13 Mo. App. 208 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1883
delivered the opinion of tbe court.
This cause was heard in the circuit court, and detennined in favor of the plaintiff, upon an agreed statement of facts as follows: —
“ On the 28th day of March, 1878, plaintiff, the duly qualified and acting sheriff and ex-officio collector of St. Louis County, by his attorneys, filed a suit to foreclose a lien for delinquent taxes against property of Abraham Duryee, styled as follows : State of Missouri, at the relation and to use of John A. Watson, collector of the revenue, v. Abraham Duryee.’ This case was continued from time to time, until the 11th day of April, 1881, when judgment was rendered for the plaintiff in the sum of $1,809 for taxes and interest. The amount of collector’s commissions on this sum was $72.42. On the 15th day of December, 1880, plaintiff’s term of office expired, and defendant was duly qualified as his successor, and he has been the acting sheriff and ex-officio collector since that time, and was such at the time ofthe judgment above referred to. Shortly after the rendition ofthe above judgment, the amount ofthe same together with the collector’s commission, $72.42, and all other costs, was paid to defendant as collector. No change was made in the style of the above-mentioned cause, or in the management of the case, up to the time of judgment; the same being conducted to final judgment to use of plaintiff, as collector, and by the attorneys of his appointment, although at the time of judgment plaintiff was out of office. Defendant claims that the said commissions belong to him as the acting collector to whom the taxes and commissions were paid. Plaintiff claims them as the collector who brought the suit, and to whose use the judgment was rendered. The only question to be tried is, whether plaintiff or defendant is entitled to these commissions.”
No direct solution of the question thus presented is to be found in the statutes. If the inquiry pertained to the ordinary, current collection of taxes, where no delinquency
Besides the receiving of the money for the state there are many duties enjoined upon the collector with relation •to back or delinquent taxes, which do not pertain to the current collections. The collector must make a “ personal delinquent list, in which shall be stated the names of all persons owing taxes on personal property, where taxes cannot be collected, alphabetically arranged, with the amount due from each,” and also a “ land delinquent list, in which shall be stated the taxes on lands and town lots, where taxes have not been collected, with a full description of said lands and lots, and the amount of taxes due thereon set opposite each tract of land or town lot.” There must also be prepared “ a like list of all delinquent clerks and other officers hereinbefore required to pay to the collectors the amount of revenue by them respectively received, to be called the ‘ delinquent list of officers.’” Rev. Stats.,
It thus appears that the legislature has provided one rate of compensation for ordinary collections upon the original tax-lists, and a different rate for collections resulting from the various processes which appertain to the delinquent lists. In both instances the measure of compensation is determined by the amount collected. This, the defendant holds, is equivalent to declaring that the officer who collects is the only one to be paid. But the
No provision is made for a division of fees between successive collectors. The compensation must all belong to the one or to the other. We are not called upon to lay down any rule for a case wherein the services rendered by two different officers upon the same collection are equal or nearly so. It is enough for the present case that the substantial and responsible duties and labors which led up to the collection were performed by and in the name of the plaintiff. The judgment was in his name as relator and beneficiary. It does not appear that an execution was issued. But if there had been one the defendant could have collected upon it in his capacity of sheriff, independently of his functions as collector. We do not think that the equity of the statute in such a ease as this, intends that the defendant shall reap all the benefit of the substantial and controlling services performed by the plaintiff, by reason of the fact that the money accruing from them has come into his hands. The judgment is affirmed.