In re the Validation of $30,000 Road & Bridge Bonds of 1960

133 So. 2d 267, 242 Miss. 125, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 538
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 25, 1961
DocketNo. 42062
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 133 So. 2d 267 (In re the Validation of $30,000 Road & Bridge Bonds of 1960) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re the Validation of $30,000 Road & Bridge Bonds of 1960, 133 So. 2d 267, 242 Miss. 125, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 538 (Mich. 1961).

Opinion

Rodgers, J.

This litigation came to this Court from the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, Mississippi, where a hearing was had by the Chancellor to determine the validation of two separate bond issues of Neshoba County, one for the use of Supervisors District No. 3 in the sum of $30,-000, and one for the use of Supervisors District No. 5 in the sum of $40,000. The appellants filed objections to the validation of each bond issue in the Chancery Court, and by agreement the applications for validation of the two bond issues and the objections were heard together. The Chancellor made one “finding of fact” but entered two separate decrees validating the bond issue of $30,000 of [129]*129District No. 3 and a decree validating the bond issue for District No. 5 in the sum of $40,000.

The facts on which this appeal are based were stipulated and the issues were submitted to the Court for determination on questions of law.

The record reveals that the Board of Supervisors of Neshoba County, Mississippi, determined that it was necessary to construct roads, and to purchase land for that purpose and build bridges, and it therefore entered two wholly separate resolutions on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors to that effect. In both resolutions notice was given that an order would be entered authorizing the issuance of the separate bond issues unless twenty per cent of the qualified electors objected on or before Thursday, November 10, 1960, at the hour of 9 o’clock A.M. to the bond issue and requesting an election.

The following synopsis will itemize chronologically the meetings of the Board of Supervisors leading to the adoption of the two orders directing the issuance of bonds in Supervisors’ Districts 3 and 5.

OCTOBER MEETING 1960
First Monday, Oct. 3, 1960 Adjourned until tomorrow, Oct. 4.
Tuesday, Oct. 4, 1960 Recessed until Oct. 11.
Tuesday, Oct. 11, 1960 Recessed until Oct. 17.
Monday, Oct. 17, 1960

On October 17, 1960, the Board adopted resolutions declaring its intention to issue bonds of Districts No. 3 and 5 for purposes of constructing, repairing roads, highways, bridges and buying machinery. The Board fixed November 10, 1960 at 9 o’clock A.M. as the time when the orders to issue the bonds would be entered unless objections were filed on or before that time.

[130]*130NOVEMBER MEETING
First Monday, Nov. 7, 1960 Adjourned to Nov. 8
Tuesday, Nov. 8, 1960 Recessed to Nov. 9
Wednesday, Nov. 9, 1960 Recessed to Nov. 10
Thursday, Nov. 10, 1960 Recessed to Nov. 14

On this date petitions were filed objecting to bond issue.

Monday, Nov. 14, 1960 Recessed to Nov. 17
Thursday, Nov. 17, 1960

The Board here entered an order continuing the matter of objection to bond issue to regular December meeting.

DECEMBER MEETING
First Monday, Dec. 5, 1960

Order adjudicating that less than twenty per cent of electors had filed objection and ordered that bonds be issued.

Recessed to Dec. 6, 1960.

On November 10, 1960, the date fixed in the resolutions for the orders to issue the bonds in the two districts, two separate petitions objecting to the issuance of the bonds in the district of the objector were filed by the qualified electors for District 3 and another for District 5. Each of these petitions contained more than twenty per cent of the qualified electors in the respective districts. This fact was not known at the time, and it became necessary for the Board of Supervisors to canvass the poll books to determine the number of qualified electors in each of the districts and to determine whether or not the names on the petitions were qualified electors. The matter was, therefore, continued over to the regular December meeting of the Board of Supervisors. After the petitions were filed objecting to the issuance of the bonds on the tenth day of November, and [131]*131before the matter was heard on December 5, a sufficient number of the objectors who had signed the petition asking for an election, withdrew their names so that after having subtracted the number of persons on the petitions who were not qualified electors in the districts in which they had filed their objection, and the names of the persons who desired to withdraw their objection, the list of objectors did not contain twenty per cent of the qualified electors necessary under the law (Sec. 2926-05, Miss. Code 1942, Rec.) to require the Board of Supervisors to call an election.

After November 10, 1960, but before the final order was entered on December 5, 1960, other and additional qualified electors in Supervisor’s District No. 5 filed additional petitions objecting to the issuance of bonds in District No. 5. It was agreed that, if these additional names were added to the list of names left on the petition after the original petitioners had withdrawn, the total number of qualified electors left on the original petition and the new petition would have been more than twenty per cent of the qualified electors in District No. 5, who were then objecting to the issuance of these bonds in this district.

In addition to the foregoing facts it has also been pointed out that the newspaper misprinted the resolution for the issuance of bonds for District No. 5 so as to show that the District then owed $36,000.00, instead of $36,000.00. In other words, there was a decimal after the figure “thirty-six” rather than a comma. It is also shown that the order and notice printed in the newspaper had the additional words “including a motor grader”, which were not written in the resolution, adopted by the Board of Supervisors for Districts No. 5 and 3.

The questions for determination here are: (1) Is the Board of Supervisors required to stay in session continuously for a period of time not to exceed the allotted days, or may the Board of Supervisors recess from time [132]*132to time, so long as the Board of Supervisors does not sit for a period of days not longer than allotted by law-in any one month; and if the Board of Supervisors may recess from day to day so as to skip a day or days, is it necessary for the Board of Supervisors to set out in its minutes an order giving notice, itemizing each matter of business to be taken up at the recessed meeting during the allotted days in any one month? (2) Can the qualified electors who are invited under Sec. 2926-05, Miss. Code 1942, to file objections, file their objections after the date set out in the resolution for filing of objections, and before the date when the matter is finally determined by the Board of Supervisors so as to be counted among the twenty per cent of the electors objecting under the foregoing law? (3) Is there such a variance between the resolution to issue bonds and the notice and order of the Board of Supervisors by the use of the words “including a motor grader”, as to vitiate the issuance of bonds sought for the purpose of buying road machinery, building roads, etc.? Finally, does the erroneous printing of the notice in the newspaper of the figure $36,000.00 vitiate the order issuing the bonds in District No. 5?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
133 So. 2d 267, 242 Miss. 125, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-the-validation-of-30000-road-bridge-bonds-of-1960-miss-1961.