Johnson, Nels G.

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UND Scholarly Commons (University of North Dakota)

North Dakota Law Review Volume 24 Number 2 Article 7 1948 Court Reporters' Fees Nels G. Johnson Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr  Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Johnson, Nels G. (1948) "Court Reporters' Fees," North Dakota Law Review: Vol. 24 : No. 2 , Article 7. Available at: https://commons.und.edu/ndlr/vol24/iss2/7 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law at UND Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in North Dakota Law Review by an authorized editor of UND Scholarly Commons. For more information, please contact und.commons@library.und.edu. OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERALCOURT REPORTERS' FEESMr. M. S. Byrne,State's Attorney,Bowman, North Dakota.Dear Mr. Byrne:This will acknowledge your letter of January 31 in which you enclosecorrespondence between yourself and one of the court reporters of one ofthe district judges in the judicial district in which Bowman County islocated. I note that in a certain civil case this court reporter has sub-mitted a bill for services in transcribing and typing the memorandumopinion of the court in this case. This bill was duly approved by the dis-trict court which decided the case.The question arises whether under the statutes a court reporter isentitled to receive pay for the transcribing and typing of the memoran-dum opinion of a district judge involving the decision of a civil case.Section 27-0601 of the 1943 Revised Code provides that each judge ofthe district court in each judicial district, when in his judgment it willexpedite the public business, may appoint a competent person to the officeof court reporter within his district. The order of the appointment is filedwith the clerk and entered upon the records of the court in each countyof the district. The reporter subscribes the oath required for civil officersand files the same in the office of the Secretary of State. He holds hisoffice and discharges his duties until the order for his appointment isrevoked or until another person is appointed.Althaough this statute dces not state that the court reporter is the per-sonal secretary of the district judge who appoints him, yet that mustbe implied. He is appointed by the district court in order to facilitateand expedite the public business of the court and his appointment is onlyfor such time as the district judge may determine and the court mayrevoke his appointment whenever it sees fit.The salary of the court reporter is set forth in section 27-0602 asamended by Chapter 231 of the 1947 Session Laws.The duties of a court reporter are set forth in Section 27-0603 of the1943 Revised Code. They are mandatory duties, but it must be presumedthat in addition to these mandatory duties prescribed by the statute, thecourt reporter performs such other services as the court may require toexpedite the public business.In civil and crimnal actions Section 27-0605 of the 1943 Revised Code,the court reporter, when requested, shall prepare a transcript of theoriginal shorthand minutes of such action upon payment of the fees pro-vided by law. A transcript of the original shorthand minutes of a crim-inal action shall be prepared whenever the court orders a transcript bemade at the expense of the county. The fees for transcripts are set forthin Section 27-0608, and in view of the fact that this is the only sectionsetting forth the fees of a court reporter beyond his regular salary, itmust be presumed that all acts performed by him except those for whichhe may charge special fees as prescribed for transcripts, (see Sec. 29-NORTH DAKOTA BAR BRIEFS2132), that he performs these incident to his employment and the workdesignated for him by the court.If in the course of the court business the judge deems it convenientfor him and to expedite the public business, to reduce his decision to amemorandum opinion, it is within the authority of the court to ask thecourt reporter to do that work, and if he does, there is no statute thatwould authorize a charge for the same. Furthermore, such services per-formed for the court would be in the nature of services incident to thereporter's regular employment by the court and not within the statutesauthorizing specific charges therefor which are above and beyond theregular salary of the reporter.It seems to us that the fact that the district judge appoints the courtreporter and has the authority to revoke such appointment any timethat he sees fit, it must be implied that such reporter is amenable to thecourt, and must pcrform any-and all services for the court that the courtmay request of such reporter, and that the specific duties enjoined uponthe court reporter by Section 27-0603 are not the only duties which thereporter must perform.It is, therefore, the opinion of this office that this bill for the transcriptand typing of the memorandum opinion in question is not payable byBowman County and that there is no authority upon which to base arequest for payment of same.Yours very truly,NELS G. JOHNSON,Attorney General.NGJ:L

Court Reporters\u27 Fees

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Court Reporters\u27 Fees

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