Case Name: Cleveland v. Jewett
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1883-01
Citations: 39 Ohio St. 271
Docket Number: 
Parties: Cleveland v. Jewett.
Judges: 
Reporter: Ohio State Reports, New Service
Volume: 39
Pages: 271–272

Head Matter:
Cleveland v. Jewett.
Fines and costs received by the directors of the work-house at Cleveland, from persons convicted of misdemeanors, under the statutes, in prosecutions in the name of the state in the courts of Cuyahoga County, and committed to such work-house for non-payment of fines and costs, must, under Rev. Stats. § 0802, be paid into the county treasury ; and where such fines and costs have been paid into the city treasury, the city, on refusing to pay the same into the county treasury, is liable to an action therefor by the county commissioners.
Motion for leave to file a petition in error to réverse the judgment of the District Court of Cuyahoga county. ■
The city of. Cleveland has a work-house, constructed, organized and maintained under the municipal code of 1869, §§ 271-282, Rev. Stats. §§ 2095-2107. During the years 1879, 1880, and 1881, divers persons were convicted, in the courts of Cuyahoga county, for misdemeanors punishable by statute, prosecuted in the name of the state, and committed to the work-house for non-payment of fines and costs. Many of the persons so committed paid their fines and costs to the directors of the work house, and were thereupon discharged. The sums tlms received in money during that period amounted to $6,333.34, and the directors paid the same into the city treasury. The city refusing to pay over this sum into the county treasury, the county commissioners of Cuyahoga county brought suit in the court of common pleas of that county, against the city, and in 1882 recovered judgment against it for $6,485.32, which judgment was affirmed in the district court, and the city now moves for leave to file in this court a petition in error to reverse as well the judgment of common pleas as the judgment of reversal.
■Kain, Sherwood de Bunts, for plaintiff in error.
Stone c& Hadden, for defendants in error.

Opinion:
Okey, J.
No error was committed in the courts below. A person thus committed to a work-house may, at any time, pay the amount or balance of his fine and costs in money, and obtain a release; and by a fair construction of the statute, the directors, or the clerk of the court assessing the fine and costs, may receive the money; but there is no authority to pay the money into the city treasury; it must be paid into the county treasury. Rev. Stats. § 617, 1751, 2104, 6802. The principle stated in the preceding case of State v. Schlatterbeck applies; and it is proper to say in this case, as was said in that, that if the statute operates unjustly on the city of Cleveland and others in like condition, as is claimed, the legislature should amend it.
Motion overruled.