The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1918-01-24
AUDITOR LOSES
FIGHT TO HOLD
JUDGES MONEY
Provisional Supreme Court Finds
Associate Justices Should
Be Paid.
SALARY AND NOT EXPENSE
Opinion Is That $500 Per Annum
Was Given by Legislature
as Flat Boost.
AND NOT EXPENSE

oldLC AuIllOT MARI NOSllLky Was
given an opportunity to achieve mar.
tyrdom this morning, when a nan
nous opinion of the provisional SUI,
preme court which sat in the judges
expense money controversy held thai
the five members of the supreme
bench are entitled to $500 per annum
for travelling expenses and other inc:-
dentals, and that a writ of mandamus
should issue requiring the state audi.
tor to surrender to the Judges the ex-
pense money which has fallen due
them since January /, 1917. Each Of
the five members of the court now has
a full $500 coming.
Was League Issue.
The Nonpartisan league in the CAM
paign Of 1916 dug up the judges ex-
pense money item and pointed to it
as a graft and a gift of big business
and sal dother unpleasant things about
it. Thinking the league was in earn
est about all of this, State Auditor
Kositzky declined to recognize vouch.
ers filed for the payment of this ex-
pense money. The first demand was
made by Judge Robinson, the biggest
Lacquer Of them all, and n of the
three Nonpartisan league candidates
for the bench whom the league in holy
horror had promised would not stain
their hands with this filthy lucre.
Kositzky continued to stand pat until
the fall of 1917, when the five mem
bers Of the supreme court united in a
formal demand on him for their eX-
pense money. The state auditor said
he would 60 to Jail before paying this
money with no itemiZed statement
showing that the expense for which
the judges claimed reimbursement
and had been actually incurred. The
judges urged that no itemized state
ment was required by the act which
gave them this salary boost, and when
Karl continued to sit tight on the
%money-oags, they petitioned the SUI
>preme court for a peremptory writ,
haling Hostility before a provisional
court to show cause why a writ OF
mandamus compelling him to loosen
the states purse strings should not is
sue.
Provisional Court.
The action was heard by a provis'
ional court consisting of Judge Cooley
of Grand Forks, Judge Cole of Fargo,
Judge Coffey of jamestown, Judge
Nuessle of Bismarck aud Associate
Justice James e. Robinson, who de
clared himself qualified to sit in the
Judgment of his own case. Attorney
General LANCER very vigorously prose
z-Aol &L1 .o1oS-,T ~ Ffhn cNnron1o n01lTt
judges. Kositzky, at his own expense,
retained Theodore Koffel of Bismarck
as his counsel. A detailed showing OF
fact and evidence and law and consti.
tutional authority was made by both
sides, and for the last eight weeks or
more, the provisional court had had
the matter under consideration.
~ Robinson Concurs.
Judge Cooley wrote the opinion
handed down today, and Justice Robin
son especially concurs. The opinion
adopts Attorney General Langer's view
of the situation that the. $500 annual
expense item voted the supreme court
justices in 1909 was simply a salary
boost and was so intended; that it
was not meant to cover actual travel
ing expenses incurred, but was so
worded to dodge a constitutional pro-
vision prohibiting an increase in the
salary of any official during the term
of his office; that the $500 annual sti-
pend shall be paid in the. same form
as any other salary allowance, on sim.
pie voucher acknowledgment, and
without any detailed accounting OF any
kind to the state auditor.
Robinson Not Irregular
The, opinion holds that SO long as he
did not constitute a quorum, his sit
ting in a case in which he was per-
sonally interested did no illegalize the
proceedings.
The question now before the house
is whether Mr.. Kositzky will adhere to
his originally announced intent OF go.
ing to Jail rather than be a party to
this assault on an already much be-
seiged state treasury.