Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. School District No. 2

66 P.2d 541, 100 Colo. 148
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMarch 15, 1937
DocketNo. 13,890.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 66 P.2d 541 (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. School District No. 2) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. School District No. 2, 66 P.2d 541, 100 Colo. 148 (Colo. 1937).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Young

delivered the opinion of the court.

December 17,1930, one M. E. Hyde instituted an action in the district court of Pueblo county and obtained a judgment — by consent of defendant — against school district No. 2 of Fremont county for $141,857.09. Thereafter, certain taxpayers, plaintiffs in error here, filed a petition in said cause asking for vacation of the judgment and that they be allowed to appear and defend the suit. The petition, among other things, contains the following: That Hyde fraudulently procured a judgment against School District No. 2, Fremont county, Colorado, a public corporation, for $141,857.09, the amount she claimed to be due her as the alleged holder of unpaid warrants of the district aggregating that sum; that the directors entered the appearance of the district and consented to the entry of such judgment; that immediately after procuring judgment, the court in the same cause and on application of plaintiff Hyde, issued an alternative writ of mandamus to compel the directors of said district to levy a tax for the payment of the judgment; that pursuant to stipulation the court made the writ peremptory and in its decree provided for the issuance and delivery to Hyde of funding bonds of the district payable $7,000 annually for twenty years and it ordered an annual tax levy sufficient to pay the bonds as they matured together with interest; that upon the issuance of these bonds plaintiff Hyde satisfied the judgment as it was provided in the judgment should be done; that the bonds were disposed of by one Grigsby, ostensibly for Hyde, but in reality for the school district; that they were purchased [150]*150by the. State Land Board with monies from the public school fund and it appears are still held by the state of Colorado. The fraud alleged to have been practiced in obtaining the judgment and procuring the mandamus for a levy resulting in the issuance of the bonds, in which fraud it is alleged the directors of the district participated, is set forth in detail in the opinion in the case of Atchison, T. & S. F. Ry. Co. v. Board of Com’rs, 95 Colo. 435, 37 P. (2d) 761, which should be read in connection herewith. That case will be mentioned as the tax refund case. It was an action brought in the district court of Fremont county whereby the railway company sought to recover certain taxes paid by it under protest, which taxes were levied by direction of the court by mandamus, for the payment of the judgment or purported funding bonds. In that case this court held the action to recover the taxes involved was merely a collateral attack on the judgment and that even if the judgment was procured by fraud on the part of both plaintiff and defendants it was not void but merely voidable, and therefore not subject to collateral attack.

Being defeated in the tax refund case the railway company and others as taxpayers filed the above mentioned petition in the. district court of Pueblo county in the case now under consideration wherein the alleged fraudulent judgment and mandamus for a levy had been procured. ITyde, answering the petition, alleged that the bonds issued to her by the school district in payment and satisfaction of the judgment were transferred to the state of Colorado; that it still holds and owns the same, and she prayed that the state be substituted in the litigation in her place and stead; further praying that no action be. taken on the petition until the state had consented to become a party and entered its appearance in the proceedings. On the same date the school district filed a motion to dismiss the petition, alleging among other grounds that the state of Colorado was the holder of the bonds and that the court was without jurisdiction to hear [151]*151the petition until the state appeared and consented to become a party. On this motion the court dismissed the petition on the ground that the state is a necessary party to the proceedings. Petitioners bring the cause here on writ of error to have the judgment of dismissal reviewed.

They contend that the judgment in mandamus ordering a levy to pay the money judgment and the so-called funding bonds is void because there is no authority in law for fixing a levy by mandamus to pay a judgment against a school district or for issuing bonds to fund a judgment against a school district; that the only remedy provided is an administrative remedy. Evidently this contention is based on section 5967, C. L. 1921, although that section is not cited in any of the briefs.

It was determined in the tax refund case that even if the bonds are void the judgments were not void and hence not subject to collateral attack. In that case we stated:

“It is said that the money judgment and the mandamus judgment constitute a fraud upon the taxpayers.
“A judgment rendered without jurisdiction is void and may be attacked either directly or collaterally. But where a judgment rendered by a court having jurisdiction over the subject matter and the parties and jurisdiction to render the particular judgment is obtained by fraud or collusion, it is voidable only, not void, and it is binding upon parties and their privies unless and until it is set aside in a direct proceeding brought for that purpose. It cannot be attacked by them in a collateral proceeding-such as this is. ’ ’

Both the petitioner railway company and the school district were parties to that case. A judgment declared not to be void on collateral attack certainly cannot be held void when attacked in a direct proceeding. It was germane to the issue therein involved to determine whether the judgments were void and the court having determined that they were not, that fact stands adjudicated.

[152]*152In the tax refund case the question of whether the state was a necessary party was raised but not determined. In this case it is the sole question presented for determination.

Petitioners’ theory of the ease is that the state is not a necessary party because, as they claim, the district procured a loan directly from the State Land Board, exchanging its so-called funding bonds of the par value of $110,000 for an equivalent amount of money, with which it proceeded to pay to the various warrant holders the amounts of their warrants and interest, excepting $50,000, in fictitious warrants issued to increase the amount of the judgment, which warrants remained with the county treasurer until after judgment was procured and then were cancelled. The $50,000 reflected in the judgment and in the amount received for the bonds by reason of these fictitious warrants was used to pay Grigsby a commission of $7,000 and the remainder went into the general funds of the district. Assuming that the district did participate in the fraud by which the judgments were secured and the bonds issued, and that thereafter it procured the loan directly in exchange for the so-called bonds, the fact remains that these bonds, whatever their effect may be as such, each provides, “this bond is issued pursuant to and as part payment of a judgment of the district court,” etc., and “provision will be duly made for the levy and collection of an annual tax sufficient to- pay this bond and the interest thereon. ’ ’ The judgment in mandamus provides that “any holder of any of said bonds shall have the right to enforce the provisions of this judgment for the payment of said bonds and the interest thereon. ’ ’ In the tax refund case the court held that if the bonds were void it did not follow that the judgments also were void. In this situation it cannot be doubted that if the.

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Bluebook (online)
66 P.2d 541, 100 Colo. 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atchison-topeka-santa-fe-railway-co-v-school-district-no-2-colo-1937.