Ward v. Whitfield

The purpose of this litigation is to test the constitutionality of the act approved May 27, 1931, which provides, in counties of 300,000 or more inhabitants, for the payment into the county treasury of all official or trust funds coming into the possession of the county officers and employees.

That the circuit clerk is a constitutional county officer (section 165, Constitution 1901) and the proper custodian of funds paid into court (Coleman v. Ormond, 60 Ala. 328) may be freely conceded. His duties, however, are not defined by the Constitution, but left largely to legislative .enactment.…