This will acknowledge receipt. of your letter or January 7th, pertaining to compensation payable to the County Clerk under Article 4477, Rule./53a, and in which you Set forth faots applying-to your looal condition. Your questionsread asrollows: "1. fs the County Clerk entitled to the compensation <allowed,by the Commissioners' Court for Indexing suoh bErth and death certi- ficates fil'ad him.,while he was on a fee ! : si xing aqtually being done after ha, began“being'oolHpensated on a salary ,basla olr should\this.money be turned in to the O?ficgr@ Salaryfind of Karnes County? < \ c "2. \.Should all of the compensation re- \eeived ror such indexing be paid by said bounty cle'rk~,,into the Ofticerst Salary Fund?" ~., relating to fees payable to

' ArtiOii 4477 Rule 53a the local registrar ani the lattdr paragraph which pertain t0 the above questions and which, evidently, you had in mind IS set forth a8 roliows:

"...And provided further, that the Local Registrar shall submit to the CmmiSSionerS Court or the County Auditor, as the case may be, a true and accurate copy of each birth and each death certificate riled with him, and such CoPieS *2 Hon. John F. May, January 25, 1939, Page 2

shall be,deposited in the County Clerk's office, and the County Clerk shall be paid for indexing and pree6rving such records, such compensrjtion as may be decided upon by the Commissioners Court.." The above provision of the 1929 Act of the Forty- Fourth Legislature imposed the duty upon the County Clerk to receive for deposit in his offlce copies of birth and death certificates and required the commissioners' court t0 pay compensation (the amount payable within the discre- tion of the court), for indexing and preserving such re- cords.

By requiring these records to be filed and deposi- ted in the office of the County Clerk, certainly the Legis- lature intended that they should be indexed and preserved. Vo special time, it seems, is required in which these re- cords are to be indexed nor is any penalty applicable under the rules of the sanitary code. The law presumes that a person, duly qualified and elected to a:.public office, will faithfully discharge and perform the duties of thst office.

Although the County Clerk may be dilatory in the performance of his duties, it is to be presumed that the commissioners court, in paying him compensetion under the authority of the above section Of the act, approved such work as it was within their discretion to have refused pay- ment until such work was performed. Having, of course, per- formed the work for which he had lawfully been paid, it is my opinion that such compensation .paid belongs to the County Clerk.

Trusting that the above answers both Or your ques- tions, I remain

Very truly yours ~~TTCRXEY CKR-iGUL OF TEXAS (signed) BY ?7m. Ii. King Assistant hK:AW