Stern

This was an agreed case, submitted to the court below without action, pursuant to section 1138 of the Code of Civil Procedure.

The stipulated facts are, briefly, as follows: Humboldt County had a claim against the state for the support of abandoned orphans, half-orphans, foundlings, and aged indigents, under an act approved March 25, 1880, (Stats. 1880, p. 13,) and acts amendatory thereof in 1883 (Stats. 1883, pp. 57-380). The amount of the claim was about ten thousand dollars. The board of supervisors, being desirous of collecting it, solicited the opinion of the district attorney as to whether the labor of collecting the data for preparing the claim and securing its payment rested upon any one of the county officers, and he rendered an opinion that it did not. The defendant was then, and during all the times covered by this transaction, county clerk and ex officio clerk of the board of supervisors of said county, and was not an attorney at law. It is recited that the necessary data to be collected were scattered through the minutes of the board of supervisors, and part was to be obtained from inquiries outside of the minutes; that the board knew no one other than the defendant…

The majority opinion declares : “In the County Government Act of 1897, applicable to this case, Humboldt County is in the eleventh class (see. 168'), and it is provided therein that the county cleric, and his deputy, shall be paid stated salaries. ... And in a general provision contained in said act it is declared: ‘The salaries and fees provided in this act shall be in full compensation for all services of every kind and description rendered by the officers therein named, either as officers or ex officio officers, their deputies and assistants, unless in this act otherwise provided.’ ” The opinion then proceeds: “This provision is a legislative declaration that the officers shall not receive any compensation from the county other than the salaries therein named for any services they may render it, either in the line of their official duty or otherwise. Its effect is to render the officer incompetent to enter into a contract for compensation for any services he may render the county, and to render such contract void.” I do not believe this- to be the effect of the aforesaid legislative declaration. As I read, it simply means that the sum fixed shall be in full compensation for all…