Case ID: abb-pr_18/html/0450-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Clerke, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

MULLER a. SANTLER.
    
      Supreme Court, First District;
    
    
      At Chambers, September, 1864.
    Sheriff's Fees on Attachment.
    Where a sheriff serves an attachment under the Code of Procedure, and the action is settled or withdrawn, it is reasonable to allow the sheriff compensation at the rate of poundage on the levy of an execution.
    He«is not entitled to commissions like those of trustees under the provisions of the Revised Statutes for merely serving an attachment, though he would be entitled thereto where he has to perform services similar or equivalent to those rendered by such trustees.
    
      Taxation of sheriff’s fees.
    In this action an attachment against the property of the defendant had been issued, and levied by the sheriff pursuant to the Oode of Procedure, and upon the settlement of the action between the parties, the sheriff claimed, with other fees, commissions on the amount of the property levied on at the rate allowed to official trustees in insolvency eases, and sirpilar proceedings under the Revised Statutes. The bill being objected to by the plaintiff, was submitted to the court for taxation.
   Clerke, J.

—I do not agree with Judge Leonard, that the services rendered by the sheriff in merely serving an attachment under the Code of Procedure, are such services as section 243 contemplates. There are services, undoubtedly, which the sheriff may render under title 7, «which may be considered similar or equivalent to these rendered by trustees under the provisions of chapter 5, title 1, and part 2 of the Revised Statutes. (3 Rev. Stat., 5 ed., 119, § 31.)

For instance, the duties he would have to perform under section 237 of the Oode, chapter 4, and the said title 7, would impose upon him the labor of receiving the proceeds of sales, paying over so much of the same as may be necessary to satisfy the judgment. In case of the sale pf any rights or shares in the stock of a corporation, he has to execute to the purchaser a certificate of the sale thereof. If any of the property has passed out of his hands, he has to repossess himself of the kame. He has to proceed to collect the notes and other evidences of debt, and the debts that may have been seized or attached under the warrant, and to prosecute any bond he may have taken in the course of such proceedings.

In short, in many instances, under title 7 of the Oode, particularly under chapter 4, powers, duties, and obligations, nearly, if not quite, as onerous devolve upon him, as those which devolve upon trustees under chapter 5, title 1, part 2 of the Revised Statutes; and it is only in such cases, and for such services that he is entitled to the compensation allowed by section 243 of the Code.

Instead of pronouncing a different decision from that in Trenor a. Fachin, I would have submitted to it on the ground of stare decisis, and would have recommended an appeal; but, that decision is, in itself, a deviation from what I consider the current of decisions on such subjects in this court.,,

I adhere to my former decisions in Bartlett a. Jessup, and Duncan a. Bradstreet. I repeat, in consideration of the great responsibility to which the sheriff is subjected in the discharge of his duty, I do not think it unreasonable to allow him as a compensation on the settlement or withdrawal of such cases, an amount at the rate of poundage on the levy of an execution.

Let a bill be presented to me for taxation on the principles herein indicated. 
      
       The decision here referred to is that of Trenor a. Fachin (12 Abbotts' Pr., 136), which is further explained and reconciled with the decision in the text in the case of Jellinghaus a. Scheidt. Post, 452. .