State ex rel. Buford v. Spencer

Citations

• 81 Fla. 211
• 87 So. 634

Syllabus

<p>1. Fees collected by officers represent the charge which the State makes for services rendered by it through its officers, and constitutes a fund subject to the control of the State and to be applied as the Legislature directs.</p> <p>2. The effect of Chap. 7334, Acts of 1917', is to lodge in the Board of County Commissioners of the respective counties the-power to fix the compensation of all officers who are paid in whole or in part by fees, and in that respect is violative of Art. 3, Section 27, of the Constitution, which provides that the Legislature shall “fix by law” the “compensation” “of all State and county officers not otherwise provided for by this Constitution,” and of Art. 8, Sec. 6, which provides that the “compensation of the sheriff, constable, county assessor of taxes, tax collector, superintendent of public instruction and eountyssurveyor” “shall be prescribed by law.”</p> <p>3. The provsition of Sec. 1, Chap. 7334, that fixes the proportion of the net income of all officers derived in whole or in part from fees or commissions, which the officials shall receive as compensation or 'salary, and of Sec. 2, which empowers the Board of County Commissioners to fix the number and compensation of the deputies, clerks or assistants of all such officers, places the duty of fixing the- salaries of such officers in the hands of the county commissioners, and is violative of Art. 3, Sec. 2^, and Art. 8, Sec. 6, of the Constitution.</p> <p>4. Where the unconstitutional portion of an act cannot be declared void without defeating the manifest legislative purpose, the entire statute must fail as unconstitutional and void.</p>