Sevier v. Riley

RICHARDS, J.

The petitioner herein in his capacity as judge of the superior court of the state of California, in and for the county of Humboldt, applies for a writ of mandate to be directed against the respondent, Ray L. Riley, as controller of the state of California, to approve the claim of the petitioner for the sum of $208.33 and to draw his warrant upon the state treasurer therefor, said claim being for the sum to which the petitioner as said superior judge alleges himself to be entitled to have paid him by the state as the portion of his judicial salary for the month of August, 1925, by virtue of the adoption by the legislature of 1925 (Stats. 1925, p. 979) adding a new section to the Political Code, numbered 738b, and reading as follows: “The annual salaries of the judges of the superior court of the state of California in and for the counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Siskiyou shall be five thousand dollars; of the county of Lake shall be four thousand dollars; one-half of which shall be paid by the state, and the other half thereof by the county for which the judge is elected or appointed.”

The petitioner has also made a similar demand for said increase in salary for the months of September and October, 1925, and has been met with a similar refusal.

The foregoing section is alleged by petitioner to have become effective on July 24, 1925. Prior to its adoption the

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salary of said petitioner as such superior judge was $4,000 a year, payable monthly, one-half by the county of Humboldt and one-half by the state of California.

Section 17 of article VI of the constitution, dealing with the salaries of judges,' as it originally stood, provided that the salaries of the judges of the supreme court and the judges of the superior courts should not be increased or diminished after their election nor during the term for which they were elected, that the salaries of the judges of the supreme court should be paid by the state and the salary of each of the judges of the'superior' courts should be paid one-half by the state and one-half by the county for which he was elected. The section specifically provided that the annual salary for the first term of the judges of the supreme court elected under the constitution should be $6,000, and the annual salaries of the judges of the superior courts, until changed by the legislature, should be $3,000 in all counties except certain enumerated counties in which the judges should receive an annual salary of $4,000.