OFFICEOFTHEATTORNEY GENERALOFTEXAS
AUSTIN
Honorable John A. Blienefee
County Attorney
upton Gounty
Rankin, Texas
Dear Sir:
n from their lia-
requesting the oplm-
ad question reads in
of the coma he facts are as fol-
ounty failed to rile
enditures of his
asloners cow% of
Now outside
expenditures not.filed in month-
pproved by said oommissloners
"TEE f&fETION: Can the present commissioners
court laartully approve expenditures run& by the
sheriff in the year 1941 and release the sheriff
and his bondsmen from their liability.
". . . ."
Honorable John A. Menefee, page 2
The sheriff as well as all other oounty offioials
of Upton County was oompensated on a ree basis for the year
1941.
section (a) of Article 3899, Vernon’s Annotated
Civil Statutes, applicable to fee offices of the.county,
requires each offioer named in the ~maxirumfoe law (now
.ArtfCles 38839891, Vernon*8 Annotated Civil Statutes, as
amended) to make a?monthly Itemized and sworn statement of
all of the actual and necessary expenses incurred by such
officer in the conduct of hia office.
The case or Pierson v. Galveston County, 131 S.W.
(2) 27, among other things, holds that a justice of the peace
was not entitled to recover from the county items of expenses
olaimed ror postage, traveling expenses and messenger service
during oertain years in offloe, where the justiae of the peaoe
did not render monthly statements of such expenses as required
by Article 3899, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes. In’this
case the justice of the peace merely riled annual reports es-
timatlng the expenaes in lump sun amounts. We quote from
this case as iollows~
=. . . . Pierson made mo monthly statements
as required in the followingportions of B.C.S.,
Article 3899: At the close Ott each month of his
tenure of such offloe eacrh officer whose fees are
aileated by the provisions of this law shall make
as a part of the report now required by law, an
itemized and sworn statement of’ all the aotoal and
neceeaary expenses inourred by him In the oonduot
of his orrloe such as stationary, stamps, tele-
phone, traveling expenses and other neoesaary ex-
pense. If suah expenses-be lnaurred in connection
with any partic.ular aase euoh statement shall name
suoh case. Such expense aooount shall be subject
to the audit of the county auditor, ii any, and ii
it appears that any Item, of such expense was not
incurred by such officer, or that such Item was
not neoessary thereto, such item nay be by such
auditor or court re jetted. In which case the cor-
reotness of suoh item may be adjudicated in any
court of competent jurisdiction. . . .
“The manifest purpose of this statute was to
provide a means of asoertalning the correctness of
expense items eaoh month as they are incurred. The
actual expenses paid or incurred constitute the
Honorable John A. Menefee, page 8
measure of the orflcial*s right to recoupment.
The monthly Itemization is for the protection of
the county by affording a means of ascertaining
the faot and the amount of such claimed item of
expense and whether it was properly chargeable
as such. It is manirest from the annual reports
and confirmed by the evidenoe that these expenses
were merely estimated and a lump sum given eaoh
year. The statute would be of no value if its
salutary provisions could be evaded In this man-
ner. We hold the Items properly disallowed by
the commissloners~ Court, and the trial court’s
judgment oorrect in denying recovery therefor.”
In view of the foregoing you are advised that it
Is our opinion that the oommlssioners* court of Upton County
cannot legally approve and allow expenditures made by the
Sheriff in then year of 1941 where the Sheriff railed to file
sworn monthly statements of all of this actual neoessaryex-
pensew Incurred by hira in the oonduct of his offioe a8 pro-
vided by law.
Yours very truly
BP/s/ lrdell Williams
,AfJsietant
AW: nip
APPROVED APR 19, 1949
Grover Sellers
FIRST ASSISTANT
ATTORNEY GENERAL
AFPPOVEDOPINION COMMITTEE
BY BWBCHAIEmaAa
WJF AW: mw
Untitled Texas Attorney General Opinion
Combined Opinion