals a horse or horses from any person or persons in this state, which amount shall be paid to the person or persons entitled thereto,” etc. G. S. 1894, § 7869.
The remaining portion of this and the two following sections .relate to the manner in which the claim shall be allowed and paid. Laws 1897 c. 144, being entitled “An act to amend section 7869, chapter 127, of the General Statutes of Minnesota 1894, relating to bounties for the arrest of horse thieves,” reads as follows:
“Section 1. That section 7869, chapter 127, General Statutes of Minnesota 1894, is amended by striking out from the first line of said section the word ‘two,’ and inserting instead thereof the word ‘one,’ so that said section 7869, when amended, shall read as follows: That the sum of fifty (50) dollars be paid to any person or persons for the arrest and conviction of any person or persons in this state, which amount shall be paid to the person or persons entitled thereto,” etc.
It is urged by claimants that this amendment can be given no effect, for the reason that the first paragraph thereof reduces the $200 bounty provided for in section 7869 to $100, and, in further setting forth the act as amended, in the second paragraph it provides that the bounty shall be $50,- — a manifest inconsistency.
While this subject is not free from doubt, we are of the opinion that more weight should be given to the language where the amended section is set forth in express terms than in the introduction or first paragraph, which attempts to state its effect by the change of one word only. This view would seem to give best expression to the real intent of the legislature, who were more likely to have assented to the paragraph which is expended according to its tenor than to the introductory clause; the object of the enactment apparently being to secure the greatest reduction in the interest of economy, which should have force in our construction of the amendment. •
This is not the only error apparent in the amended statute. In copying section 7869 there was an evident oversight in leaving out the words “that steals a horse or horses from any person,” so that, standing alone, it seemingly provides for a bounty for the conviction of any and every crime of which any per
Legislative enactments are not to be defeated on account of mistakes, errors, or omissions, provided the intention of the legislature can be collected from the whole statute, and the title and its history may be referred to for that purpose. Sutherland, St. Const. § 260; Palms v. Shawano, 61 Wis. 211, 215, 21 N. W. 77; Grimes v. Byrne, 2 Minn. 72 (89); City of Winona v. Whipple, 24 Minn. 61; State v. Small, 29 Minn. 216, 12 N. W. 703; State v. O’Connor, 81 Minn. 79, 83 N. W. 498. Upon an inspection of the whole act it seems most probable that it was the purpose of the legislature to apply the amendment of 1897 to those cases embraced in the acts it seeks to amend, and to modify the law only in respect to the amount of the bounty, to secure a reduction of the same to the lowest sum named therein; and we think it our duty to give force to that intention.
Order affirmed.