Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 September 1885 — COURT OF ALABAMA CLAIMS. [ARTICLE]

COURT OF ALABAMA CLAIMS.

The Salary of the Government Counsel a Stopped. [Washington telegram.) First Controller Durham to-day stopped a requisition to pay the salary of J. A. J. Creswell, Government counsel before the Court of Commissioners of Alabama Claims, for the month of August, until it is settled that there is any balance duo him. The First Controller takes the gound that Mr. Creswell is not entitled to a fixed salary of SB,OOO per annum, but that that sum is named as the limit of the fees to be allowed him f,or the trial of cases. He says that the law organizing the court provided that the Government counsel should receive a reasonable compensation for each case tried, and that subsequent laws limited such compensation to SB,tX)O per annum. The court, however, he says, neglected to fix the amount of a “reasonable compensation, ” and has illegally treated that item as a fixed salaiy.