Bristow Battery Co. v. Board of Com'rs of Rogers County

37 F.2d 504, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2584
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 16, 1930
DocketNo. 67
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 37 F.2d 504 (Bristow Battery Co. v. Board of Com'rs of Rogers County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bristow Battery Co. v. Board of Com'rs of Rogers County, 37 F.2d 504, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2584 (10th Cir. 1930).

Opinion

LEWIS, Circuit Judge.

Rogers County, OHahoma, plaintiff below and appellee here, brought this suit for injunctive relief, prohibitory as to some of the defendants and mandatory as to others. There is no diverse citizenship. Jurisdiction is based on the claimed denial of Federal rights guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. The ease made by the bill is this:

In 1922 the City of Drumright, in Creek County, OHahoma, issued 171 funding bonds, each of the par value of $1,000.00, for the purpose of - funding its outstanding indebtedness. For that purpose, and in accord with the Oklahoma statutes, the city applied to the district court for Creek County asking for an order of the court that it might fund its indebtedness, and such order was duly entered and the bonds issued. The bonds were approved and registered by the proper city and county officials, a certificate of the Attorney General of the State, who is ex-officio bond commissioner, being attached to each bond, said certificate reciting that he had examined a certified transcript of the record of proceedings relative to the issuance of said bond and that he found the proceedings regular and in full compliance with the constitution and laws of the State of OHahoma, and he approved the bonds as having been regularly and legally issued in accordance with the constitution and laws of the State. He further certified, in accordance with the laws of the State, that the bonds were incontestable in any court of the State after thirty days from the date of his certificate. The bonds [506]*506were regularly and legally issued. The recitals in them estopped the municipality from challenging their validity. Under the Oklahoma statute they were incontestable after thirty days from the date of the certificate of the Attorney General. Notwithstanding these claims made in the bill it is alleged that four taxpayers of the city, who are made defendants here, commenced an action in June, 1925, in the Creek County district court, against the county treasurer of Creek County, in which they challenged the validity of the tax levy to pay the interest on said bonds and provide a sinking fund, on the ground that said bonds exceeded the constitutional debt limit of said city. They alleged that they had paid said taxes on their property under protest and prayed judgment for a return of the sums paid. The county treasurer defended that suit. The district court adjudged that the bonds had been legally and duly issued and constituted valid outstanding obligations of the city. The taxpayers appealed from that judgment and the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the district court. Bristow Battery Co. et al. v. Payne, County Treas., 123 Okl. 137, 252 P. 423. The Supreme Court held that the bonds were void because in excess of the constitutional debt limit. That ruling followed a like holding in the prior case of Eaton v. St. L.-S. F. Ry. Co., 122 Okl. 143, 251 P. 1032. Rogers County purchased in the open market for value $50,000 par value of these bonds in 1924. It was not a party to either of the cases just mentioned. It had no knowledge of the pendency of those cases. Prior to the time it made its purchase the Oklahoma Supreme Court had held in a number of its decisions, (1) that holders of municipal securities issued by the various municipalities in the State were necessary and proper parties to any action involving the legality of bonds so issued; (2) that the issuance of funding bonds issued concurrently with the cancellation of indebtedness of a municipality did not increase the indebtedness of such municipality but merely changed the form thereof; (3) that the judgments of the district courts of the various counties of the State made and entered at hearings upon applications of municipalities to fund their outstanding indebtedness in a proceeding brought for that purpose, were final judgments, and that where such decree and judgment of such court was entered which adjudged the validity of such indebtedness, and was regular upon its face, it was final and conclusive upon all matters put directly in issue, tried and determined in that proceeding and no one could thereafter be heard to dispute the validity of such bonds; (4) that by virtue of the provisions of section 4284, C. O. S. 1921 (sec. 377, R. L. 1910) all bonds issued by any municipality in the State of Oklahoma, and declared by the certificate of the Attorney General to be issued in accordance with the form of procedure so provided, were incontestable in any court of the State of Oklahoma, unless a suit was brought thereon within thirty days from the date of the approval thereof by the Attorney General; and (5) that bona fide purchasers of negotiable municipal bonds who have relied upon the affirmative recitals contained in the bonds to the effect that the same were not issued in excess of the constitutional limit, as here, where such certificate and recitals are specifically provided for in the issuance of such bonds, were protected by such recitals, if in fact the bonds themselves did not reveal such recitals to be untrue, which these bonds did not reveal to be untrue. It is then alleged that the effect of the decisions rendered in the Bristow Battery. Co. Case and the Eaton Case, supra, was to overrule each and all of the former holdings of that court and to annul, impair, invalidate and confiscate the property of complainant, to-wit: its $50,000 of bonds; that unless the four defendant taxpayers of said city who brought said suit in the Creek County district court to recover their taxes are restrained from enforcing the judgment which they recovered on reversal by the Supreme Court, and the other defendants whose official duties are to levy and collect taxes to pay interest on said bonds and provide a sinking fund are also restrained from refusing to perform their public duties in that respect, the complainant will be deprived of its property without due process of law; that because of said decisions of the State Supreme Court in the Eaton and Bristow Battery Co. Cases the district court of Creek County will follow those decisions in like eases in the future and all taxpayers of said city will be permitted to recover taxes which they may pay, levied to meet the interest and create a sinking fund in discharge of said bonded indebtedness. It is further alleged that this proceeding arises under the Constitution and laws of the United States of America, especially the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and section 10 of article 1 of the Constitution. The answer in addition to joining issue on the merits challenged the court’s jurisdiction.

The ease went to final hearing and decree was entered as prayed, enjoining the four [507]*507defendant taxpayers “from asserting or in any manner enforcing, or attempting to enforce the judgment and decree of the district court of Creek County rendered in cause styled Bristow Battery Company et al. v. James E. Payne, County Treasurer et al. and the judgment and decree of the supreme court of the State of Oklahoma rendered in said cause on appeal to said court, styled Bristow Battery Company et al. v. Payne et al. No. 17035, and reported in 123 Okl. at page 137, 252 P. 423.” The decree also commanded the other defendants, who are officials of said city and of Creek County, to make the necessary annual levies to pay the accruing interest on said bonds and to provide a sinking fund to pay the principal at maturity.

Clearly, the contract clause (art. 1, § 10) is not here involved. No claim is made that the State or city passed a law or enacted an ordinance after these bonds were issued impairing their obligation. Tidal Oil Co. v. Flanagan, 263 U. S. 444, 451, 44 S. Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
37 F.2d 504, 1930 U.S. App. LEXIS 2584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bristow-battery-co-v-board-of-comrs-of-rogers-county-ca10-1930.