Case Information
*1 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 in month- expenditures not.filed 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 ~maxirum foe law (now 38839891, Vernon*8 Annotated Civil Statutes, as .ArtfCles 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 as a part of the report now required by law, an of this law shall make 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, it appears that any Item, of such expense was not incurred by such officer, ii any, and ii
or that such Item was not neoessary thereto, such item nay be by such In which case the cor- auditor or court re jetted. 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 expense items eaoh month as they are incurred. The actual expenses paid or incurred constitute the *3 Honorable John A. Menefee, page 8
measure of the orflcial*s right to recoupment.
The monthly Itemization is for the protection 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. and confirmed by the evidenoe that these expenses It is manirest from the annual reports 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
AFPPOVED OPINION COMMITTEE
BY BWB CHAIEmaAa
WJF AW: mw