Dougherty v. Cumberland County

Citations

• 26 Pa. Super. 610
• 1904 Pa. Super. LEXIS 366

Syllabus

<p>Fees — Counties—Sheriff—Criminal law — Vagrancy.</p> <p>A county is liable for the costs of prosecution, on a criminal charge, only where a statute so directs.</p> <p>A county is not liable under the Act of May 8, 1876, P. L. 154, for the sheriff’s fee of fifty cents on a commitment for vagrancy. The act contains no direction for payment by the county, and the Acts of March 31, 1860, P. L. 427, and May 19, 1887, P. L. 138, in relation to payment of costs by the county, do not embrace the proceedings under the act of 1876.</p> <p>The sheriff is not entitled under the act of 1868 to a fee of fifty cents for the discharge of prisoners, other than vagrants, from his custody.</p> <p>Where the sheriff has procured an order of the court of quarter sessions fixing the wages of a keeper of malefactors with a stipulation that “this compensation covers all fees to the sheriff or the keeper on the commitment of vagrancy,” the sheriff cannot thereafter claim the fee allowed by the fee bill of 1868, “on commitment for any criminal matter,” even if the Act of May 8, 1876, P. L. 154, imposed on the county the liability for its payment.</p>