Page:Walker v. Allred.pdf/4

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Walker v. Allred.
1107

upon and filed, and insist that, inasmuch as the appellant alleged that he had taken, oath of office as tax collector and that his bond as such had been filed and approved, and that these allegations were specifically denied by the appellee, the duty devolved upon appellant to make proof of the same, and, having failed; to do so, he has not shown himself such a party in interest as would entitle him to maintain this action. While this is doubtless correct as a general proposition, it is apparent that all of these matters were disregarded in the trial court; and the case was tried on the question as to whether there was, at the time of the election of 1928, the separate office of tax collector of Carroll County, and as the court below had before it all the information necessary for the determination of that question, and so expressly declared in its judgment, this court will likewise disregard all matters except that which was expressly passed upon and determined by the court below, and will proceed at once to a consideration of that issue.

Section 46, article 7, Of the Constitution of the State of Arkansas reads in part as follows: "The qualified electors of each county shall elect one sheriff, who shall be ex-officio collector of taxes, unless otherwise provided by law." Under this section the sheriff was entitled to the office of collector of taxes of Carroll County until the passage of act No. 32 of the Acts of 1897, which, by § 1, created the office of tax collector for Carroll County, fixing his salary at $900 per annum, and providing that he should receive in addition certain fees. The act contained, including the repealing clause, nine sections, which fixed the salaries of other county officers, and in addition provided that the same fees should be collected as then prescribed by law, and provided. for the disposition of such fees.

In 1889 the Legislature, by act No. 85, amended § 3254 of Mansfield's Digest, being the general law for the allowance of fees for county treasurers, so as to change the amount of fees allowed to such treasurers.