Logan County v. Anderson

150 S.W.2d 197, 202 Ark. 244, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 153
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedApril 14, 1941
Docket4-6402
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 150 S.W.2d 197 (Logan County v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Logan County v. Anderson, 150 S.W.2d 197, 202 Ark. 244, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 153 (Ark. 1941).

Opinion

Holt, J.

This cause was tried below on the following agreed statement of facts:

“On March 1, 1937, the county court of Logan county, Arkansas, duly made and entered its order calling in all of the outstanding county road district warrants of Logan county for the purposes authorized by law. Said call-in order and all proceedings incident thereto and in connection therewith were in strict compliance with the law, so far as said call and proceedings apply to the county road district warrants involved in this cause.

“There are twenty-four political townships in Logan county, and, at the time of the issuance of the warrants hereinafter mentioned and set forth and here involved, each political township in Logan county was a separate road disti'ict. The three mill county general road tax, when voted, levied and collected, was duly apportioned to the respective road districts in the county. Each road district was served by a road overseer who was elected by the people in the regular biennial election.

“Claims for work done, services performed and material furnished on roads in the respective road districts were required to be made in conformity with the law in regard to claims against the county; they were required to be duly verified, filed with the county clerk and acted upon by the county court.

“Matt Anderson et al. (appellees), shown on the list hereto attached, complied with the call-in order aforesaid and delivered to the county clerk of Logan county road district warrants of Logan county, Arkansas, for the year, against the district, in the amount and carrying the warrant number indicated in the attached list which is made a part hereof; and the county clerk issued to each his receipt for the warrant so surrendered, the number of the clerk’s receipt also appearing on the attached list.

“The warrants issued, as shown by said list, were for services performed, material furnished or work done on the county roads of Logan county and the claimants' performing said work, rendering services or furnishing material were issued road district warrants of Logan county as shown by the attached list. A majority of said warrants now being owned by parties who were not the original claimants.

“All county roads of Logan county, either lead from farm to market or intersect some road that leads to market.

“Upon examination of said warrants and of other proof the county court on June 1, 1937, canceled said warrants and refused to re-issue the same.

“The county clerk of Logan county preserves all claims filed against the county for a period of ten years without reference to whether the warrants are paid or not, so that the county clerk now has on hand all claims against the county filed within the past ten years, including the claims on which the warrants herein listed and here involved were issued.

“Each warrant issued and each claim on which warrant was issued was in excess of the county and road district revenues for the respective fiscal year indicated. The road districts of Logan county were numbered and did not carry the name of the respective political township. The county officials and all interested parties -knew the number as well as the name of said townships and road districts.

“Specimen copies of claims and orders of allowance thereon, on which the said road district warrants, were issued, are hereto attached and made a part hereof.

“Neither party shall be precluded by this stipulation from making any other, further or additional proof which is deemed necessary and proper for the full development of the-facts in this case.”

Leon Munn, county clerk of Logan county, testified: “Back there when we had road districts in Logan county, we knew, the county clerks knew, the road overseers of the respective townships and road districts and when the road overseer would come in and file a. claim or make out his report, we knew which road district he belonged to and in making the claim out we made it against his' road district, and maybe the county judge would come along and allow this claim and order it paid out of that road district,” and sometimes the county judge ordered these claims paid out of the Highway Turnback Fund.

As indicated the claims, with which we are concerned here, grew out of services performed by the various road overseers, in the various townships of the county, and for supplies furnished. Each claim bears the township road district number, the amount of the claim, the verification, and the order of allowance.

From the order of the county court on June 1, 1937, canceling said warrants and refusing to re-issue them, claimants (appellees here) appealed to the circuit court and upon a trial before the court, sitting as a jury, all parties being present and represented by counsel, the court found that all original warrant holders, or claimants, should receive re-issued warrants for the full amount and be paid in full by the county treasurer “out of any funds in his possession, or coming into his possession for the purpose of paying same,” but that all claimants who were not original warrant holders, should be paid on the basis of 50 per cent, of the amount of the original claim and entered judgment accordingly.

Appellant, Logan county, has appealed and a cross-appeal has been filed by those claimants who are not original claimants.

The contentions of the parties are stated by appellees, in their brief, in the following language:

“In this case, Logan county, the appellant, contends that none of the claims should be paid from the turnback —i.e., it urges that the claims should not be paid at all. It contends that the contracts on which the claims are based were contracts for payment from a particular fund, the Township Road District Fund — that the contracts were made after the fiscal county revenue was exhausted and that under Amendment No. 10 to the Constitution, the contracts were and are void.

“The appellees, who are also the cross-appellants, contend that the claims being bona ficle claims for work done on the fann-to-market roads and payable from the Turnback Fund; that they were erroneously written against the Township Road District Fund and should have been written against the Turnback Fund originally; that the statutes of the state of Arkansas direct their payment from the Turnback Fund and that the circuit court erred in reducing their claims by 50 per cent, when Logan county admittedly received full value. ’ ’

All of the warrants in question were issued in the years from 1926 to 1934, inclusive, and “each warrant issued and each claim on which warrant was issued was in excess of the county and road district’s revenues for the respective fiscal years indicated.”

Constitutional Amendment No. 10 provides: “. . . no county court . . . shall make or authorize any contract or make any allowance for any purpose whatsoever in excess of the revenue from all sources for the fiscal year in which said contract or allowance is made; ? ?

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569 S.W.2d 91 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1978)
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429 S.W.2d 99 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1968)
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338 S.W.2d 672 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1960)
Miller County v. Beasley
156 S.W.2d 791 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1941)
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150 S.W.2d 607 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1941)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
150 S.W.2d 197, 202 Ark. 244, 1941 Ark. LEXIS 153, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/logan-county-v-anderson-ark-1941.