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X25 particular trucks that.were purchased.at considerably less than the list price because the same had been slightly used and had been repossessed by the county from the pur- chasers who has been unable to.make their payments; and I cannot think frommy investi- gation but that this was another oase in which the officials of the county are to be commended rather than criticized , and I think that the purchase of these Prucks was also authorized under the provisions of Section 10688 of the Laws of 1925. I also call your attention to Chapter 11553 of the Laws of Florida Extraordinar ftaalon 192% which is in praabtIcaljy .tbe -.same language as Chapter 106889 and which authr orizes the Board to construct roads and bridges in the county out of the general county funds, either by letting said.work by contract or by employing labor by the day or month and providing necessary machinery; teams and equipment without letting said work by con- tract, and this, in my opinioa'authorizes the purchase of the two automobiles as referred s to in the report of the investigating committee as being purchased out of general county funds 7. The seventh and concluding paragraph of the report relates to the purchasing of supplies from meihbers of the Board. There is no question but what the statute quoted by the investigating committee makes it illegal for state and county boards to purchase supplies from any member of the Board or from any corporation in which any member of the Board is interested. I have been attorney for the Board of County Commissioners since tY creation of Indian River County and so far as I know there has Never been any action taken by the Board authorizing or providing for the purchase of supplies by the Board frc any member of the Board or from any corporation in which such member was interested. I understand that the county engineer and perhaps some other subordinate employees or, officials of the county have purchased supplies from Redstone Lumber & Supply Company, a corporation of which John H. Atkin; one of the members of the Board, is a stockholder, but ethe question of liability of members of the Board for the purchase of such supplies must be discussed and determined from two angles, that is, from a criminal standpoint an.; from a civil standpoint. It is my opinion that the criminal statutes have not been vio- lated and would not be violated unless some affirmative action on the part of the Board itself was taken providing for the purchase of such supplies and for the payment of s supplies so purchased; and that unless such affirmative action was taken by the Board s for the purchase of supplies that the purchase of incidentals from time to time by sub- ordinate employees of the Board would not constitute a violation of the criminal pro- vision of the statutes. However; if my interpretation of this is wrong, each and every member of the past and present Board would be guilty of violation of this section, and it is my opinion that no one member could be vonvicted for violating Section 7472 be- cause this is an inhibition against the Board as a whole and the Board as a whole are those members on it not voting against such a purchase and would have to be indict6dd4Ud.' convicted as a whole, in my opinion. The other question involved would be the vivil liability of the members of the Board for purchasing supplies; which was considered by the Supreme Court of Florida in N the case of Lainbe t vs Burrs 38 :lou. 711; referred to by the investigating committee in I its report. The committee states that its understanding of that -decision is that the Supreme Court therein held that any member of a Board who votes in favor of paying any bill for materials or supplies -purchased from a member or from a corporation in which he is interested is liable to the county for the sum so paid. I do not get any such impression from the holding of the Supreme Court in the case of Lainha.rt vs Burr, but on the contrary it seems to me that the Supreme Court very clearly therein held that 1 1 1