Case Name: Potter v. Norris
Court: New Hampshire Superior Court
Jurisdiction: New Hampshire
Decision Date: 1853-07
Citations: 26 N.H. 330
Docket Number: 
Parties: Potter v. Norris.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Hampshire Reports
Volume: 26
Pages: 330–331

Head Matter:
Potter v. Norris.
The sixteenth section of the charter of the city of Manchester provides that the police justice shall account for and pay over to the city all the fees hy him received, or which now accrue to justices of the peace in civil actions and criminal prosecutions. Held, that the police justice might recover of the person liable, hy a suit in his own name, for the benefit of the city, the amount of fees accruing in cases entered and prosecuted in the police court, for the collection of military fines, and also in civil cases.
Assumpsit, upon an account annexed to the writ.
One class of charges was for fees alleged to be due to the plaintiff,» as justice of the police court of the city of Manchester, in cases entered and prosecuted in that court, for the collection of military fine's by the defendant, as an attorney, amounting to the sum of $34,76.
Another class was for similar fees in civil cases, amounting to the sum of $2,84.
The defendant objected that the plaintiff had no legal •claim for the above, inasmuch as by the charter of the city of Manchester, enacted on the 10th of July, 1846, such fees were due and of right belonged to the city of Manchester, and not to the plaintiff.
It was agreed that judgment should be rendered for the plaintiff, for such sum as the court should adjudge he was entitled to recover.
Clark 8f Bell, for the plaintiff.
Norris and Morrison, for the defendant.

Opinion:
Gilchrist, C. J.
The sixteenth section of the charter of the city of Manchester, page 347 of the laws subsequent to the Revised Statutes, provides that the justice of the police court " shall .account for and pay over to the city of Manchester all fees by him received, or which now accrue to justices of the peace in civil actions and criminal prosecutions." All the civil and criminal jurisdiction, which before the date of the charter was vested in the justices of the peace, was by this act transferred to the police court, and the police justice is paid an annual salary, in full compensation for all services assigned to him by the provisions of the act. No alteration is made in the fees payable to justices of the peace, but they are to be paid over to the city of Manchester, and do not belong to the police justice.
No question, therefore, arises as to the ownership of the fees, for that is settled by the charter. But it is made the duty of the police justice to pay over to the city all fees which accrue to justices of the peace. This duty he cannot perform unless he has a right of action to recover them for the benefit of the city. As the defendant is legally liable to pay the fees for which this suit is brought, and as the right of action to recover their amount is vested in the plaintiff, judgment should- be rendered in his favor.
Judgment for the plaintiff.