Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1916-07-01
CONTRADICTIONS
IN new STATUTE
|Conficting Provisions as to
Manner Of Appoint i.
ment
RECORD EXAMINERS.
RECORD EXAMINERS
Attorney General Pollard May Be
Asked to Construe Provisions OF
the New Act. T.

Richmond, July with spirited
contests in at least four judicial cir
cults, and vacancy to be filled III
another, the State Tax Board will
meet at II o'clock this morning in
the Governors Office, to determine,
if possible, just what are its powers
in the matter Of appointing exami-
ners Of records. It's ablest legal ad"
visers have puzzled over the act Of
March %. 1916, which undertakes
to make examiners appointive and
removable by the board, since it be-
came law on June IT, without agree
ing as to its meaning.
Until this act is construed. the eX-
aminership contests must remain un-
settled. The tax board will probably
requisition the services of Attorney
General Pollard in the disentangle-
ment of what appears to be the
most contradictory piece Of legisla-
ton enacted by the last General As
sembly.
This remarkable act became law on
June II, 1916. Yet in the very Begin
ming, it directs that the State Tax
Board shall appoint an examiner Of
records for each judicial circuit Of
! the State on or before May /, 1916,
and every two years thereafter, As
Sjf this were in itself not enough to
try lawyers soul, the same section
directs that when so appointed he
shall be appointed for term Of
years. Apparently it had been the
| patrons intention to have the term
| Of years specified before the bill left
the committee. 1t was never insert
cd, however. and as the act reads,
no term whatever is prescribed.
| The contradictions do not by any
means end here. Having opened with
the direction that the examiners shall
be appointed every two years, the
act proceeds in the same section to
direct that "if any or all Of the
present examiners of records are ac-
ceptable to the said Advisory Board
on Taxation, the hoard shall, by reso-
luton, so declare, in which event any
'Of said officers declared to be accep-
table shall remain in Office for term
Of four years from May l., 1916"
But there is still another section
which contributes its quota of con-
fusion. 1t provides that the terms Of
examiners appointed by the Circuit
Courts of the Comnonwealth-th
examiners now serving in other
words shall expire on May 80, 1916,
or as soon thereafter as their sue
cessors shall be appointed and have
qualified.
apparently designed to bring to an
end the term of all present examiners
of records in order that they may re-
ceive their now terms at the hands
Of the Tax Board and thus come
definitely under it's authority, the act
directs that their terms shall expire
on May 80. 1916. In an opening Sec
ton, however, the act directed the ap-
pointment of examiners on May l.
j 1916--twenty nine days before the
date fixed by the same act for the
expiration Of the terms of the incum.
bents. Incidentally, the act could
neither direct an election on May I
nor an expiration on May 80, since
it did not itself become law until
June II.
These are some of the incongrui.
ties that the Tax Board will grapple
with today in an attempt to arrive
at the true meaning of this disordered
piece of legislation. The whole mat,
ter will in all probability be refer,
red to the Attorney General.
!