176 Pa. 59 | Pa. | 1896
Opinion by
At the time when the plaintiff was elected to his office of sheriff of Cumberland county, and also at the time wheu he entered upon the duties of the office, the compensation for boarding prisoners was fixed by law; that is, the court of quar
In Faas v. Warner, 96 Pa. 215, we decided that even an act of assembly, which directed the controller of the county of Allegheny to ascertain the amount due to one who had furnished bread for the support of the prisoners, and had not been paid therefor by the sheriff, and provided that upon receiving a certificate of the amount due from the controller the commissioners of the county should pay the debt out of the county funds, was void, because “ the petitioner’s claim was purely a personal one by himself against Woods, and further that there was not even a shade of obligation, legal or moral, on the part of the county to pay the debt.” We said also that, “In such circumstances an act of the legislature directing the county to pay it is of no more validity than would be an act directing the county to pay the debt of any private citizen. Such legislation is void for want of constitutional power to enact it.”
It is difficult to see any material difference between the case just cited and the present. In that case the bread had been furnished to the prisoners and the person who furnished it had not been paid for it. But the sheriff owed him the money and the county did not. In this case the prisoners were boarded by the sheriff and the county owed him for the service an amount regularly fixed by law, but the county owed him nothing more. There was certainly no obligation, legal or moral, to give him more than was due him, and if the legislature could not do it in the one case the court cannot do it in the other.
None of the cases cited for the appellant leads to any different result. In Peeling v. York County, 113 Pa. 108, there Avas no order fixing the compensation of the sheriff Avhen he entered upon his office. Upwards of a year afterwards the court made an order fixing the amount to be paid at 35 cents for the year 1878, and 25 cents for 1879. The sheriff claimed that he was entitled to the same amount for 1879 and 1880 as for 1878. But we held that he was bound by the terms of the order just as it was made, and for the reason that the rate Avas not fixed except by that order, and by that he Avas bound.
In McCormick v. Fayette, 150 Pa. 190, nothing more was decided than that the court had the power to change the amount
In Apple v. Crawford County, 105 Pa. 300, the compensation of the sheriff was fixed by an act of assembly passed in 1867, at the time the sheriff assumed his office. We held he was entitled to the amount thus fixed, and could not be deprived of it by a law subsequently enacted in 1879, on account of the prohibition contained in section 13 of article III. of the constitution, against the increase or diminution of the salary of any public officer after his election or appointment. The facts of the present case do not raise any question which is determined by any of the foregoing cases.
While it is competent for the court to fix the compensation for the future, even when it changes existing rates, and while it is true that an order may embrace past services if there has been no previous order made, or if exceptional circumstances raise a moral obligation, we cannot agree that where the compensation has been fixed by a previous order under which the service has been rendered, it can be increased for the same services by a subsequent order. We are of opinion that the case was correctly decided by the learned court below.
Decree affirmed and appeal dismissed at the cost of the appellant.