108 Ky. 507 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1900
Opinion op the coubt by
Affirming.
The fiscal court of Butler county, at' its October term, 1897, by an order duly entered upon its records, allowed to J. L. Butler, clerk of the county court, $350, for recording school census reports for the years 1894, 1895 1890, and 1897, payable out of the county levy for the year 1898. Butler subsequently assigned his claim to the allowance to the Morgantown Deposit Bank, who instituted this suit thereon against O. P. Johnson, sheriff of Butler county, making a copy of the order of the fiscal court an exhibit with the petition, and alleging that he had collected the tax levied for the year 1898, out of which said claim was payable; that it was due, and that he had refused payment, and asking judgment. Johnson answered, and admitted that he had collected the money, but alleged that he had been informed by the county judge and county attorney that the order had been illegally obtained, and was void; that it had been subsequently rescinded by the fiscal court; and that he had been instructed by them, as agents of the fiscal court, not to pay it. He made his answer a
This is not a similar proceeding. The fiscal court is a court of limited powers, and has no jurisdiction to appropriate county funds except as it is authorized by law to do so (see Kentucky Statutes, section 1840), and there is no provision of the statute which authorizes it
It is insisted that under the provisions of section 4374, Kentucky Statutes, the fiscal court was authorized to provide for the payment of this claim. That section is a provision .of the common-school law, and provides that “no fees to county judges or clerks, or other incidental expenses, shall be paid out of the distributable share of the •revenue apportioned to any county, but that such payments, when allowed by the fiscal court, shall be paid out of the county levy.” This section does not undertake to provide for or direct the payment by the fiscal court of the fees of ■the county court clerk for the services sued for. It simply prohibits appropriating any part of the school fund for such services, and, until the Legislature fixes the particular fees which are to be paid for such services, nothing can be legally charged or collected therefor out of the county levy. It therefore follows that the fiscal court had no authority originally to make the allowance, and its order at the October term, 1897, allowing $350 to Butler for his services in recording these reports, was void, and no enforceable rights were acquired thereunder, either by him