Case ID: cal_9/html/0324-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Terry, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court—Burnett, J., concurring.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

THE PEOPLE ex rel. KIMMEL v. DARRACH.
    In counties where the offices of county clerk and county recorder are united, the officer performs the functions of auditor as recorder, and not as clerk.
    It follows that where the offices have been separated in a county where they had been previously joined, the recorder becomes auditor.
    Appeal from the District Court of the Fifteenth J udieial District, County of Butte.
    This was a proceeding against the defendant, to recover possession of the office of county auditor of the county of Butte.
    The defendant was the duly elected and qualified county cleric of the county of Butte, and, by virtue of his office, claimed and exercised the duties of county auditor. The relator, John F. Kimmel, was the duly elected ■ and qualified county recorder of said county, and, by virtue of his office, claimed that he alone, as such recorder, had the right to exercise and discharge the duties of said office of county auditor.
    Plaintiff had judgment in the Court below, and defendant appealed.
    
      
      J. D. Barker for Appellant.
    
      J. E. N. Lewis for Respondent.
   Terry, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court—Burnett, J., concurring.

The statute uniting- the offices of county clerk and county recorder in certain counties, provided that the county clerk, “ as county recorder, shall be ex officio county auditor, until otherwise provided by law.”

The act of 1857, “to separate the office of county recorder from the office of county clerk in the county of Butte,” provides that “ all the duties and liabilities heretofore imposed on the clerk of said county as recorder, shall attach to the officer hereby created,” etc.

The duties of auditor were imposed on the county clerk as recorder, and wo think there is no doubt as to the intention of the Legislature to transfer those duties to the recorder to be elected under the act of 1857.

Judgment affirmed.