That the mandamus proceedings recently instituted against the county commissioners by Will Markham, former tax agent, seeking to force the Durham board to collect tax rebates amounting to more than $60,000 from the Liggett and Myers Tobacco company and the American Tobacco company on their holding sin tis county, will be tried in North Carolina supreme court, is the opinion of those who are familiar with the case.
It is thought that the case will be appealed to the highest court in the state regardless of the outcome of the hearing before Judge W.A. Devin at Oxford on August 25. Indications are that the case will be one of the hardest fought legal battles of local interest held in some time.
The former tax agent alleges that the local board of county commissioners failed to take action on his report of four months ago that the defendant tobacco companies had not given true tax returns and that rebates granted them by former revenue commissioner A.D. Watts were given without authority.
Answer to the allegations on the part of Markham will not be made through the local court, it is stated. The matter shifts to Oxford on August 25, and will probably be heard at a later date at Raleigh before the supreme court justices.
From the Durham Morning Herald, Sunday, Aug. 19, 1923
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