Ex parte Parsons

18 F. Cas. 1252, 1 Hughes 282

This text of 18 F. Cas. 1252 (Ex parte Parsons) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court for the Eastern District of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Parsons, 18 F. Cas. 1252, 1 Hughes 282 (circtedsc 1868).

Opinion

WAITE, Circuit Justice.

The relator recovered a judgment in this court, November 19th, 1874, against the city of Charleston, upon certain overdue certificates of stock or bonds of the city, issued under the general powers of its charter, but without any special requirement or undertaking, either in the charter, ordinances, or certificates, for the levy of a tax to provide the means of payment. Execution has been issued upon the judgment, to which the marshal returned “that he could find no property subject to said judgment and execution, except such as is in public use.” Payment of the judgment has been demanded of the city and refused. The city council has also been requested to “levy a tax and provide for the collection of the same, to he applied to the payment of said judgment, principal, interest, and costs,” and this, too, has been refused. The city has no property subject to execution. This is an application for a writ of mandamus requiring the city “to provide for the payment of the aforesaid judgment by enacting an ordinance for the levying and collect[1253]*1253ing of a special tax to be paid out and applied” for that purpose. The defence is, in substance, that it is not the duty of the city to make such a leYy, because no special provision for such a tax entered into the contract upon which the judgment is predicated, and there is no power in the city to make the levy. The only question, therefore, presented for our consideration is whether such a mandamus can issue without a provision for a specific tax for the payment of the debt, either in the contract or in some statute of the state or ordinance of the city. The authority of the city to issue the stock and become obligated for its payment was conclusively settled by the judgment which has been rendered, and in which this court followed the decisions of the .highest- court of South Carolina, in Copes v. City of Charleston, 10 Rich. Law, 491, and Gage v. Charleston, 3 Rich. (N. S.) 491.

The supreme court of the United States, at its last term, in Loan Company v. Topeka, 20 Wall. [87 U. S.] 660, held that the power to contract a debt by issuing municipal bonds, or what is the same thing, municipal stock, carried with it, by necessary implication, the power to provide for the payment or redemption thereof by the levy and collection of a tax, unless the contrary expressly appeared. The language of the court is, that “it is to be inferred that when the legislature of a state authorizes a county or city to contract a debt by bond, it intends to authorize it to levy such taxes as are necessary to pay the debt, unless there is in the act itself, or in some general statute, a limitation upon the power of taxation which repels such an inference.” To the same effect are Madison County Court v. Alexander, Walk. (Miss.) 526; Lowell v. City of Boston, 111 Mass. 460; Armstrong v. Perkins, 43 Pa. St. 403, and Armstrong v. Allegheny Co., 37 Pa. St. 290. In the last case the objection was, as- in this, that there was no authority to levy a tax, but the court said, “The authority to create the debt implies an obligation to pay it, and when no special mode of doing so is provided, it is also implied that it is to be done in the ordinary way — by levy and collection of taxes.”

The city of Charleston has, by its charter, granted as early as 1783, “full power and authority to make such assessments on the inhabitants of Charleston, or those who hold taxable property within the same, for the safety, convenience, benefit, and advantage of said city, as shall appear to them prudent” Art .9, sec. 8, of the present constitution of the state, adopted in 1868, provides that “the corporate authorities of * * * cities * * * may be vested with power to assess and collect taxes for corporate purposes; such taxes to be uniform in respect to persons and property within the jurisdiction of the body imposing the same. And the general assembly shall require that all the property, except that heretofore exempted, within the limits of municipal corporations, shall be taxed for the payment of debts contracted under the authority of law.” Chapter 14, Rev. St., provides:

“Section 1. That all municipal corporations created under or by the law's of this state, and vested with power to lay and collect taxes, are authorized and required to assess all property, real and personal, within their corporate limits, at its actual value, and lay all taxes thereon at a uniform and equal rate.
“Sec. 2. That all property, and no other, exempted from taxation by section 6 of chapter 12, shall be exempted from taxation by municipal corporations.”

Thus it will be seen that there is no legislative limit upon the amount of money that may be raised by taxation in the city Ample power is given to levy and collect all that may be necessary to discharge the corporate obligations. And as the general assembly has provided that all property, except that exempted by law, shall be taxed at a uniform and equal rate for all purposes, the constitutional requirements of uniformity and the taxation of all property within the corporate limits for the payment of debts have been complied with. The new constitution did not make additional legislation necessary to authorize a tax to pay a lawful debt. That power has existed since 1783. All it did require was, that provision should be made for placing the tax, when levied, uniformly and with equality upon all the property in the city. This has been done by the Revised Statutes.

We have, then, a case where the duty of the city to pay has been established by a judgment of this court, and where that duty can only be performed by the exercise of the power of taxation which the city possesses. Upon demand made the city has refused to make the payment, and has also refused to levy and collect the necessary tax. We are, therefore, called upon to determine whether this court has the power by its writ of mandamus to enforce the performance of this duty, and thus give effect to its judgment. It is not denied that this power exists where the legislative authority to contract the debt is accompanied by a provision for the levy and collection of a specific tax for its payment. The supreme court of the United-States has many times so decided. Knox County v. Aspinwall, 24 How. [65 U. S.] 376; Van Hoffman v. Quincy, 4 Wall. [71 U. S.] 535; Benbow v. Iowa City, 7 Wall. [74 U. S.] 313; Riggs v. Johnson Co., 6 Wall. [73 U. S.] 166; U. S. v. Keokuk, Id. 514; Supervisors v. Durant, 9 Wall. [76 U. S.] 415; Mayor v. Lord, Id. 409. The same court also held, in Supervisors v. U. S., 4 Wall. [71 U. S.] 435, that the writ could issue in cases where the power to tax was not specially conferred by the act authorizing the contract, but by an independent statute subsequently passed, in the following words: “The board of su[1254]*1254pervisors, under township organization, in such counties as may be'owing debts which the current revenue, under existing laws, is not sufficient to pay, may, if deemed advisable, levy a special tax, not to exceed in any one year one per cent, upon the taxable property in any such county,” to be collected and kept as a separate fund and expended in liquidation of such indebtedness. So, too, in Galena v. Amy, 5 Wall. [72 U.

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Bluebook (online)
18 F. Cas. 1252, 1 Hughes 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-parsons-circtedsc-1868.