# Carroll v. Buttram

> Supreme Court of Alabama · June 11, 1999 · 758 So. 2d 1097

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7732088

## Case

- **Full name:** Hoyt Carroll v. Joe Buttram.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Alabama
- **Decided:** June 11, 1999
- **Citations:** 758 So. 2d 1097; 1999 Ala. LEXIS 179; 1999 WL 378607
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Houston
- **Judges:** Kennedy, Hooper, Cook, See, Houston, Maddox, Lyons, Brown
- **Cited by:** 4 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7732088

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- reversing decision that the Commission exceeded its authority in establishing the Board based on § 11-8-14, Ala. Code 1975, subsequently repealed by Act No. 488, Ala. Acts 2007, and on the fact that the Board is only advisory
- holding that a judgment must be clear and unambiguous in order to stand

## Opinion text

HOUSTON, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur. I write only to address the latest Act involving the Jackson County Commission’s clerical staff, Ala. Acts 1971, Act No. 649 (Regression), § 2, which (in amending § 1 of an earlier act) states in pertinent part:
“The chairman shall have the authority to employ such clerical assistance as the board shall prescribe.”
“Prescribe” means “to specify with authority.” Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary 921 (10th ed.1997); and “[to] lay down authoritatively as a guide, direction, or rule.” Black’s Law Dictionary 1183 (6th ed.1990). Therefore, the chairman’s right to appoint is conditioned on the Jackson County Commission’s specifying whom the chairman shall appoint (the governing body now known as the “county commission” (Ala.Code 1975, § 11-1-5) was formerly known as the “board of revenue”).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/7732088. Public record. Not legal advice.