201 P. 268 | Mont. | 1921
delivered the opinion of the court.
This action was brought to recover money alleged to have been received by the defendant to the plaintiff’s use.
The complaint sets forth that from January, 1917, to January, 1919, plaintiff was sheriff of Lewis and Clark county; that during his term there were confined in the Lewis and Clark county jail a large number of persons committed thereto by judgments or orders of the federal authorities for this district — the total number of days during which such persons were so confined amounted to 7,886; that by agreement the
The trial court proceeded upon the theory — indicated in a memorandum opinion — that since the statutes of this state then in force limited the compensation of the sheriff for board of prisoners to fifty cents per day per prisoner, plaintiff could not recover more than that amount.
The one question presented for determination is: To whom does the money paid by the United States for the subsistence of federal prisoners belong? It is beyond controversy that the United States cannot compel any state or territory to care for federal prisoners and that the consent of the state or territory, as the case may be, to do so for the accommodation of the federal government is necessary. By joint resolution of the first Congress (September 23, 1789) the several states were requested to consent to the use of their common jails for the detention of federal prisoners and to require their proper officers to receive, support and safely keep such prisoners until discharged in due course of law, the United States to pay for the support of such prisoners and also pay fifty cents per month for each prisoner so confined therein for the use and upkeep of every such jail so used.
So far as our information goes, every state has acceded to the request expressed in the joint resolution above, to the extent that federal prisoners may be confined and cared for in local jails. By an Act approved January 12, 1872 (5th Div.,
Whatever may be said of the legislative policy expressed in these early statutes, the attempt by either the federal government or the territorial legislature to prescribe specific compensation for the use of local jails was abandoned. Section 5547, United States Revised Statutes, provides: “The Attorney General shall contract with the managers or proper authorities having control of such prisoners, for the imprisonment, subsistence and proper employment of them.” Section 3026, Political Code, 1895, provided: “The sheriff must receive and keep in the county jail any prisoner committed thereto by process or order issued under the authority of the United States, until he is discharged according to law, as if he had been committed under process issued under the authority of this state; provision being made by the United States for the support of such prisoner.” The provisions of section 3026 have been in effect continuously since their enactment and are now found in section 9763, Revised Codes.
To whom is reference made in the phrase “the managers or proper authorities having control of such prisoners?” It cannot- be contended that there is any subtle meaning concealed in the language employed. The terms are in common use and generally understood, but any possible controversy over the construction of the phrase is obviated by express legislative declaration. Section 5539, United States Revised Statutes, provides that whenever any federal prisoner is confined in a county jail, he shall be under the exclusive control of the officer having charge of such jail pursuant to the law of the state in which the jail is situated. Section 3010, Revised Codes, imposes upon the sheriff the duty to “take charge of and keep the county jail and the prisoners therein.” Section 9759, Revised Codes, provides that “the common jails in the several counties of this state are kept by the sheriffs of the counties in which they are respectively situated,” etc. Section 9764 provides that a sheriff to whose custody a federal prisoner is committed is answerable for his safekeeping in the courts of the United States according to the laws thereof. Under like
The complaint states a cause of action and the court erred in sustaining this demurrer. The judgment is reversed and the cause is remanded for further proceedings not inconsistent with the views herein expressed.
Reversed and remanded.