142 Ind. 569 | Ind. | 1895
This proceeding was by the appellant to require, by the writ of mandamus, that the appellees, the Board of Commissioners of Randolph county, approve and allow the report of the relator, as trustee of Wayne township, in said county, in which report he presented vouchers and asked allowances for moneys paid as and for rentals for an office in which to conduct the business of said township. There are some technical questions as to “the sufficiency of the petition and of
This classification suggests the intention of the Legislature to select from the whole number those whose population and business, within the judgment of the Legislature, justify the maintaining of office rooms and to provide a salary sufficient to enable them to pay rentals. Whether it was intended to require that office rentals should be paid from salaries by these special classes, is not necessary for us to decide, but we must conclude that the discretion necessary to a classification, as we have shown, has not been intrusted to another, but to some extent at least has been exercised by the Legislature itself. The distinction made by the Legislature in this classification requires that those of the special classes shall, as we have shown, keep their offices open every week-day, etc., while those within the per diem class are neither required nor expected to give attention to the duties of the office every week-day, but are required to set apart such days
Whether, by implication, from the phrase “shall keep their office open,” as employed with reference to the special classes of trustees, we could say that they are required to maintain an office room, and whether such maintenance is chargeable to their trusts, is not before us, but, as to the per diem class, there is no such expression in the statutes.
It is not our privilege to supply omissions of the Legislature, if there has been an omission to provide for offices for trustees, nor are we at liberty to create or delegate the power to trustees to make expenditures not expressly, or by necessary implication, granted by fhe Legislature, however much we should deem the expenditures just and reasonable. That there is no authority to the per diem class of trustees to incur an indebtedness on behalf of their trusts for office rentals, we have no doubt, and that it requires such authority from the Legislature, has been already decided in an analogous case. See Board, etc., v. Axtell, 96 Ind. 384. In that case it was held that in the absence of a statute requiring it, the county superintendent was not entitled to maintain an office at public expense. The exact question, now before us has been considered by us in the case of Kerlin v. Reynolds, 142 Ind. 460, and the conclusion was there reached that office rentals and other office expenses were not proper charges. It follows from what we have said, that the circuit court did not err in sustaining the appellees’ demurrer to the complaint and alternative writ.
The judgment is therefore affirmed.
Monks, J., took no part in the decision of. this cause.