Fuselier v. State Market Commission

249 So. 2d 569, 259 La. 185, 1971 La. LEXIS 4192
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 7, 1971
DocketNo. 50882
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 249 So. 2d 569 (Fuselier v. State Market Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fuselier v. State Market Commission, 249 So. 2d 569, 259 La. 185, 1971 La. LEXIS 4192 (La. 1971).

Opinions

SUMMERS, Justice.

Plaintiff, Harvey Fuselier, a citizen and taxpayer residing in Acadia Parish, brought this class action attacking the constitutionality of Act 172 of 1969 which authorizes the State Bond and Building Commission to borrow money and issue bonds therefor, the funds thus derived to be made available to the State Market Commission for a loan to Crowley Grain Drier, Inc. and others. Defendants are the State Market Commission, its Chairman and Secretary; the .State Commissioner of Agriculture and Immigration, an ex-officio member of the Commission; and Crowley Grain Drier, Inc., a business corporation organized under Louisiana law. The suit seeks to enjoin defendants from utilizing bond proceeds to be issued under authority of the Act for the purpose of making a loan to Crowley Grain Drier, Inc.

Defendants filed an exception of no cause of action which the trial court sustained. On appeal to the Third Circuit that court noticed that the State Bond and Building Commission was an indispensable party who should be joined in the action. La.Code Civil Proc. art. 646. The trial court judgment was, therefore, set aside, and the case was remanded to permit the plaintiff to amend his petition to make the State Bond and Building Commission a party. 231 So.2d 652 (La.App.1970).

On remand, by supplemental petition, the State Bond and Building Commission was made party defendant and an exception of no cause of action was again filed by all defendants and maintained by the trial court. A second appeal was taken to the Third Circuit where the trial court judgment was reversed. 238 So.2d 243 (La.App. 1970). We granted certiorari on application of defendants. 256 La. 852, 239 So.2d 357 (1970).

The State Market Commission was created in 1940 (La.R.S. 3:401, et seq.) to implement the constitutional mandate directing the legislature to enact laws fostering agriculture and immigration and preventing the spread of pests and disease injurious to plants and domestic animals. La.Const. art. 6, § 14. Article IV, Section 12-b of the Constitution was adopted in [189]*1891944 to enlarge the power and authority of the Commission, giving that body the authority to make loans as follows:

The State Market Commission shall have the power and authority to lend or underwrite, participate in or guarantee the repayment of twenty-five (25%) per centum of any loan made by any bank, financial institution or Federal agency for the purchase, expansion, improvement or construction of any agricultural plant, which, in the judgment of said Commission, may provide additional facilities for the processing, marketing, distributing or storing of agricultural products of the State, to the end that agricultural products of the state may be better preserved and marketed, and the Legislature is authorized to make such appropriations as it may deem necessary to effectuate the provisions of this paragraph. (Emphasis added.)

Acting upon this authorization the legislature enacted Act 113 of 1944 (La.R.S. 3:410) setting out in broad terms the conditions under which the loan transactions authorized by the constitution would be undertaken. Insofar as pertinent here, the Act provides:

To encourage the construction, expansion, improvement, or betterment of agricultural plants for the processing, marketing, distributing, or storing of agricultural products, the commission may:
(1) Lend or advance to any person, firm, corporation, partnership, or association of this state engaged in the operation of any agricultural plant as is described in this Section, a sum not in excess of twenty-five per centum of the amount to be expended for the expansion, improvement, or betterment of the plant and for any such loan the borrower shall execute a note payable to the commission within such time and on such terms, together with such endorsement and security, as the commission may require.

Thereafter the contested Act 172 of' 1969 (See Appendix) was enacted authorizing the State Bond and Building Commission to borrow money and issue bonds or other obligations in an amount not exceeding two million dollars, the bond proceeds to be made available to the State Market Commission for use in accordance with Act 113 of 1944 (La.R.S. 3:410) as authorized by Article IV, Section 12-b of the Constitution. Included within the Act was a provision that all proceeds of the bonds were to be deposited in the State Treasury by the State Bond and Building Commission to be made available to the State Market Commission to carry out its-purposes under Act 113 of 1944 (La.R.S. 3:410) and Article IV, Section 12-b of the Constitution for certain enumerated projects, included among which was $40,000 for a rice drier at Crowley, Louisiana.

[191]*191Purportedly acting pursuant to the foregoing constitutional and statutory authority, the Commission adopted a resolution on December 13, 1966 approving a loan to Crowley Grain Drier, Inc., in the sum of $40,000 for building a rice drier in Crowley which would cost in excess of $200,000. Proceeds of the bonds to be issued under authority of Act 172 of 1969 were to be used for the purpose.

This is the action which plaintiff Fuselier seeks to restrain, asserting several grounds to support his attack on the constitutionality of Act 172 of 1969 authorizing the borrowing of money and issuance of bonds from which the funds for the loan to Crowley Grain Drier, Inc. are to be derived.

I.

First, plaintiff contends Act 172 of 1969 is unconstitutional, for it transcends the grant of power in Article IV, Section 12-b of the constitution authorizing the legislature to make “appropriations” for the Commission to carry out its purposes. This authorization to make “appropriations” for funds to be used by the Commission does not, it is contended, carry with it an authorization to the legislature to borrow funds and issue bonds for the Commission’s use as Act 172 of 1969 purports to do.

The issue is, therefore, whether the incurring of debt and allocation of bond proceeds under Act 172 of 1969 constitutes an “appropriation” as that word is used in Article IV, Section 12-b, and, further, whether this incurring of debt and allocation of bond proceeds is a “specific appropriation made by law” as required by Article IV, Section 1 of the Constitution requiring that:

No money shall be drawn from the treasury except in pursuance of specific appropriation made by law; nor shall any appropriation of money be made for a longer term than two years. A regular statement and account of receipts and expenditures of all public moneys shall be published every three months, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.

As we understand the constitutional authorization (La.Const, art. 4, § 12-b), loans made by the State Market Commission- are to be made on the basis of “appropriations” by the legislature. This means, first, that the loan must be made in “pursuance of specific appropriation made by law” (La. Const, art. 4, § 1), that is, the legislature must designate the purpose and amount of each loan with sufficient particularity to properly identify the use to which the funds are to be put. Carso v. Board of Liquidation of State Debt, 205 La. 368, 17 So.2d 358 (1944). In short, an appropriation is the setting apart of public moneys by legislative vote or enactment to be applied to specific objects of public expenditures.

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Bluebook (online)
249 So. 2d 569, 259 La. 185, 1971 La. LEXIS 4192, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fuselier-v-state-market-commission-la-1971.