Excise Board of Oklahoma County v. Continental Oil

1935 OK 854, 49 P.2d 540, 173 Okla. 577, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 490
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided September 25, 1935·No. Nos. 26360, 26383, 26384.·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinions

WELCH, J.

One of the questions presented by protests of the taxpayers involves an alleged general fund surplus balance on hand amounting to $158,315.51, which was hot taken into consideration by the school board or the excise board in .fixing the rate of levy, but which the Court of Tax Review found was on hand and should have been so considered.

The determination of this question depends on whether the taxing officials were correct in treating certain unpaid warrants as a liability. The facts are not questioned that the warrants had been issued and remained unpaid. The protestant asserts that the warrants were not legally issued so as to constitute a liability chargeable against the general fund as they were so charged by the excise board.

The facts are that the warrants were issued while a tax protest was pending, and such protest had not yet been finally determined at the end of the fiscal year. However. we must assume in this case, andT’for the purpose of this question, that the warrants were legally issued. There is nothing whatever in the record to show the contrary. Section 12315, O. S. 1931, authorizes the issuance of warrants, pending determination of protests, for certain specified purposes. Protestee asserts that 'all these ¡warrants were issued for those specified and authorized purposes. That is in no manner controverted by the protestant. There is nothing whatever in the record to show that any such warrant was issued for any other purpose. The evidence offered by the protestant merely shows the aggregate amount of all of the warrants issued.

Since the warrants were issued within the appropriation made by the excise board, presumably and apparently for a lawful purpose, and issued with legal authority for such purposes, and within the constitutional limitation, we hold that a protestant desiring to allege the illegality of such warrants as constituting a liability chargeable against the general fund would have the burden of proving such illegality. This the protestant failed to do.

The tax pending protest referred to was decided by this court in Branch v. Excise Board of Oklahoma County, 171 Okla. 585, 43 P. (2d) 90, and the ground of protest here discussed by the parties was in all things denied.

Having concluded that the warrants here involved were legally issued, it follows that the excise board properly considered them as a liability against the general fund, in arriving at the conclusion that there was no surplus balance on hand to the credit of that fund. The Oourt of Tax Review was in error in eliminating these warrants from that calculation, and erred in the resulting conclusion that there was a surplus balance on hand to the credit of the general fund.

*579 The order and judgment of the Court of Tax Review in regard to this item of protest is reversed, and that court directed to deny such item of the protest.

Another question involves the action of the Court of Tax Review in ordering the cancellation of $59,792.45 of appropriations made for purposes authorized and wholly legitimate, and directing that an appropriation equal to that amount be mafle for the purpose of interest on general fund warrants. The protestants in support of the order of the Court of Tax Review in this regard pointed to Morley v. State ex rel. Board of Education, City of Tulsa, 171 Okla. 46, 47 P. (2d) 170, wherein the court emphasizes the fact that it was the duty of the taxing officials to reserve an adequate amount of assets for interest on general fund warrants. AVe are entirely sympathetic with the laudable efforts on the part of the protestants and the Court of Tax Review to procure an appropriation in this regard, but we are unable to find authority of law which justifies the action taken. Relief cannot be had in this regard by resort to the Court of Tax Review.

The Court of Tax Review is a court of special and limited jurisdiction. It is apparent from an examination of the authority granted to it by law that its power is limited to questions which involve only the legality or illegality of a levy and to the making of such orders as are necessarily incidental to the correction of a levy. The order made by the Court of Tax Review which we have under discussion here does not in any wise affect the tax levy. Muskogee County Excise Board v. B. F. Stubbs, 172 Okla. 435, 45 P. (2d) 721. The order and judgment of the Court of Tax Review in this regard is reserved and that court is directed to deny such item of protest.

A further question raised by the protestants involves an alleged general fund surplus balance amounting to $186,133.54, which the taxing officials failed to take into consideration in making the levy. The complaint in this regard is based upon the contention that supplemental appropriations in an equal amount made during the fiscal year 1933-34 were invalid and unauthorized, and that the warrants issued and contracts made in pursuance of said supplemental appropriation were unauthorized, and were, unpaid, and that the money had not actually been spent.

The first ground assigned in support of the contention that the supplemental appropriations were invalid is that section 12680, O. S. 1931, which is the statute governing the making of supplemental appropriations, is unconstitutional as being in violation of section 57, article 5, of the Constitution. Our attention is called to the title of House Bill No. 418 of the 1917 S. L., c. 226, of which section 12680, O. S. 1931, was a part. AVe quote the title as follows:

“An act amending section 7379, Revised Laws of Oklahoma 1910,- providing for an excise board for counties, defining its powers and duties, providing for tax levy on ad va-lorem basis for county, townships, city, towns, school district purposes, and prescribing a uniform system of accounting therefor; and repealing sections 6765, 6766, 6767, 6768, 6769, 6770, and sections 7378 and 7380, Revised Laws of 1910, and amending section 4, chapr ter 80, Session Laws of Oklahoma, 1910-11, providing for the consolidation of county funds, except sinking funds, and for the defraying of all expenses of county and municipal government by appropriations by the excise board.”

It is urged by protestants that prior to 1917, and the passage of House Bill No. 418, supra, there was no provision of law for making supplemental appropriations, and they suggest that the inclusion of what is now section 12680, O. S. 1931, in the act referred to was an entirely new departure from the usual method of making appropriations for the various subdivisions of government. They urge that an examination of the title of the act above-quoted offers no clue or suggestion from which one might conclude that the Legislature intended to deal in the body of the act with the matter of supplemental appropriations. AAre do not agree with the protestants’ contention. It is observed that the title provides for an excise board and for a definition of its powers and duties and “for the defraying of all expenses of county and municipal government by appropriations by the excise board.” A supplemental appropriation is an appropriation as much as an original appropriation. AArhat is now section 12680, O. S. 1931, and which was a part of the body of the act, is nothing more than some of the details of the duties and powers of the excise board in relating to the time, manner, and method of making appropriations. As was said in Johnson v. Grady County, 50 Okla. 188, 150 P. 497, cited by protestants;

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Excise Board of Oklahoma County v. Continental Oil, 1935 OK 854, 49 P.2d 540, 173 Okla. 577, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 490 (Okla. 1935).

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