162 Wis. 291 | Wis. | 1916
The plaintiff sues upon the express con-, tract he made with the defendant, which appears in the foregoing statement. It was agreed that the plaintiff was “to assist the district attorney of Douglas county, Wis., in the prosecution of Homer T. Fowler so long as L. P. fflcern, the complaining witness, desires the services . . .” The evidence shows that the plaintiff rendered services under the contract by assisting the district attorney in conducting the preliminary examination in the municipal court of Douglas county. He claims there was due for nine days’ services in attending court on such examination the sum of $225. The jury found $212.50 due him for such services and included nothing for other services. The defendant challenges the right of plaintiff to recover under the contract upon the ground that the contract is against the policy of the law and the statutes of this state and void, and that no recovery thereon will be permitted. The question of the policy of the state, regarding such contracts as this, was examined by this court in the case of Biemel v. State, 71 Wis. 444, 37 N. W. 244. In that case an attorney who had been employed and paid for his services by a private party was permitted by the court to assist the district attorney in the prosecution of the case. This court there held that the statutes of the state pro
“We think it is quite clear from the reading of our statutes on the subject, as well as upon public policy, that an attorney employed and paid by private parties should not be permitted either by the courts or by the prosecuting attorney to assist in the trial of such criminal cases.”
It is emphasized in the opinion that prosecutors in criminal cases should be free from prejudice and have no private interest in prosecutions. In Wight v. Rindskopf, 43 Wis. 344, in speaking of the duties and functions of prosecuting officers, the court states that he “is a quasi-judicial officer, retained by the public for the prosecution of persons accused of crime, in the exercise of a sound discretion to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. . . . He is trusted with broad official discretion, generally subject, however, to judicial control.” These views are supported in the case of State
It is argued that the plaintiff rendered the services here involved upon the preliminary examination and hence they are not of the class of services which are prohibited to be performed by counsel employed by private parties under this public policy. We cannot, accede to this claim. A preliminary examination of a person accused of crime is one step in
By the Court. — The judgment appealed from is reversed, and the cause remanded to the superior court of Douglas county with direction to enter judgment dismissing plaintiff’s complaint.