14 Wis. 502 | Wis. | 1861
By the Court,
So far as the plaintiff’s account is for costs and expenses in serving subpoenas, it is disposed of by our decision in the case of Calkins & Proudfit against
The only remaining question arises upon the finding that the plaintiff was employed as sergeant-at-arms to arrest and hold in custody certain persons, as stated in his petition, and that he performed the services, which were worth $200, and that the plaintiff had been paid at the rate of $5 per day as sergeant-at-arms at the session of 1858;
The question is, whether, upon these facts, the plaintiff is in law entitled to recover of the state the amount which the jury found it was worth to arrest and hold in custody the several persons mentioned ? And this depends upon the question whether these services are to be considered as having been paid for by the five dollars per day, which the jury found to have been appropriated to the plaintiff as sergeant-at-arms. If the performance of those services was a part of his duties as sergeant-at-arms, and if the five dollars per day was all that he could legally claim for performing the duties of that office, it is clear that he has no claim to recover any thing more. If they were not a part of the duties of that office, and the plaintiff has only been paid for performing those duties, then he ought to recover.
But that these services were a part of the regular duties of a sergeant-at-arms, seems to us too plain to admit of any doubt. The rules of the assembly under which the plaintiff acted, prescribed certain specific duties, and then provided that he should “ perfoi'm all other services pertaining to the post of sergeant-at arms.” Assembly Journal, 1857, p. 22, Rule 40— adopted in 1858, p. 9, Assembly Journal of that year. In Cushing’s Law and Practice of Legislative Assemblies, p. 183, the duties of a sergeant-at-arms are thus stated. “ The duties of this office are analogous to those of a sheriff in a court of justice. They consist principally in attending upon the assembly, maintaining order among the persons there present — serving the processes and executing the orders of the assem
Whether one of these officers who should be elected and discharge bis duties without any law in existence fixing tbe amount of bis compensation, could, in case tbe legislature should then make what be deemed an inadequate compensation, refuse to take it, and bring an action and recover what be could prove to be the value of bis services, it is not necessary to inquire. But here all tbe services of arresting and bolding these parties in custody, were' performed after tbe passage of tbe act fixing tbe amount of tbe officer’s pay. And it seems clear that in such a case tbe party must be
Eor these reasons the plaintiff’s motion for judgment must be denied.