166 Ind. 282 | Ind. | 1906
—This action was commenced to compel, by writ of mandamus, Frank M. Coovert, as treasurer of Newton county, to pay a balance claimed to be due on three several warrants issued by the auditor of said county in favor of the relator. Thereafter appellee, Charles W. Spinney, having succeeded to said office of county treasurer, was substituted as a defendant instead of said Coovert. Appellee filed a return in three paragraphs to the alternative writ. Appellant’s demurrer to the first and second paragraphs of return was sustained to the first and overruled to the second. The court made a special finding of facts and stated conclusions of law thereon in favor of appellee, and over a motion for a new trial rendered judgment thereon against appellant. The assignment of errors calls in question each conclusion of law, and the action of the court in overruling appellant’s demurrer to the second paragraph of appellee’s return to the alternative writ and in overruling appellant’s motion for a new trial.
It appears from the special findings that in 1899 one Gil-man was duly elected treasurer of the incorporated town of Goodland, in this State, and gave his bond as such treasurer, which was approved, and that he entered upon the discharge of his duties as such officer. He was reelected to such office each year thereafter, including the year 1904, but gave no bond except the bond approved in 1899. He acted as such treasurer from the first election in 1899 until June 15, 1904, when he left said town, county and State. The corporation taxes of said town of Goodland were collected by the treasurer of Newton county, Indiana, for the year 1904 and years prior thereto. At the settlement between the auditor and treasurer of Newton county on May 22, 1904, it was determined and made known that Frank M. Ooovert, treasurer of Newton county, had collected on the tax duplicate of 1903, up to and including the first Monday in May, 1904, of the taxes levied by the board of trustees of the town of Goodland, the sum of $3,484.54 and no more, all of which belonged to said town. On May 23, 1904, said Ooovert, as treasurer of Newton county, Indiana, paid over to said Gilman, as treasurer of the town of Goodland, $3,000 of the amount belonging to said town, and took his receipt therefor as such town treasurer. On June 20, 1904, the board of trustees of the town of Good-land, assuming that the flight of said Gilman from said town on June 15, 1904, rendered him incapable of holding or exercising the duties of said office of town treasurer,
Whether the payment of the $3,000 by Ooovert as county treasurer to Gilman as town treasurer on May 23, 1904, was a payment to said town of Goodland, and discharged the liability of said Ooovert as county treasurer to that extent, we need not and do not decide. It is sufficient to decide, as we do, that as no funds ever came into the hands of appellee, Spinney, as county treasurer which it was his duty to pay over to the treasurer of said town, in payment of said $3,000 or any part thereof, the conclusions of - law in appellee’s favor were not erroneous.
Other questions are argued, but what we have said renders their determination unnecessary.
Judgment affirmed.