Allen v. Commonwealth

Citations

• 83 Va. 94
• 1 S.E. 607
• 1886 Va. LEXIS 2

Syllabus

<p>1. Public Officers—Ministerial acts—Default—Liability.—Where such are authorized by law to perform a merely ministerial act within a stated period with no discretion vested in them, e. g., to pay a certain per centum to a certain officer, and they transcend that limit to the loss of' the Commonwealth, they are liable to an action for their default.</p> <p>2. Idem—Auditor—Railroad taxe-s— Collection—Over-compensatibn.— Where certain railroad tax-tickets are placed by the auditor of public accounts in the hands of a county treasurer, who collects and pays the-taxes into the State treasury, and whose compensation prescribed by-statute (Acts 1878-79, ch. 60, $30, p. 328,) for this service, is only two- and one-half per centum, but the auditor pays him twenty per centum</p> <p>Held :</p> <p>1. The auditor is liable to an action for the excess.</p> <p>2. Acts 1878-79, ch. 60, $ 3-1, p. 329, not applicable to railroad taxes, which are payable directly into the State treasury, but only to-tax-tickets certified as delinquent and uncollectible, as pre- . scribed in sections 24 to 28 inclusive.</p> <p>3. Idem—Arrears of taxes—Delinquent lists—-Special collectors—Extra compensation.—Under ji 34 of said ch. 60, the auditor may appoint a collector to collect such delinquent taxes for a compensation, previously agreed on, and approved by the executive, of twenty per centum of the amount collected and paid into the treasury.</p>