Bloomfield v. Thompson

67 So. 352, 136 La. 519, 1915 La. LEXIS 2028
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided January 25, 1915·No. No. 20846·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

LAND, J.

This case was before us on a writ of certiorari, and judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff on December 15, 1913. A rehearing was granted on the suggestion of the defendants that the Constitution of 1913 had vested appellate jurisdiction over this cause in the Court of Appeal for the parish of Orleans, and on rehearing the proceedings were dismissed without'prejudice to the right of the litigants on either side. See Bloomfield v. Thompson, 134 La. 923-950, 64 South. 853.

[1] Plaintiff thereupon appealed to the Court of Appeal for the parish of Orleans, which, for reasons assigned, rendered judgment as follows, to wit:

“It is therefore ordered that the judgment appealed from be reversed, and it is now ordered that a peremptory injunction issue herein restraining and prohibiting the defendant, W. B. Thompson, commissioner of public utilities, and the city of New Orleans, from executing or enforcing the provisions of Ordinance No. 74, Commission Council Series, which ordinance is hereby declared null and void. It is further ordered that the city of New Orleans pay all costs.”

[521]*521The defendants applied to this court for a writ of certiorari or review, which was granted.

In 1904 the council of the city of New Orleans enacted Ordinance No. 2683, N. S., amending and re-enacting Ordinance No. 147, N. S., of August 7, 1900, creating a board of commissioners to be known and styled as the “Public Belt Railroad Commission” for the city of New Orleans, to be composed of the mayor of the city of New Orleans, and 16 resident taxpayers and electors of said city, to be appointed by the said mayor, by and with the approval of the council of the city of New Orleans. The ordinance provided that 11 of the members of said commission should consist of members of certain business exchanges, boards, and unions, and should be appointed on their recommendation, and that 5 members should be appointed from the citizens of New Orleans at large, 3 from above, and 2 from below, Canal street. The ordinance further provided that the commission should organize by selecting a president pro tern., a secretary-treasurer, an industrial commissioner, an auditor, and a general manager, and that the president pro tern, should be a member of the commission, and should have active charge, control, management, and supervision of the business of said commission, subject to the direction of the commission; and that the manager should be at all times subject to the supervision and control of the president pro tern.

This ordinance thus vested the executive powers of the commission in its president pro tern., subject, however, to the direction of the commission.

The commission thus organized proceeded to construct the contemplated belt railway, and had made considerable progress in the work, when, in 190S, it became evident that the construction and equipment of the railway would require a great deal more money than the city was able to provide for that purpose. The commission decided to raise the necessary funds by means of a bond issue ; and the Legislature, by Act No. 179 of 1908, p. 256, authorized the city of New Orleans to issue $2,000,000 of 5 per cent, bonds, for the purpose of constructing, maintaining, and operating the said public belt railway system. The act was a proposed constitutional amendment, which was ratified by a vote of the people in November, 1908, and the amendment was incorporated in the Constitution of 1013 as article 323, under the caption of “Public Belt Railroad Bonds.” The last sentence of article 323 reads as follows:

“All the provisions hereof shall constitute a contract between the holder of the bonds issued under Act 179 of 1908 and of this title, the state of Louisiana, the city of New Orleans and the board of commissioners of the port of New Orleans.”

S.ection 7 of the amendment of 1908, as incorporated in article 323 of the Constitution of 1913, reads, in part, as follows:

“The city of New Orleans shall construct, equip, maintain and operate said public belt railroad system of the city of New Orleans through and by means of such board or commission as may have been or may be organized by the city of New Orleans, the members of which shall be appointed by the mayor of the city of New Orleans, with the consent of the council, the powers, duties and functions of which shall be prescribed by the city of New Orleans. * ® ® The control, administration, management, and supervision of the construction, maintenance, operation and development of the public belt railroad of the city of New Orleans shall be exclusively vested and remain in such board or commission, which shall always be separate and distinct from that of any railroad entering the city of New Orleans.”

When the amendment of 1908 was adopted the belt railroad was under the control and management of a commission organized in 1904 under Ordinance No. 2683, N. O. S. This commission continued in control and management of said belt railroad until Jan[523]*523uary 23, 1913, when the council of the city of New Orleans adopted Ordinance No. 74, O. O. S. Relative to this ordinance, this court, in Bloomfield v. Thompson, 134 La. 930, 931, 64 South. 856, said:

“It amends Ordinance No. 2683, New Council Series of 1904, by adding the commissioner of public utilities to the membership of the public belt railroad commission, and by abolishing the office of president pro tern, and creating’, in its place, that of acting president, and by providing that the commissioner of public utilities shall' be acting president of the commission; and it then provides as follows:
“ ‘The commissioner of public utilities of the city of New Orleans shall, as aforesaid, be the acting president of the commission. In the absence of the president (that is, the mayor), he shall preside at all meetings. He shall have active charge, management and control of the detail operations of the belt railroad system, and the heads of the several departments of accounting, operation and engineering shall report to him and take instructions from him. He shall report to the commission and keep the same fully advised of all matters falling within his management, and shall be the agent through whom ihe general directory powers of the commission shall be executed.’ ”

By the same ordinance the general manager charged with the physical construction, maintenance, operation,, and development of the public belt railway was at all times made subject to the supervision and control of the acting president of the commission.

Plaintiff sued to annul said Ordinance No. 74, on the ground that after the issue of bonds under the aforesaid amendment of 1908 the city council was without authority to divest the exclusive control of the public belt commission over the public belt railway, or to reorganize the commission. The first contention was sustained in Bloomfield v. Thompson, supra, and the second was not passed upon.

As already stated a rehearing was granted in said case, and the proceedings were finally dismissed for want of jurisdiction in this court; and the plaintiff thereupon appealed to the Court of Appeal, which rendered judgment in his favor.

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Bloomfield v. Thompson, 67 So. 352, 136 La. 519, 1915 La. LEXIS 2028 (La. 1915).

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