Apache County v. Barth

53 P. 187, 6 Ariz. 13, 1898 Ariz. LEXIS 102
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedApril 16, 1898
DocketCivil No. 584
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 53 P. 187 (Apache County v. Barth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Apache County v. Barth, 53 P. 187, 6 Ariz. 13, 1898 Ariz. LEXIS 102 (Ark. 1898).

Opinion

DOAN, J.

This is an action by the executrix of Jacob Barth, deceased, based upon forty county warrants of Apache County, thirty-five of which are payable out of the general fund and five out of the road fund of said county. All were issued in the year 1884. All were presented in the year 1884, and after issue, to the appellant’s treasurer for payment, and were by him indorsed “Not paid for want of funds.” Again in the year 1888 the said warrants were presented to appellant’s board of supervisors to be exchanged for bonds under the Funding Act of 1887, which exchange was refused, and the warrants in question were marked in red ink across the face thereof by the said board of supervisors “Forgery,” and then returned to their owner. Suit was commenced in Apache County in the year 1891, and, after various changes of venue, was finally tried in Maricopa County, on the sixth day of May, 1896, on which trial the counsel for plaintiff voluntarily withdrew all claim on eleven of said warrants “because a careful, microscopical examination of the said eleven warrants would show there had been an alteration of the figures, and that they had been vitiated by being raised, and on them the plaintiff made no claim;” The case was submitted to the court and taken under advisement, and thereafter, on the twentieth day of March, 1897, the court found that all of the warrants sued on, except the eleven that were withdrawn, were valid, subsisting, and legal claims against the said defendant, Apache County, and judgment was rendered on the remaining twenty-nine of said warrants in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant for the sum of $14,352.13 and costs of the action, from which judgment defendant has appealed to this court.

The appellant has presented five assignments of error, as follows: “First. The court erred in not sustaining defendant’s general plea of limitation. Second. The court erred in [21]*21not sustaining defendant’s special plea of limitation to each of the forty counts set up in plaintiff’s amended complaint, and in finding against those pleas. Third. The court erred in finding that the warrants sued on, and each of them, save those admitted to be forged, was and were legally issued. Fourth. The court erred in finding against defendant’s plea that said warrants, and each of them, were forged, and of no binding effect on defendant. Fifth. The court erred in rendering judgment for plaintiff and against the defendant, for the reason that the said judgment was contrary to the evidence in the case, and that it was contrary to the evidence as shown by the record, and against the law of the case. ’ ’

We will consider these assignments in their natural rather than in their numerical order. The first point is that raised in the third assignment: “That the court erred in finding that the warrants sued on, and each of them, was and were legally issued.” It has been held by the courts generally that “county and city warrants, signed by the proper officers, are prima facie binding and legal. These officers will be presumed to have done their duty. Such warrants make a prima facie cause of action. Impeachment must come from the defendant.” Dillon on Municipal Corporations, see. 502, and cases cited. These warrants, copies of which were attached to the complaint, and the warrants themselves introduced in evidence, were proper in form and appearance. The wording was in accordance with the requirements relative to such warrants. The names and signatures were of the proper officers, and appeared to be genuine. Evidence to show fraud or corruption or want of authority in their issue could have been presented, and, if presented, should have been received by the court; but, in default of evidence overturning the presumption in favor of the legality of their issue, the ruling of the district court was correct. The record does not show any defense offered by the defendant further than the denial of their execution, and the empty denial, unsupported by any evidence, was insufficient to overcome the presumption established.

The next assignment is the fourth: 4 4 That the court erred in finding against defendant’s plea that the said warrants, and each of them, were forged, and of no binding effect on defendant.” This leads us to consider the nature of the [22]*22pleadings. The complaint was founded upon the warrants in question, copies of which were attached thereto, and the originals were filed in the ca.se and introduced in evidence. Paragraph 735 of the Revised Statutes of Arizona provides: "Any answer setting up any of the following matters, unless the truth of the pleadings appear of record, shall be verified by affidavit: A denial of the execution by himself or by his authority of any instrument in writing upon which any pleading is founded in whole or in part and charged to have been executed by him or his authority. ’ ’ The answer of the defendant "denies that the board of supervisors of said county of Apache ever ordered the issuance of the said warrants sued on, or either of them; denies that the said warrants, or any or either of them, were ever issued or dircted to be issued by the board of supervisors of the said county of Apache, or by the authority of said board. ’ ’ This answer up to the time the case went to trial and the plaintiff had presented her evidence and rested her case was unverified; but after plaintiff had rested, and defendant desired to establish the forgery of the warrants, it was permitted by the court to verify its answer. The verification was then made by the then recorder and ex officio clerk of the board of supervisors in the following language: “M. Gonzalez, being duly sworn, says that he is clerk of the board of supervisors of the county of Apache, in the territory of Arizona, and the custodian of the records of said board; that he has heard read the above and foregoing answer of the county of Apache, defendant in the above and foregoing action; and that the facts therein stated as defenses to the various causes of action declared on are true, and the warrants sued on are not genuine. Subscribed and sworn to the 6th day of May, 1896.” It has been objected to this verification that it has not the essential elements of the affidavit required in the statute, and therefore is not sufficient to permit the defendant to attack the execution of the warrants, on the ground that the affidavit does not contain an allegation of knowledge on the part of the affiant, nor of information or belief upon points-not within affiant’s knowledge; that an affidavit that the facts stated are true does not apply to a denial; and that the allegation that "the warrants sued on are not genuine” is the statement of a conclusion of law. These points would be material if the defendant had gone forward [23]*23under the verification to the answer and presented evidence to disprove the execution of the warrants or to establish their invalidity by virtue of fraud, irregularity, or other cause; but as the only office of the verification would be to enable the defendant to establish such defense, and as no proof was offered and rejected by the court, for which rejection error is assigned, and none was presented to overcome the presumption established by the prima facie case already made by the plaintiff, the sufficiency of the verification does not become material, and any ruling thereon herein would be simply obiter dictum, unless on the theory advanced by defendant that the verification of the answer by defendant necessitates plaintiff’s establishing by corroborative affirmative evidence the execution and issue of the warrants and the regularity and legality of the actions of the board in so doing.

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Bluebook (online)
53 P. 187, 6 Ariz. 13, 1898 Ariz. LEXIS 102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/apache-county-v-barth-ariz-1898.