It shall be the duty of the director of finance to pay the certificate of attendance of such jurors, state’s witnesses, criers and bailiffs of the circuit court when presented to him for payment, and upon his failure to pay any such certificate when so presented by the person to whom the same was issued, such director of finance shall forfeit and pay to every such person for every such failure, the sum of five dollars ($5.00) to be recovered by the party in his own name as other small debts are recovered before a justice of the peace, together with the costs of suit. (Mont. Co. Code 1965, § 7-4; 1982, ch. 418, § 125; 1912, ch. 390, § 323.)