Opinion ID: 1841541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: how cumbest, vaughan, and coleman operated

Text: One of the individuals who rented equipment to the county was Hal G. Vaughan (Vaughan), under the business name of H & O Materials and Equipment Rentals (H & O). He did not merely rent machines, each piece of equipment rented included an operator as part of the charge. Each month Vaughan would contact Cumbest and determine whether his charges were satisfactory, and also how Cumbest wanted him to charge the county. Following the discussion between the two, Vaughan would prepare an invoice on an H & O letterhead. Vaughan would then deliver the H & O invoice to the purchase clerk, after which the purchase clerk notified Coleman to come to his office. Coleman would go to the office of the purchase clerk, and sign a prepared requisition based on the invoice. [1] The purchase clerk would then prepare and sign a purchase order, and Coleman would sign a prepare requisition report. The invoice and three documents usually bore the same date. The H & O invoices would sometimes state certain roads in the county upon which the equipment was used, but just as often they would simply state, Rental of equipment under supervision of County Road Foreman. Coleman was a county road foreman for District 1. Each invoice would then specify the various pieces of equipment used, including the serial numbers. There would then follow a total of the hours each piece of equipment had been used that month, the hourly rate and the amount charged for the particular piece of equipment for the month. The invoice then totalled the amount due for all rental charges. There was no itemization showing date of use, or specific place of use on any date, or hours of use on any specific date. [2] A series of over forty invoices and claims beginning in April, 1976, and ending in September, 1979, revealed monthly rental charges of a charge rate minimum of $500.00 to a maximum in excess of $18,000.00. These invoices to District 1 for this period of time exceed $240,000.00, of which virtually the entire amount was for rental of equipment. [3]