WRIGHT v. CARTER State Auditor.

WRIGHT v. CARTER State Auditor.
1933 OK 36
18 P.2d 522
161 Okla. 281
Case Number: 23823
Decided: 01/24/1933
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

WRIGHT
v.
CARTER, State Auditor

Syllabus

¶0 1. State--Joint Resolution of Legislature Authorizing Filing of Claim With Industrial Commission for Injuries Suffered by Convict Held not an Appropriation Bill.
Joint resolution No. 6 of the Thirteenth Legislature was not an appropriation bill within the meaning of sections 34 and 55, article 5, of the Constitution.
2. Same--Claim for Injuries to Convict not Payable out of Penitentiary Revolving Fund.
Money appropriated for the revolving fund of the state penitentiary at McAlester cannot be used for the payment of claims for injuries sustained by convicts imprisoned in the state penitentiary at McAlester.
3. Same--Necessity for Statute Creating Liability Against State for Injuries to Convicts.
The Legislature is not authorized to make an appropriation to an individual in payment of a claim for damages on account of personal injuries sustained by him while imprisoned in the state penitentiary for an offense against the laws of the state, in the absence of a valid statute creating a liability against the state in favor of convicts so injured.

Original proceeding for a writ of mandamus by Harold Wright against F. C. Carter, State Auditor. Writ denied.

Joe W. Rangeley, for plaintiff.
J. Berry King, Atty. Gen., and Smith C. Matson, Robert D. Crowe, and W. C. Lewis, Assts. Atty. Gen., for defendant.

ANDREWS, J.

¶1 This is an original proceeding in mandamus in this court whereby the petitioner seeks a writ against the respondent, the State Auditor of the state of Oklahoma, requiring and compelling him to issue warrants to the petitioner upon proper presentation of claims by the petitioner.

¶2 The basis of the claim herein of the petitioner is that, while he was imprisoned in the penitentiary at McAlester for the commission of an offense against the laws of the state of Oklahoma, he received an accidental personal injury from falling down an elevator shaft; that the Thirteenth Legislature, by Joint Resolution No. 6, authorized the petitioner to file with the State Industrial Commission a claim for the injury sustained by him; that the State Industrial Commission made a proper finding of the amount to be paid to the petitioner; that by said resolution an appropriation was made for the payment of that amount, and that the State Auditor of the state of Oklahoma has refused and is refusing to pay the same.

¶3 There are many contentions presented in the briefs filed by the petitioner, but we think the issues in this case will be settled by the application of the rules announced by this court in Hawks v. Bland, 156 Okla. 48, 9 P.2d 720. The petitioner contends that those rules are not applicable. We do not agree with that contention. The state is in no wise liable to the petitioner for the injury sustained by him. The legislative resolution referred to provides for a gift to him of state funds.

¶4 The application for the writ is denied.

¶5 RILEY, C. J., and SWINDALL, OSBORN, BAYLESS, BUSBY, and WELCH, JJ., concur. CULLISON, V. C. J., and McNEILL, J., absent.