Opinion ID: 2408739
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: THE EXPENSE ACCOUNT OF APPELLANT McGUIRE

Text: The trial court awarded judgment for appellees against McGuire in the sum of $9,031.30, being the aggregate sum of travel expenses paid to McGuire by the Board for the period beginning September 30, 1955, to June 30, 1960. (A plea of the five-year statute of limitation was considered to preclude any claim for expense items prior to September 30, 1955, KRS 413.120.) At pain of over-simplification, it may be said that the record discloses that the Board did pay McGuire the stated sum for travel expenses, and that there had been no express previous authorization for McGuire to incur the specific expenses. Claim vouchers for the expenses had been duly filed with the Board by McGuire during the period. These claims had been approved and paid by the Board in normal course. Many of the written claims as filed with the Board were no longer extant at the time of trial. It was explained that the Board's practice had been to preserve the vouchers until after an audit by the Auditor of Public Accounts, after which the vouchers were destroyed. Many of the claims reflected travel by McGuire outside of Carter County. Appellees rely on Beauchamp v. Snider, 170 Ky. 220, 185 S.W. 868. That decision is not authoritative here because it was posited upon the then existing statute which precluded the Board's paying expenses for the superintendent outside the county. The present statute contains no such inhibition. KRS 160.410. In the main, appellant McGuire admitted his inability to give specific detail as to the nature of the school business he had performed while incurring the expenses. However, he insisted that in each instance he was performing school business, and there is no substantive evidence to the contrary. In a few instances the expense accounts reflected that the Board had paid hotel bills carrying charges for persons in company with McGuire. One or two of these hotel bills indicated a registration for Mr. and Mrs. McGuire at times subsequent to McGuire's divorce, and while he was unmarried. He disclaimed detailed information as to these, and in some instances it is not determinable from the record whether the Board had actually paid some of these items. In this state of the record it is our view that the trial court erred in simply awarding the appellees full recovery of the entire claim of $9,031.30. The contract between McGuire and the Board, as well as  the Board's minutes, reflect that McGuire was to be reimbursed for expenses incident to school business. Manifestly it would have been impracticable, and in our view unnecessary, for McGuire to have obtained prior Board authority for every item of expense. We hold that the appellees did not prove illegal expenditure of school funds incident to the allowed travel expenses, and reverse so much of the judgment as permits recovery of appellant McGuire of the item of $9,031.30 for travel expenses.