Court Opinion

ID: 9824773
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 11:23:15.92028+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:04.752815
License: Public Domain

On Behearing.
In support of the application for rehearing it is insisted, as upon the authority of Martin v. Hall, 72 Ala. 587, that the court below erred in treating as admissible, for its bearing on the issues in contest, the authenticated transcript from the “Begister of Sixteenth Section Notes from the County of Morgan,” reproduced in the original opinion. The point now urged is that there was, when this register was made up, no statute requiring or authorizing any official to keep the register, the transcript of which the state auditor authenticated in virtue of the custodial authority conferred upon the state auditor by the act approved June 19, 1915 (Gen. Acts 1915, p. 217). In the brief for the appellants, filed at the submission, the point now pressed was not argued, though this objection to the admission of the authenticated transcript was specifically taken in the court below. The argument then presented only went to the authority of the state auditor to make the authentication, upon the ground that the cited act (there is no other of like effect) did not constitute that official the custodian of records relating to sixteenth section lands as of the period to which the subject-matter of the authenticated transcript has reference. After pressing the proposition last defined, it was remarked in the original brief that discussion of “all of the objections noted to this piece of testimony” would be omitted for that the objections were full and specific. The question then argued was decided; it being ruled that the state auditor was constituted by the act cited the official custodian of all the records relating to sixteenth section lands; and hence was authorized by Code, § 3982, to certify to the transcript from- the “register of notes.” Nevertheless, if the particular objection now pressed had been argu*641ed in the brief on submission, viz. that during the period to which, the subject-matter of the transcript refers, 1852-1858, there was no statute authorizing or requiring the keeping of such a record, the court is of the opinion that the statutes then authorized and required such record to be kept by the comptroller, a state official. By section 535 of the Code of 1852 the township trustees were required to take from the purchaser of such lands four notes, with sureties as prescribed, for the purchase money of sixteenth section lands sold by them, the notes being made payable to the state of Alabama, maturing annually. Section 541 required these trustees to deliver the notes taken and approved by them (section 535) to the judge of probate of their respective counties. Section 542 required the judge of probate to deposit such notes in the office of the comptroller within six months after their receipt by him from the trustees. Section 545 prescribed that no patent should issue except upon the certificate of the comptroller that the purchase money and interest had been paid. By section 365 of the Code of 1852, in effect during the period in question, the comptroller was required (subdivision 3) “to keep the accounts in relation to the school fund, and every other special or trust fund in which the state, is [was] interested, the keeping of which is [was] not specially entrusted to other officers.” There was then no statute imposing upon any other officer the duty of keeping accounts in relation to the trust funds arising from the sale of sixteenth section school lands.. The "state’s relation to such funds and to obligations given by purchasers of these lands was that described in the quotation from Code 1852, § 365. State v. Schmidt, 180 Ala. 374, 61 South. 293, and eases therein noted. It was the duty of the comptroller to keep a correct record of the purchase-money notes deposited by the judges of probate “in the office of the comptroller”; that official being required to give his receipt therefor to the judge of probate. Code 1852, § 542. It is to be presumed that this duty, imposed by law upon the comptroller, was discharged by the comptroller. The “register of sixteenth section notes from the county of Morgan,” presently authenticated by the state auditor, shows that, at the time, a record was kept showing the principal, the securities, the date of the note, the township and range, and the amount; and, in this instance, memoranda that payments had been made of the two last maturing notes. There is nothing in the cause reflecting upon the integrity of the subject matter of the transcript, or of the transcript itself.
[6,'7] Where, as here, a duty is imposed by law upon an official, and a record manifesting a discharge of that duty is preserved and is found in a custody consistent with its official creation, the presumption is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that the record is a correct representation of the official act or transaction it purports to memorialize. 9 Ency. of Evi. p. 952, and notes; 16 Cyc. pp. 1076-1079, and notes. The authenticated transcript was not inadmissible because not authorized or required to he kept.
The other point pressed in the brief for rehearing has been reconsidered in the light of the argument. The court continues satisfied with its original conclusion, viz. that, the effect of 'the memoranda of payment, in the transcript, opposite the description of the notes last maturing, although a different memorandum was set opposite th'e description of the two notes first maturing, justified the view that all the notes were paid. But aside from this, and as indicated in the original opinion' on the authority of the statutes (Code 1852, §§ 535, 538-540), and Watson v. Prestwood, 79 Ala. 416, it does not appear that the title passing to the purchaser of the “conditional estate in fee” was ever sought to be divested by the state for any of the causes enumerated'in Code 1852, §§ 539, 540.
The application for rehearing is accordingly overruled.
Application overruled.
ANDERSON, C. X, and SAYRE and GARDNER, JJ., concur.