Tennessee Code Title 8. Public Officers and Employees § 8-20-110

(1) It shall be made to appear that the officers could not properly and efficiently conduct the affairs and transact the business of their offices by devoting their entire working time thereto and it was actually necessary to the proper conduct of same to employ such assistants and deputies, and that only such assistants and deputies were employed, and at such salaries and under such facts, as would have been sufficient to justify the courts to whom such applications should have been made to have made orders for the employment of such assistants and deputies at the salaries paid them;

(2) The failure to file petitions with the courts and obtain the orders necessary for the employment of such assistants and deputies was on account of misapprehension and misunderstanding of the requirements of the law and such failure was in good faith; and

(3) Nothing shall be refunded to such officers on account of the employment of assistants and deputies except and only such as the officers would have been entitled to under the law had the petitions been filed and the orders obtained as required by the statute.