The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-05
COMMISSIONS DUE
STATE BY JUDGES
Two Marshall-Walker Jur-
lists Fail to Comply
OTHERS DELINQUENT
Probate Judge Carter of Marshall Is
Charged Back With Commissions
Aggregating $771.44-Sparks
Due the State $17SS.32

Montgomery, October 4.-tSpeciall- For
failure to comply with the section of the
code requiring probate judges of the state
to remit to the state treasury on or
before the last day OF the month, all
moneys collected for licenses Probate
Judge ] II. Carter of Marshall county
has been charged with commission due
the state and county. aggregating s11l.A
of which amount s52012 IS due the state
and s25l.S2 is due the county.
''rhe charges against Probate Judge
Carter We're made by Examiner of Pub
lie Accounts Charles l.. Townes, who
has just submitted to Governor O'Neal a
report covering his examination of Of
ficials OF that county. The commissions
with which Judge Carter is charged were
received by him from January 1868, to
August, 1913, Judge Carters books in
ether respects were correct
Examiner Townes found discrepancies in
the accounts of Sheriff j. l.. Sparks of
Marshall county aggregating more than
s29OO. The examiner charged Sheriff
Sparks with s5oS.s4 for discrepancies in
his feed bill. This money was due the
state In referring to these charges. Ex-
aminer Townes said
"As to the rest OF the charges made By
the sheriff for feeding prisoners. there
was no way of ascertaining whether he
had ever had prisoner legally confined
in jail or not as he has kept no releases
or no commitments whereby you could
tell with any degree of certainty that he
had the prisoners in jail that he has
charged for or not"
Sheriff Sparks is charged by the exam
iner with $1,S94.2O for money due the
county on fine and forfeiture claims Ex-
aminer Townes declared there was no
way of ascertaining from his books what
the county was due him on such claims
County Solicitor Orr is charged by the
examiner with $5415. due the county. re-
sulting from excess fees.
The books of the remaining county of
ficia1s were reported by Examiner Townes
as being correct and neatly kept
Walker County Report
Simultaneous with the filing Of the
Marshall county report by Examiner
Townes. Examiner of Public Accounts
w. r. Foster submitted to the governor
his report on the Walker county probate
Judge.
Examiner Foster found the same
conditions to obtain in the probate Of
flee of Walker county which Examiner
Townes found in Marshall county,
though to a larger extent in the former
county Probate Judge J. w. Shepherd
was found to be due the county and state
as the result of commissions illegal
ly received on licenses and franchises
sums aggregating s1,7SS.32, of which
amount s1242.60 was due the state and
S545.72 was due the county.
Minor discrepancies We're found in
other accounts of Judge Shepherd and
he told the examiner he would make
settlement for all errors. Among ether
charges made against him were the
following: Due state on mort gage tax
collections, $11.3s. hunters license.
s7S.13; franchise tax, s49.62; due coun-
ty on mortgage tax, $3.50; error in ad-
dition s44.76.
1t is understood that practically all the
probate judges of the tate have been
moro or less delinquent in making remit
lnnce to the ;tate treasurer for oollet-
tons received by ti,em although they
have llnfailiffly held back ,heir c,mnls-
siors Under the law, they are required
To make remittance to the treasurer On
the last day Of the month"; and few of the
pro,atc judges have complisd With tina t
stat ite. The governor has now INSTRUCT
ed The examiners to charge ihsse officials
back with commissions they have le-
ceived on collections not promptly remit
ted L. the Il treasurer.