County attorney

“ The county does little for the city dweller. It does not keep his house from burning or his pockets from being picked. It does not build the streets on which he travels nor perform any humane services which could stir his admiration. The sheriff is no neighbor of his nor does he hear of that officer from one year’s end to another, unless it be his rare fortune to be a party to some legal action. The newspapers, to be sure, are apt to give a great deal of space to criminal trials and feature the activities of the district attorney. ”

“ The judges were empowered to appoint the terms of court where and when there was any probable necessity for them, and the sheriff would summon a grand or petit jury as the business seemed to require. The United States marshal was Colonel Irwin, and the United States district attorney was Colonel Dustin, both of whom lived in St. Paul, and, as a general thing, there were no county attorneys in the different counties. ”

“ Whenever in the opinion of the Attorney General any law of the State is not being adequately enforced in any county, it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to prosecute any violations of law of which the superior court shall have jurisdiction, and in such cases the Attorney General shall have all the powers of a district attorney. ”

“ The governor may for any reasonable cause remove judges on the address of two-thirds of each house of the legislature. The counties are grouped into judicial circuits, those containing a population of more than 150,000 constituting separate districts; each district has a judge and a commonwealth’s attorney. The county officials are the judge, clerk, attorney, sheriff, jailor, coroner, surveyor and assessor, elected for four years. Each county contains from three to eight justice of the peace districts. ”

“ In that case, the question was, whether authority given to the county court by the electors of a township to subscribe in its behalf for stock in a certain railroad company, continued to exist after the company had ceased to exist, by being absorbed in another company by consolidation? We held that it did not. The county court was regarded as being the mere agent of the township, having no discretion to act beyond the precise terms of the power given. The powers of an agent or attorney, authorized to act for another, are very different from those possessed by a person acting in his own behalf. ”

“ Provision was made in the enactment for a state Bureau of Inspection and Supervision of Public Offices which should install a uniform system of public accounting, auditing and reporting in every office in the state. A corps of field agents known as state examiners were employed on a civil service basis to make personal examinations in each of the taxing districts. The findings of the examiners are published, and if money is due the county the enforcement of the law is left first to the county prosecuting attorney and then to the attorney general. ”

“ The District Attorney, Public Defender, County Counsel, and their deputies, shall not engage in any private law practice, and they shall devote all their time and attention during business hours to the duties of their respective offices. ”

“ That if the regents cannot agree with the owners for purchase they shall request the Attorney General to file petition in the district court of the county, describing the land, stating purpose for which desired, and praying that its value be ascertained and decree be entered vesting title thereto in the state ”

“ Hesakia G. Bell, County Attorney.
Ashby Murphy, Sheriff.
J. W. Nelson, Clerk and Recorder.
W. C. Bourne, Treasurer.
E. J. Wallinger, Assessor.
Dr. V. S. Hageman, Coroner.
L. G. Kurtz, Clerk of the District Court. ”

“ They must both keep strictly within the limits of their power of attorney or their acts will be invalid. They cannot cure any inherent defect in their action arising from want of power by any extent of recitals that they had the requisite authority. With great deference to the opinions of my associates, this seems to me to be a legal truism.
3d. When the bonds in suit were executed and issued the county judge was in the city of New York, and by express provision of the statutes of Iowa his authority and functions ceased when he was without the State. ”

“ With the county court also is generally associated probate jurisdiction, which is exercised in some of the eastern states by a special officer known as the surrogate, who may be a judge as in New York, or a purely ministerial officer, as in New Jersey.
Legally the judiciary is more nearly a part of a state system than any other branch of the county organization. The decisions of the judges are of course subject to appeal to a higher state court—that is an important form of control. Sometimes, as in California, a part of the salary of the county judge is paid from state funds. ”

“ It is not consistent with the spirit in which justice should be administered that it should be paid for by the litigants. This was the view expressed by the County Court Commissioners, but no effect has been given to their opinion. There is no reason in justice or expediency why the County Court, the poor man's court, should be supported by the suitors themselves while the High Court, the rich man's court, is mainly paid for by the State.
DISCUSSING THE CASE.
We have endeavoured to point out, in a temperate spirit, the chief defects of the present County Court system. ”

“ So difficult is the case, in fact, that it would seem from reports emanating from different parts of the country, that county officers have long ceased to worry about the legality of most of their acts. A common practice is not to investigate the law at all but to look back over the work of predecessors and follow in their tracks—an easier and more natural method for the untrained mind than to seek legal authority for action at its fountainhead in the statutes. ”

“ In No. 624, the constitutional attack was directed to a state statute dealing with matters of local concern-the apportionment and districting for one county's governing board. The statute is not a statute of statewide application, but relates solely to the affairs of one county in the State. The fact that state officers were named as defendants cannot change the result. ”

“ Conceding that it was not in the power of the Territorial legislature to confer judicial authority upon any other courts than those authorized by the organic law, and that it was not within its competency to organize county courts for the administration of justice, we cannot doubt the right of the Territorial legislature to associate select men with the judge of probate, and to call the body thus organized, a county court, and to require it to make lists of persons qualified to serve as jurors. ”

“ Whether a man shall be tried in the county where the offense was committed, or carried to some other county, perhaps hundreds of miles distant, is a matter of much consequence; it is of the venue of the trial. Whether he shall be tried by a jury summoned by the marshal of the United States from the whole territory, or from a section of it, amounting possibly to one-third of its extent, or by a jury of the county in which the act was done, by the sheriff of the county, is of much moment to him ”

“ The sole fact that its proceedings as a court of law are of record cannot, in our opinion, deprive it of the power to appoint, by record, agents to make contracts, and to transact business not of record.
With regard to the contention that the commissioner exceeded the authority given by binding Bullitt county to pay for the entire work, an examination of the county record shows that while the court sought to secure joint action with Jefferson county in building the bridge, it determined to proceed without that county, if necessary. ”

“ But that court has never decided that a county in Illinois is exempted from liability to suit in National courts. It is unnecessary, therefore, to consider what would be the effect of such a decision. ”

“ Plaintiff in error is not impleaded as a taxpayer nor does he defend as such. He is sued as a county officer and defends by virtue of the exercise of his functions as a county officer. In other words, he defends by virtue of laws of which he is an instrument. ”

“ Stat. § 1874, by which the judges of the supreme court were 'authorized to hold court within their respective districts, in the counties wherein, by the laws of the territory, courts have been or may be established, for the purpose of hearing and determining all matters and causes, except those in which the United States is a party.' Thus, it is argued, exclusive jurisdiction of cases like the present was transferred to the county district courts. ”

“ Who would doubt, if these petitioners were the unquestioned commissioners of the county, that mandamus would lie to compel the clerk to recognize them, and record on the county books their proceedings as such? Does the fact that certain parties are contesting their rights as commissioners oust the court of jurisdiction, or forbid it to compel other county officers to recognize them? Must the office of county commissioners remain practically vacant, and the affairs of the county unadministered, pending a trial of a right of office between contestants? Surely not; public interests forbid. ”

“ If the County loses in the federal court, it must nevertheless go back to the state court and start all over again with a new action or an amendment of the old one. This is true because the plans, as shown in the record, indicate clearly that the County will be obliged to take respondents' property because it is situated adjacent to the old entrance to the airport and would be necessary for the proposed enlargement. The latter course would inevitably lead to greater damages, as well as additional years of delay, all of which would be occasioned by the action today. ”

“ Moreover, even with regard to those areas specifically delegated to the county government by statute or constitutional provision, the Commissioners Court sometimes does not have the power to make decisions. Within the county government there are numerous departments which are controlled by officials elected independently of the Commissioners Court and over whom the Commissioners Court does not exercise control. The Commissioners view themselves primarily as road commissioners. ”

“ Whatever springes the State may set for those who are endeavoring to assert rights that the State confers, the assertion of Federal rights, when plainly and reasonably made, is not to be defeated under the name of local practice. Even if the order went only to the venue and not to the jurisdiction of the Court, each Director General in turn plainly indicated that he meant to adopt the position of his predecessor, and to insist that the suit was brought in the wrong county. ”

“ The three-judge-court statute, 28 U.S.C. § 2281, speaks of 'the enforcement, operation or execution of any State statute.' A city ordinance or a county regulation does not meet that requirement, and so the county regulations involved in Moody did not satisfy the statute though enacted by the State. If the source of the authority is state action, the statute is presumably satisfied, since normally of course, state laws have an impact on activities in every city and every county. ”

“ For many years it has been the practice of parliament to throw on the county court judges the duty of acting as judges or arbitrators for the purpose of new legislation relating to social subjects. It is impossible to classify the many statutes which have been passed since 1846 and which confer some jurisdiction, apart from that under the County Courts Act, on county courts or their judges. ”

“ We cannot believe that every assessment of property belonging to the citizen of another state can be removed into the federal courts. Certainly the original assessment, made by the township or county assessors, could not be called a suit, and could not be thus removed; and there is, justly, no more reason for placing an assessment on appeal within that category. It is nothing but an assessment in either case, which is an administrative act. The fact that the board of appeal may swear witnesses does not make the proceeding a suit. ”

“ Considering the terms of the levee act, the court quoted the following provisions of § 11 as amended February 15, 1893: 'And provided further, actual service of summons shall be had where the defendant is in the county or where there is an occupant upon the land.' 'The conditions are,' the court said, 'that the defendant must be a nonresident of the county, and must be absent therefrom, and that there must not be an occupant upon the land. If the defendant be a resident of the county, or be present therein, or if there be an occupant upon the land, actual service of a summons is required. ”

“ Plaintiff in error does not deny the soundness of the rule, but questions its applicability to the present case on the ground that the procedure established by the statute affords no means of ascertaining at what time the final decision of the board of county commissioners establishing the road is made, and consequently when the time to appeal to the district court, as provided by section 2536, begins to run. ”

“ Where no office legally exists, the pretended officer is merely a usurper, to whose acts no validity can be attached; and such, in our judgment, was the position of the commissioners of Shelby county, who undertook to act as the county court, which could be constitutionally held only by justices of the peace. ”