119 Ky. 380 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1905
Reversing.
At a special term of the fiscal court of Lawrence county held in the month of June, 1908, the following order was entered: “It is ordered by the court that the road overseers of this county be paid a reasonable compensation per year as a salary for their services as such, but in no event to exceed §50 per annum, beginning on and after July 1, 1903, and provided the number of overseers in the county is not to exceed twenty.” In pursuance of this order the county court caused the county to be divided into seventeen road precincts, and fixed the boundaries of the same, and allotted all the able-bodied male citizens within the boundary between the ages of eighteen and fifty years to work oh (he roads in their respective precincts, and appointed' for each precinct an overseer. Before the expiration of a year from the date of the appointment of these overseers the fiscal court made to them an allowance for their services as such overseers, and directed the treasurer of the county, who is the appellee, to pay them. The appellant, a citizen and taxpayer of the county, who sued for himself and the other taxpayers, brought this action against appellee to enjoin him from paying these orders upon the ground that they were void; that the law did not authorize the.fiscal court to appropriate the funds of the county to pay overseers a salary or any compensation for their services as overseers of roads. It appears that the roads of Lawrence county are maintained by both taxation and by hands allotted to work thereon. The county has a supervisor of roads in addition to the seventeen overseers. The onty question necessary to be determined on this appeal is whether the fiscal court was authorized by law to allow overseers' a salary or compensation for their services as such overseers. This is evidently what the fiscal court intended to and did do by its orders referred to. While the statutes on
Wherefore the judgment of the lower court is reversed, and remanded to the lower court for further, proceedings consistent with this opinion.