Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1895-04-19
4 RciOinder.

kc1Oinder.
En-. STANpARb:
The brief communication of G. :. Rein
hart, i'll your last issue, headed "A Gen
eral Denial, was i'll some respects A
General Admission" He admits that |
and Others" meaning, presume. as !
stated, only Miss Louise Aver, who UNI
dertOok the work refused and who has
since succeeded To my position. have
did considerable work for him. " for
which he paid" out of the fees charged
therefor which he retained, and did not
turn into the State treasury. | did not
" fix the price for my work" If | had,
there would not have been any contracts
at five cents Il folio, assure YOU, for
would have wanted that much at least
ior myself; and certainly would not
have been willing to do the entire work
and allow the clerk the lions share.
However, the gist OF my statement is adj
mitted, 4. e., that fee work has been
done by the clerk, or, rather, farmed out
by him to the States employees under
his control, the proceeds of which have
not been turned into the State treasury.
! While am not LAWYER, or yersed in
constituting those subtle legal inlricaces
and antiquities which often enable the
clever Machiavels of society to violate
the spirit ii not the letter Of the law, the
following sections of our Constitution
seem to me to plainly prohibit this fee
work 10y salaried judicial officer:
SEC. ~ Art. w., THE Judges of the Su
preme Court shall appoint CLERK of that
Court, who shall be removable at their pleasure
but the Legislature may provide for the election
OF the CLERK OF the Supreme Court and prescribe
the term OF his office. The Clerk of the SUI
| lal q Snph i'm
bv salary on'y. as shall be provided by law"
| SEC IL, " No judicial officer. except court
commissioners and unsaaried justices of the
peace, shall receive To his own use any fees
or perquisites of Office
| Indeed i'll the very first section of the
last fee-act, the Clerk of the Supreme
Court is classed with the clerks of the
Superior Courts, Secretary OF State,
Sheriifs, County Auditors, etc, the act
reading: All officers enumerated in
this act, who are paid salary an lien Of
fees" shall collect the same and turn
them into the State or County Treasury,
as the case may be. The Clerk of the
| superior Court must swear that his fee
| book contains a true statement in detail
| of all fees and conversations OF every
| kind and nature, for official services rem
dered by him, paid or chargeable his
deputies or assistants, and that neither
he nor any of his deputies or assistants
have rendered any official services, to
his knowledge or belief, not set out in
said Textbook, etc. Laws lSS9-90, p.
3l3. The Secretary of State also is re-
qured to turn all fees for furnishing
copies OF laws, etc, into the general
fund How much less fortunate than
the Clerk of the Supreme Court, if his
contention is correct, are the salaried
county officers of the State, no one Of
whom " is permitted to retain TO his own
use or profit any sums paid him in his
office or by virtue of his office, no matter
from what source" laws 1895, p. 1874
The lawmakers must have been appre-
| hensive lest some public officer" might
"come into the possession of any money
to which as such as he had no right"
and neglect to pay it to the State Treas
urer, on the plea that no provision is
made by law for the disposal of such
money!" when they passed the act of
March ;, 1891, p. l33. Our salary sys-
TEN" is so well understood by every one
that | will not discuss it further.
did not make the assertion when in
terviewed that the Clerk had "appro-
priated State funds" | don't pretend
! to he able to decide what particular fees
he is or is not required by law" to turn
over to the State, But will Mr.. Rein
hart state specifically what the work is
which he says he twas not required by
law to do?" Did he ever furnish any
copies of opinions, pleadiugs, petitions,
motions exhibits, maps, etc, and did he
ever authenticate and accompany any of
them with the seal of his office, for which
services he retained the fees?
| reiterate that the material used was
that of the State. The last of the Clerk S
private work which l did, at his request,
was the typewriting, upon the States
machine, in office hours, upon the print
ed letter heads of the Clerks office, fur
nished by the State Printing Co., of
about fifty dunning letters to various at
torneys who were dilatory i'll RENTING
him. These inclosed in the official en-
velopes of the office, and placed thereon
stamps from the stamp drawer contain
ing only stamps purchased by the State.
This was my usual practice, when doing
this correspondence, ETC.. for the Clerk,
and sent away not one but many hun
bred letters. As copies OF the court pa
pers We're usually inclosed therein, a
great Inany stamps we're required.
never saw single plain envelope or
letter sheet in the office during my long
service there, and the Clerk certainly
never supplied me with any stationery
to do his private work with. These
oopies of the court records were all sent
by mail. Certainly the hundreds of
LAWYERS who received them can corrobo-
rate the Clerk in his denial of my state
ment that the letterheads and envelopes
were the printed, official ones, if true.
From five to seven copies OF each opinion
are made at its first writing, and when the
case is OF public importance the copies
are exhausted and the opinion has to be
re. copied. For court purposes, one eX-
ira carbon copy in reversed cases is all
that is needed. Adding one carbon
copy for the court reporter, less than
!; two copies are required. Now il the
, large amount OF paper purchased by the
court, according to the vouchers in the
Auditors office, has all been used ex-
, clusivcly for court purposes, to make
these two copies, the Clerk must have
purchased an immense amount for his
| own copies since the proceeds from il
amounted to thousands OF dollars. The
, paper used for his work is certainly moi
| different from that used for the State.
And why did he ever buy such paper
, for court for instance rs Hungarian
Velvet" q yellow MANILA paper, on
which pen cannot be used? This was
purchased when two newspapers were
I getting copies of the opinions, and il
! NAV have been necessary in those cases
I i'm which copies were sent to city attor
{ news also TO use a paper so exceedingly
= thin and generally useless as tissue. -.
I As to what ian examination vii
: prove" in any case depends on the man
ner in which it is conducted, as white
washing" is not unknown.
The Clerk courts an investigation.
am ready to give my testimony in thu
interests of the commonwealth, and an.
investigation without it would be .
parte. of course there is no competen
j, authority to investigate this matter ex
5 cept the court until the next session G
Y the Legislature. MAY L. SYLVESTER.