Dodds v. Kansas City

152 S.W.2d 128, 347 Mo. 1193, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 686
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 10, 1941
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 152 S.W.2d 128 (Dodds v. Kansas City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dodds v. Kansas City, 152 S.W.2d 128, 347 Mo. 1193, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 686 (Mo. 1941).

Opinion

TIPTON, J.

Pursuant to the provisions of Sections 3312 to 3317, R. S. Mo. 1939, the respondent filed a petition in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, for the purpose of procuring a pro forma decree adjudicating the validity of $1,000,000 of Kansas City Water Revenue Bonds, Series A. The appellant intervened in this action. The trial court entered a decree upholding the validity of these bonds. From that decree the appellant has duly appealed.

On July 1, 1922, Kansas City issued' $11,000,000 of water works bonds, Fourth Issue, which are general obligation bonds duly au *1197 thorized' by a two-thirds vote of the qualified votqrs at a bond election held April 4, 1922. The bonds are payable July 1, 1942, but the respondent has not the money, nor will it have the money, to meet its obligation on these bonds. To take advantage of the prevailing low rate of interest,- the respondent on December 2, 1940, passed Ordinance No. 6351, providing for the issuance of $10,000,000 Water Works Refunding Bonds, Series B. These bonds are issued pursuant to Section 3279, R. S. Mo. 1939, and are general obligation bonds of respondent. At the same date, the respondent enacted Ordinance Number 6349, which authorized the issuance of $1,000*000 Water Revenue Bonds, Series A, so that the $11,000,000 water works bonds due July 1, 1942, could be paid. This ordinance provided, among other things, that both principal and interest of these Series A bonds would be payable only out of the net revenue of the respondent’s waterworks. It also provided that the interest on all waterworks bonds would be paid out of the net revenue of the waterworks, but, in-event the net revenue of the water works was insufficient to do so, then the interest and the sinking fund due each year on the Series A or the revenue bonds would have a prior lien on the net revenue of waterworks for that year.

■Subsection (7), Section 1, Article I of the present Charter of Kansas City provides that that city shall have the-power, “ (7) To issue, sell, pledge . . . negotiable or' non-negotiable . . . bonds . . . solely upon the credit of income derived therefrom, . .” (that is, from the income of any public utility).

■ The appellant admits that, according to our decision in the recent case of Woodmansee v. Kansas City, 346 Mo. 919, 144 S. W. (2d) 137, there is no doubt that the respondent has the power to issue waterworks revenue bonds payable solely out of the' revenue derived from that public utility, but contends that the part of the ordinance which would give these bonds a prior lien on the net revenue over general obligation water works bonds is void because it violates Section 48, Article III of the City Charter which reads:

“Sec. 48. RATES. It shall be the duty of the Council by ordinance, upon recommendation of the Director of the Water Department, from time to time, to fix, establish and alter prices and rates to be paid for the use of water. Water rates shall be so fixed ás will produce at least sufficient revenue to pay all operating expenses, the interest on all bonds, issued and outstanding, for water works purposes, all maintenance and repair charges, and all costs due to obsolescencé or other causes. All revenue and income derived from the waterworks, after paying all operating expenses, all maintenancé and repair charges, and all costs due to obsolescence or other causes shall be first applied to payment of interest on bonds, outstanding for waterworks purposes, in so far as may be necessary, and the balance thereof shall go to a sinking fund which shall be established to *1198 meet tlie principal of said bonds, or for enlargements, extensions and betterments as the Council may by ordinance provide.”

Appellant contends that the proper construction of this section is that such revenues must be used equally and proportionately to pay all of the Avaterworks bonds of respondent, whether the same be purely revenue bonds or general obligation bonds supported by an unlimited tax levy on all property situated in Kansas City. On the other hand, the respondent contends that such a construction would in effect destroy the right of respondent to issue revenue bonds under Subsection (7), Section 1, Article I of the Charter, because if the revenue bonds do not constitute a first claim on the net revenues of the respondent’s utility against which such bonds are issued, then such revenue bonds Avould be of little A'alue and would be practically unmarketable.

Section 48 is one of several sections of the Charter dealing with the administration of the city’s water department. The manifest purpose of this section is to regulate the operation of the Avater department and to require that such operation be conducted on a businesslike basis, with rates adequate to pay all operating expenses and the “interest on bonds, outstanding for water works purposes, in so far as may be necessary,” and the balance shall go into a sinking fund, thus prohibiting any diversion of the reAmnues of the water department to any other municipal purposes. This section does not undertake to say AA'hat bonds shall have priority, if the revenue is insufficient to pay the interest on all water works bonds. In other words, this section is silent as to whether revenue bonds or general obligation Avater works bonds shall have priority.

However, Subsection (7),-Seetion 1, Article I specifically authorizes the respondent to issue revenue bonds, payable only out of the net revenue of the utility. The respondent therefore, impliedly has the poAA'er to make the net revenue from the utility, or in this instance the Avater AA>urks, a prior lien to paj^ interest and principal on its revenue bonds. Unless the city had this power, the bonds would be practically worthless and of very little market value. A municipality has not only the powers granted in express words but also those necessarily or fairly implied in, or incident to, the poAvers expressly granted. [State ex rel. City of Columbia v. Allen, 183 Mo. 283, 82 S. W. 103; Taylor v. Dimmitt, 336 Mo. 330, 78 S. W. (2d) 841.] AYe hold that the provisions of Ordinance No. 6349 do not violate Section 48 of the Charter.

The appellant contends that Ordinance No. 6349 would deprive the holder of the water works bonds, Fourth Issue, of their property without due process of law. The Fourth Issue Bonds were dated July 1, 1922, and at that time the respondent city was being operated under the 1908 Charter. Section 9, Article XI of that *1199 Charter is practically the same as Section 48, Article III of the present Charter. The only bonds issued under the 1908 Charter are the $11,000,000 general obligation bonds sought to be refunded. The, record shows that neither Ordinance 42,761 authorizing the Fourth Issue Bonds, nor the proceedings thereunder, nor the proposition submitted to the voters and approved by them even so much as mentioned the revenues of the water works. The proposal itself stated that the Fourth Issue Bonds were, to be “other than public utility bonds.” They were general obligation bonds that were to be paid by takes raised by the respondent. The buyers of these bonds understood that they were to be paid by taxes levied by respondent, as did .the voters. Clearly, such cases as George v. City of Asheville, 80 Fed. (2d) 50, and Fazende v. City of Houston, 34 Fed.

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Bluebook (online)
152 S.W.2d 128, 347 Mo. 1193, 1941 Mo. LEXIS 686, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dodds-v-kansas-city-mo-1941.