Kurn v. Helm

1938 OK 179, 77 P.2d 552, 182 Okla. 260, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 127
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 15, 1938
DocketNo. 26862.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1938 OK 179 (Kurn v. Helm) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kurn v. Helm, 1938 OK 179, 77 P.2d 552, 182 Okla. 260, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 127 (Okla. 1938).

Opinions

HURST, J.

Newman Helm, county treasurer of Pushmataha county, invested certain funds in his custody and control in nonpayable warrants theretofore issued by said county. Two classes of funds were so invested: (1) County sinking funds; and (2) county emergency funds accruing under the provisions of chapter 137, Sess. L. 1933. Collections from ad valorem taxes and other sources were insufficient to pay the warrants in which said funds were invested. Thereupon the county treasurer commenced this action against the board of county commissioners to reduce said warrants to judgment.

J. M. Kurn and John G. Lonsdale, trustees of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, as taxpayers, asked and obtained leave to intervene and defend in their own behalf and in behalf of other taxpayers. The county attorney, at the suggestion of the court, filed a general denial. Principal defense was made by intervening defendants.

Judgment was for plaintiff on substantially all the warrants, including those held in the county sinking fund and in the county emergency investment fund, with interest. On those warrants held in the county sinking fund, interest was allowed by the trial court at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from the date of registration of the warrants to the date of judgment. Interest on the warrants held in the county emergency investment fund was allowed at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from the date of their registration to the date of purchase by the county treasurer in the said county emergency investment fund. Intervening defendants appeal, making the county treasurer and the board of county commissioners defendants in error.

We will first consider the correctness of the judgment of the trial court as to the warrants held in the county sinking fund.

No contention is made that the county treasurer does not have the authority to bring an action on the warrants held by him in the sinking fund. His right to do so is settled by the case of City of Wilburton v. King (1933) 162 Okla. 32, 18 P.2d 1075.

It is first argued that interest upon outstanding general fund warrants of a municipality cannot be charged or collected in the absence of an existing and adequate appropriation therefor. This contention is based on section 26, art. 10, of the Oklahoma Constitution. In making this contention, defendant urges that the obligation to pay interest is contractual in nature, and is governed by the rule that a contractual indebtedness in excess of the appropriation, or in the absence of an appropriation therefor, is invalid. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co. v. Excise Board (1934) 167 Okla. 414, 30 P.2d 171, and Graves v. Board of Commissioners of Cimarron County (1934) 170 Okla. 282, 39 P.2d 532. Defendant further urges that the rule announced in the case of Smartt, Sheriff, v. Board of Com’rs of Craig County (1917) 67 Okla. 141, 169 P. 1101, is inapplicable. With this latter contention we agree, since we do not believe the rule announced therein applicable hereto. The facts in the case at bar disclose that for some of the fiscal years in question, no appropriation at all for interest on warrants had been made, and in others the appropriation made therefor was insufficient to cover the interest accrued on the warrants.

*262 The rule applicable to this case is well stated in MeQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Revised vol. 6, section 2383:

“Interest is not a debt, within the meaning of debt limit provisions, until it is earned and becomes due. And in determining whether an indebtedness will be created in excess of the debt limit, unearned interest cannot be added to the principal. The authority granted by the Constitution or statute to contract a debt refers to the amount of the debt at the date at which it is created, and has no reference to the amount of interest which will accrue thereafter.”

It' is not contended by defendant for the purpose of this assignment that the principal amount of the warrants sued on was not based on claims which were within an appropriation for such purpose at the time of the contraction of the obligations, and consequently same are valid obligations. In re Protest of Texas Pipe Line Co. of Oklahoma (1930) 143 Okla. 177, 288 P. 334. As such, and since they were registered non-payable, they draw 6 per cent, interest as a statutory incident thereto. (Section 5951, O. S. 1931.) Ashland v. Culbertson, 103 Ky. 161, 44 S. W. 441. It cannot be said that the amount of the interest must be within an appropriation for that purpose, since under the rule stated by MeQuillin, section 26, article 10 of our Constitution, has no reference to the amount of interest that will accrue after the creation of the principal obligation.

Although the question of the legality of allowing interest was not discussed in the case of Murrell v. City of Sapulpa (1931) 148 Okla. 16, 297 P. 241, plaintiff’s judgment for principal and interest on warrants was affirmed. The facts in that case clearly disclose that no appropriation had been made for interest on warrants. The case does, however, rely on the rule that if at the time the contract was made, the indebtedness created thereby, together with all previous valid indebtedness, did not exceed the income and revenue of the county provided for such year, the claimant will be entitled to judgment for the amount of his claim. This is in accord with our view of the ease, and although not decided in the Murrell Case, suprá, it is apparent that the court believed interest to be an incident of the debt and not within the purview of section 26, article 10, of our Constitution.

We have often held that warrants and certificates of indebtedness may be issued to the full amount of the appropriation or estimate made and approved by the excise hoard. Blake v. Abraham (1931) 149 Okla. 112, 299 P. 488; Board of Com’rs of LeFlore County v. Central National Bank (1936) 177 Okla. 11, 57 P.2d 257. We have likewise held that an appropriation for interest need not be made in a separate item, but that same may be made in the particular item of appropriation against which a warrant is issued. Morley v. State ex rel. Board of Education of City of Tulsa (1934) 171 Okla. 46, 47 P.2d 170. These holdings recognize that interest payments are not limited to a definite appropriation for that purpose, since, otherwise, warrants could not be issued to the full amount of the appropriation, if part of the appropriation for a particular item is for interest.

This conclusion is further substantiated by our holding' in St. L.-S. F. Ry. Co. v. Choctaw County Excise Board (1935) 173 Okla. 312, 48 P.2d 312, wherein we held that at the end of a fiscal year, in determining' the amount of valid unsettled contracts made during such year and the amount necessary to liquidate such contracts, the amount of interest on outstanding warrants that has accrued and will probably accrue in the future may be added to the ■ principal amount of such warrants; and the amount calculated for such interest is not necessarily governed by the amount of a prior appropriation which may have been made therefor. The court pointed out that the accrued interest on warrants is a valid obligation. This was so even though the interest may have exceeded an appropriation therefor. It follows, therefore, that such interest is a valid obligation even though no appropriation had been made therefor, since, if section 26.

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Bluebook (online)
1938 OK 179, 77 P.2d 552, 182 Okla. 260, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 127, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kurn-v-helm-okla-1938.