The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-05-19
DISALLOWS THE FEES
ATTORNEY GENERAL CAREER
 GIVES AN OPINION,
Mobile County OMcials Cannot Collect
 for Services Rendered in Certain Land Cases in that Section.

F u q
 The following opinion of Attorney General Garber Is adverse to the claim of certain officers of Mobile County for fees in connection with sale of certain lands In that county:
 Montgomery, Ala, May IS, 1907.
 Hon, Wm. W. Brandon. State Auditor,
 Capitol:
 Dear sir-You have requested me to advise you officially as to what action you should take and what obligation 1T any, rests upon you as State Auditor to pay claim, which in full amounts fS Se,soo; presented to you by Messrs. officers of Mobile County, for fees claimed by said officers to be due them under sale of certain tax lands by the state to the state Land Company made py the Auditor and Treasurer and the Governor in October, 1905, upon the fol- lowing statement of facts, as shown Dy the nie of papers and other data, sunm,sted !srhat a.a; by you ,a,, in this matter.
 10 the State Land Company. dated on 70 Wit the 14th day of October, 1905. conveying these lands in Mobile Coun- Land Company into the treasury of the sum of sS.306, as a consideration therefor" said sum being the amount named and declared by the Governor. price to be paid by the purchaser" The contract, however, for the sale of these S, sands was made between Thomas L. Soweli. State Auditor, and Charles B. Ieasley and w, A Gunter, Jr., on to wit the Ith day of October. 1905. Among ether things. this contract opIgates thomas l. Sowell as Auditor of the 10 the parties of the second part to the extent he is authorized by law to do all lands in Mobile County Alabama, which have heretofore been sold for taxes in said county, and purchased by the State. as appears from the rec ora and documents in the office of the state Auditor relating to such sales and purchases. and "to have the neces- sary notices given and other prelimin- aries necessary to perfect this sale at- tended to as speedily as possi ble.' This contract also contains an agreement that 1T any person is entitled to redeem purchase same in priority to parties or the second part and should redeem or purchase any part of said lands be- amount paid into the State Treasury on account of such redemptions or sale, shall be deducted from the purchase price. 1t is also agreed that no demand sum Of money on account of erroneous sale of land or for any other cause whatever. The file of papers falls to show in this connection that the nec- essary notices were given to the for mer owners of these lands as required by law. The contract mentioned above bears date October. 7th,. 1905, and the Company is dated the 14th day of octo- Der, 1905. and refers to the deed of the state Auditor as made on the same date. I gather from the documents and Information before me that after de- ducting amount for re1emptions and erroneous sales, the purchase price paid by the State Land Company to the State predecessor, Judge Carmichael. on Jam uary 14th, 1907, issued warrant to Price Williams 1r.. Judge of Probate. for. the sum of s2,5oo, which amount able portion of the said s5,000 which should be paid to Mobile County for county taxes, costs and fees of officers; that the officers of Mobile County, manding from the State the balance of the $500. which is $340o and 800 more than entire purchase price re- ceiyed ceIYed. by the State; that the trans of the State officers aon the contract. show that the sale of these lands was made under an act of 1899 (See acts 1sss-s9, page 120).
 T proceed to advise you in the premises. assuming as correct the facts stated above.
 Article 12 of the Code of 1896, sec tions 4090 to 4105 inclusive, relate to the redemption of lands sold for taxes, and to sales of land by the State. It will be observed that Section 400 provides the manner and conditions under which lands which have been bid in by the State, can be sold, and section 4104 directs the method of dis tributing the proceeds from such sales when made under any of the provis- ions of this chapter. It will also be noted that when the sale is made un- der section 400, the State officers are authorized to receive in payment for the land sold only an amount which they may ascertain to be sufficient to