72 So. 540 | Ala. | 1916
By this petition the circuit clerk of Monroe county, who was elected to that office on November 8, 1910, for a term of six years beginning January 17, 1911, seeks to require the treasurer of Monroe county to pay to him his claim in a certain criminal case in which the state failed to convict. There is no question as to the correctness of the schedule of fees set out in said claim, for the services rendered, as provided for by the
“See. 8. That the fees accruing to the sheriff and clerks, or provided by section seven (7) of this act, shall be paid out of the general fund of said county, as other claims are paid, and when audited and allowed by the court of county commissioners or board of revenue shall be preferred in the same manner, as is provided for the payment of witnesses.”
The assignment of demurrer takes the point that the petition shows the treasurer was acting under the authority of a valid law. The sole question presented on this appeal, therefore, is the validity of the said sections of .the local act.
The title of the act referred to, of which said sections form a part, is as follows: “To provide for and regulate the pay of state witnesses before the grand jury, circuit, law and equity and county courts of Monroe county, and to repeal all laws in conflict herewith.”
It readily appears that the title of the act has no reference to nor indication of the question of compensation for county officers such as the circuit clerk and sheriff. The provisions of the quoted sections are not cognate to, embraced in, nor related to the subject expressed in the title of the act. Section 45 of the Constitution provides, among other things, that: “Each law shall contain but one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title.”
It needs no argument to disclose that these sections are therefore invalid as in violation of this provision of our Constitution. —State, ex rel. Troy v. Smith, 187 Ala. 411, 65 South. 942.
The foregoing suffices to condemn these two sections of the act, without reference to subdivision 24 of section 104 of our Constitution — prohibiting the passage of a local law “creating, increasing, or decreasing fees, percentages, or allowances of public officers” — or both to sections 96 and 281, referred to in brief of counsel for appellant.
Reversed, rendered, and remanded.