Los Angeles herald., 1892-07-27
RELIC OF REPUBLICAN RULE.
Lankershim Must Pay for a
County Auditors Fraud.
A Reminiscence of a Phase of Union
League Bureaucracy.
I,d~e CIark's Decision in the Case of
the County VS.. j. Ii. Lankershim.
Interesting Points of the
Opinion.

Judgment for the plaintiff was given
by Judge Clark yesterday in. the case OF
Los Angeles county VS.. J. B. Lanker-
SHIN, one of the most important causes
that has been decided this session.
The Judge in hisopinion says: This is
a suit brought upon the official bond of
J. W. Broaded, whilom treasurer of
said county, against defendant, one of
the sureties thereon. In the year 1888
the said official paid out of the unappro-
priated fund and current expense fund
of said county, upon seven warrants
signed by the county auditor or his
deputy, and purporting to be based upon
orders of the board of supervisors, sums
aggregating $1644. No claims against
the county existed in favor of the payees
named in said seven warrants and no
allowance or order was ever made by
the board of supervisors therefor, but
said warrants were fraudulently and
wrongfully issued out of the office of
the county auditor. The county treas
urer also in said year paid out of the
current expense fund upon five other
warrants of the county auditor pur-
porting to be based on orders of the
board of supervisors sums aggregating
1878. 80. Claims existed in favor of the
payees named in said last five warrants
and were allowed by the board of super
visors and warrants ordered drawn.
These claims presented and allowed,
however, aggregated only $34 80, and
the warrants when drawn by the au-
ditor or his deputy were wrongfully and
corruptly drawn for larger sum than
that ordered, or were fraudulently en-
larged before being presented to the
treasurer for payment. The said treas
urer also in said year paid out of the
general school fund, upon a warrant is
sued from the auditors office, the sum
of $3840. There was no requisition by
the county superintendent OF schools
upon which to base this warrant, and
that official testified that no such re-
QUESTION was ever made.
The plaintiff now seeks to recover the
said several sums go paid out of it's
treasury, claiming that they were paid
by the treasurer without authority OF
law and that he and his sureties are liza
BILE therefor upon his official bond.
With respect to the sums paid upon the
warrants purporting to be based upon
orders of the board of supervisors such
liability would seem clearly to exist.
Sec. 20, Sub division. 4 of the county gov
ernment act, (statutes of 1888, p. 299,)
makes it the duty of the clerk of the
board of supervisors, Immediately after
the adjournment of each meeting of the
board, to prepare and certify duplicate
lists of all claims allowed and orders
made for the payment of money, giving
the name of the claimant or payee named
in the claim or order, the amount and
date of each claim or order and the date
of the allowance thereof, which lists are
required to be certified by the chairman
of the board, and the clerk is then re-
quired to leave copy thereof with the
auditor and one copy with the treasurer.
Section z, subdivision of said act makes
it the duty of the treasurer to ''disburse
the county moneys only on county war
rants issued by the county auditor, based
on orders of the board of supervisors or
upon order of the superior court, or as
otherwise provided by law" Section Is
of said act, after prescribing the duties
of the treasurer when a warrant is pre-
sented Tor payment, reads, provided,
however, that the treasurer shall not re-
ceive, or pay, or endorse any warrant
until he shall have received from the
clerk of the board of supervisors the
verified list mentioned in subdivision
of section 20 of this act; and not then
unless the claim or order upon which
said warrant is based appears upon such
list" 1t is clear that in his failure to
comply with this last provision of the
statute, the treasurer was guilty of neg
ligence, and had he complied Herewith
this loss would not have occurred.
In the payment of the warrants pur-
porting to be based upon claims allowed
by the board of supervisors, when the
certified list which the law requires to
be furnished him failed to show such
claim, allowance or order, he violated
his duty as treasurer and paid out
comfy money without!authority of law,
and which he must therefore return to
the county. That the clerk of the board
of supervisors was derelict in his duty
and failed to furnish such list promptly,
can afford no protection to the treasurer,
as the statute expressly makes it the
duty of the latter to pay no such war
rant until the list shall have been fur
nished him. The question of the liabil-
ity of the treasurer arising from the
payment of warrant No. 1712, being the
warrant of $3S4O drawn upon the school
fund, is one of greater difficulty, and is
not altogether free from doubt. The law,
regulating the disbursement of school
money at the time said warrant was
drawn, is found in section 1913
of the political code. This Sec
ton provides that the money shall be
disbursed upon the warrant of the
county auditor, based upon requisitions
of the superintendent of schools, which
in turn are based upon orders of the
boards of trustees or boards of educa-
ton. No provision is made for furnish
ing the treasurer with duplicates of such
reouisitions or orders, and this being 80,
> counsel for defendant urges that the
warrant, when regular on its face, is a
complete protection to the treasurer,
and that it is not the intent of the law
to place upon that officer the burden OF
ascertaining whether such warrants Of
the auditor, when. presented, were regu-
larly issued. With counsel in this
am hardly willing to agree. Qh
The warrant of the auditor is not a
mandate which the treasurer is bound
to obey, and this, even though based on
an order of the board of supervisors OF
otherwise, unless it be drawn in pay
ment of a demand legally chargeable
against the county. And / am inclined
to the opinion that it is the intent ano
purpose of the law to make it as much
the duty of the treasurer to see to il
hof NO =. L l.