State ex rel. Funke v. Board of Commissioners

Citations

• 48 Wash. 461
• 93 P. 920
• 1908 Wash. LEXIS 897

Syllabus

<p>. Statutes — Title—Sufficiency. The tiue of an act “changing the title of county surveyor to county engineer, relating to the election, powers, and duties of such office,” is sufficiently broad to include the subject of his salary.</p> <p>Statutes — Construction. Laws of 1907, p. 351, relating to county engineers and their salaries, containing no express statement that the salary provision was intended to have immediate effect upon engineers theretofore elected and qualified, should not be held to have so intended, if it would thereby be unconstitutional.</p> <p>Officers — Salaries—Increase — Constitutional Law — County Engineers. Laws of 1907, changing the title of the county surveyor to county engineer, and changing his compensation from $5 per day for the time employed to a fixed salary per year, violates Const, art. 2, § 25, providing that the “compensation” of “any public officer” shall not be increased or diminished during his term of office, Const, art. 11, § 8, prohibiting such increase, etc., of the “salary” of “county officers” under like circumstances; as the two provisions must be construed together.</p> <p>Same — Increase of Duties. A county engineer is not entitled to a legislative increase of his salary during his term of office because of increase of his duties, where the new duties are incidental to the functions of his office, such as making the office one of record, and requiring it to be kept open at all timés as other county offices of record are kept open.</p>