The Medina sentinel. [volume] (Medina, Ohio) 1888-1961, 1915-10-15
nd belonging is being the property

N-S@-S - -S 80
Of,
"The primary meaning and also the
common and ordinary meaning Of the
word belong, is to be the property Of.
Such is the meaning of will proyid-
ing that one part Of certain property
shall belong to school.
"While in the present case, the ter
ritory of the township and the road
district is co-extensive, this is not nee
essarily so, as the statute contemplates
the erection Of a part or the whole Of
the township into a road district, and
in any event they constitute distinct
political entities and must be SO re-
garded.
sand to say that the funds raised by
one political division are the property
of another and distinct political divis-
ion would be contradiction, too ap-
parent to admit Of reconciliation.
'If the funds belonged to the Homer
Township Road District, then certain
" they could not be said to belong to
Homer Township, and if not the prop
erty Of Homer township they ought
not to be classed with funds belong
~ .
ing to the treasury of Homer town
ship.
"The payment of fees to public Of
ficer presupposes that a service is to
be rendered for which the fee is paid.
It cannot be predicated that the legis-
lature intended to give compensation
to the township treasurer without an
appreciable return. But in this case
the treasurer is seeking to be paid for
services rendered to the Homer Town
ship Road District from the treasury
of Homer Township. This is so in
consistent that the plaintiffs counsel
concede that his compensation could
only come from funds raised by the
Road District, and that being admitted
the conclusions logically follows, that
if fees are to be allowed at all, it must
be under favor of statute by the pro-
visions of which compensation is fixed
for the receipt and disbursements Of
the funds of the Road District, and
we have seen that the law is silent
upon this subject.
ut is conceivable that the funds of
private individuals might be donated
for road purposes as is sometimes the
case, and might either Intentionally or
otherwise be commingled with other
township funds, and be received and
disbursed by the township treasurer,
but it could scarcely be urged that
such funds constituted in any proper
sense belonging to the treasury of the
township, upon which statutary per-
centage could be imposed as compen-
sation or fees to the treasurer. The
court is not called upon to and does
not in this case determine the question
as to where the funds of Homer Town
ship Road District should be deposited
or with what officer.
Counsel on both sides urge that
there is no express statutory author
ity imposing duty upon the town
ship treasurer to receive such funds.
But the question is not as to the prop
er custody of the funds but as to
whether compensation can be allowed
for the service. And even though
there was an express provision of the
statute, designating the township
treasurer as the custodion of the funds
of the township road district, in the
absence Of any provision, other than
Section 1918 G. c., fixing his compen-
sation for the service the courts would
still be constrained to hold under the
authority of cases herein cited, that
the treasurer would not be entitled to
receive compensation for receiving and
disbursing said road funds.
"The court has reached the conclus-
ion which it believes is supported by
the whole trend of decided cases in