Dallas County Levee Improvement Dist. No. 3 v. Ayers

246 S.W. 1112
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 18, 1922
DocketNo. 8859. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 246 S.W. 1112 (Dallas County Levee Improvement Dist. No. 3 v. Ayers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dallas County Levee Improvement Dist. No. 3 v. Ayers, 246 S.W. 1112 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

HAMILTON, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the district court of Dallas county refusing to dissolve a temporary injunction. The order granting the temporary injunction is án ex parte order entered upon the sworn petition therefor filed by appellees.

The appellant levee district was created under the provisions of chapter 2A of title 83, ISernon’s Ann. Civ. St. Supp. 1922, which is comprised in articles 5584½ to 5584½⅛, inclusive. The creation of such levee improvement districts is specially authorized by section 59 of article 16 of the Constitution of Texas, which was adopted as an amendment to the Constitution in 1917.

Dallas County Levee Improvement District No. 3 was organized and exists under the statutory provisions above cited, all of which, from time to time, were enacted under the authority of the section of the Constitution above named.

The verified allegations disclose that the levee district consists of 3,300 acres of land, of which 2,210 acres is comprised in appel-lees’ ownership. The regularity of the formation of the levee district in conformity with statutory provisions and requirements is conceded, and it appears that when the levee district was formed the state reclamation engineer, under the requirements of the statute, estimated the cost of the levee improvements and the first two years’ maintenance thereof to be $160,000. An election was held in the district for the purpose of determining whether or not the levee district, as a corporation and body politic, should issue its bonds for the purpose of realizing the estimated amount necessary for the construction and maintenance of the improvements. That the election was held in conformity with the provisions of the statutes providing for and regulating such elections, and that only votes qualified under the provisions of the statute to vote participated in the election, is not challenged by appellees. The bonds of the levee district thus provided were issued and sold and, with the proceeds of such sale, the work of constructing the improvements in the levy district was proceeded with. The $160,000 acquired by the levee district through the sale of these bonds became exhausted while the improvements were in course of construction. Appellees allege that the $160,000 derived from the bond issue above mentioned was squandered ahd wasted by the board of supervisors of the levee district who had control of the construction of the levee district and the expenditure of the money under the provisions of the statute.

For the purpose of obtaining additional funds with which to complete the construction of the work in the . levee district, a second election was held in conformity with the provisions of the statutes, at which election the issuance of additional bonds in the *1114 amount of $114,000 was authorized. There is no allegation made that the $114,000 was not properly estimated in conformity with the provisions of the law under which the levee district was created, or that the election was -not held in strict conformity therewith, and that other than valid votes were cast.

It is alleged that the board of supervisors entered an order with reference to the $160,-000 bond issue which recited that according to the maps, profiles, and estimates made by the reclamation engineer, such amount of bonds was necessary and proper to meet the cost of the proposed improvements and the maintenance thereof for not less than two years. The allegation is made that this order entered by the board of supervisors induced the commissioners’ court of Dallas county, and also appellees, to approve the first issue of bonds.

It was alleged that the assessment made against each piece of property was made in conformity with the statutory provisions controlling and governing the method of levying the tax upon each respective tract of land according to the benefits to accrue to it from the building of the levee. It was alleged that the $114,000 bond issue was wrongful, unlawful, and contrary, to the provisions of the statute; and it was also alleged that appellant at the time this second bond issue was authorized knew that there could be no benefits upon which to base and justify this bond issue for .the taxes to be levied for the payment of it, and it was alleged that it exceeded the limits fixed by law. No facts are recited in the petition upon which to base the conclusions contained in these last allegations.

It was alleged that, notwithstanding the fact that appellant had wasted the $160,000 realized from the first bond issue and had failed to build the levee so as to protect the lands contained in it from overflows, the taxes imposed in payment of the bonds are confiscatory. And it was further alleged that, notwithstanding all the facts, appellant was threatening to file many suits against all the landowners in the district to collect the taxes alleged to be null and void, and all of which taxes the landowners were refusing to pay for the reason that they were confiscatory.

The prayer was for an injunction to prevent appellant and its representatives from attempting to collect, by suit or otherwise, any of the taxes levied and assessed for the payment of the $160,000 bond issue, and enjoining the selling, or the attempt to sell, the bonds of the $114,000 issue. There was also a prayer for removal of cloud from the title to the lands, and for general relief.

Appellant, in answer to the petition upon which the injunction was granted, filed various exceptions to it and alleged that each of the bond elections was regular and in strict conformity with the provisions of the stat'ute authorizing such bond issues, and also alleged that the appellees, themselves, through their own votes and action, caused the bonds to be issued and ratified the act of issuing them after they were issued, and are accordingly estopped to assert any illegality as to either of the bond issues. It was alleged that after the first bond issue had been authorized in the manner provided by law and the bonds issued thereunder had been sold and the proceeds expended in the work of constructing the levee, it was found to be necessary, in order to render the $160,000 bond issue of value and to complete the construction of the levee, that the second bond issue should be made. It was alleged that all the steps precedent to the election for the issuance of $114,000 bonds had been regularly taken in strict conformity with the terms of the law; that appellees had participated in and approved all of such precedent steps; that the election had been lawfully held and the bonds validly authorized thereunder; that no contest or other proceeding provided by law had been resorted to by appellees, and that, accordingly, no equity existed in their behalf upon which to predicate relief by injunction as sought in this case.

The appeal is presented upon the sworn petition and the sworn answer filed in the court below. To sustain the judgment of the court appellees advance eight propositions, the substance of all of which may be epitomized in the proposition that the assessments levied against the various tracts of land as taxes to pay the annual interest on the aggregate amount of the bonds, and to provide necessary sinking funds, are grossly in excess of the benefits to the lands to be derived from the construction of the levee improvements, and are, accordingly, confiscatory and in contravention of the due process clause of the state and federal Constitutions, and also violative of

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Bluebook (online)
246 S.W. 1112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dallas-county-levee-improvement-dist-no-3-v-ayers-texapp-1922.