Private Acts of 1929 Chapter 532

SECTION 1.  That there be and the same is hereby created the office of County Judge of Claibourne [sic] County, Tennessee, and that there shall be elected by the qualified voters of said county a person to be styled the County Judge of Claiborne County, and who shall be County Judge of said county.  Such person shall be a citizen of said County, of moral character, a practicing attorney, and at least thirty years of age.  He shall hold his office for a term of eight years.

SECTION 2.  That the first election for County Judge of Claiborne County shall be held at the same place, and at the same time, and by the same officers as other county elections are held on the first Thursday in August, 1930, and under the same rules and regulations that are prescribed by law for other county elections, the person so elected to hold said office until his successor shall be elected and qualified at the regular August election in 1934.  Subsequent elections shall be held for the election of such County Judge on the first Thursday in August, and every eight years thereafter, except vacancies, which shall be filled when they occur in the manner prescribed by law.

SECTION 3.  That F. F. Overton, a citizen of Claiborne County, Tennessee, who possesses all of the qualifications provided for said County Judge be, and he is hereby named and appointed to said office of County Judge of Claiborne County, Tennessee, for the period commencing from and after the passage of this Act, and to serve as such County Judge until his successor is elected and qualified at the regular August election in 1930.

SECTION 4.  That the County Judge of Claiborne County shall be commissioned in the same manner as other judges of the State, and before entering upon the duties of said office he shall take the oath prescribed by law and taken by other judges of the State, and shall also enter into bond in the sum of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000.00) conditioned faithfully to account for all moneys and county property that may come into his hands as such County Judge.

SECTION 5.  That the County Judge of Claiborne County shall have and exercise all the rights, powers and jurisdictions that are conferred by existing laws upon the county judges of this State, and in addition thereto the right to hear applications for writs of injunction, attachment, habeas corpus, and may hear and finally dispose of habeas corpus writs, and other writs, and to make and pass orders for the issuance of such writs as other judges and chancellors of the State.

SECTION 6.  That all the powers and jurisdictions now vested in and belonging to the Chairman of the County Courts of this State be and the same are hereby conferred upon the County Judge of Claiborne County herein named and who are to be elected and qualified as hereinbefore provided.

SECTION 7.  That the County Judge of Claiborne County shall receive a salary of Two Thousand, Four Hundred Dollars ($2,400.00) per annum,  to be paid quarterly out of the revenue collected for the year in which the services are rendered, the same to be paid by the county upon a warrant drawn by him out of the County Treasury, which shall be paid monthly.

Said County Judge shall receive One Hundred ($100.00) Dollars per month as compensation for his services as financial agent of said County.

SECTION 8.  That the County Court Clerk of said County shall be and continue the Clerk of the County Court to be held by the County Judge, and shall perform all the duties and have all the powers, jurisdictions and authority now possessed by him.

SECTION 9.  That this Act take effect from and after its passage, the public welfare requiring it.

Passed:  April 2, 1929.

COMPILER'S NOTE:  The requirement of Private Acts 1937, Chapter 351, stated that the County Judge be a practicing attorney was held unconstitutional by the Tennessee Supreme Court in Kivett v. Mason, 206 S.W. 2d 789 (1947).