Lowden v. Excise Bd. of Pottawatomie County

1936 OK 364, 57 P.2d 609, 176 Okla. 646, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 289
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 28, 1936
DocketNo. 26933.
StatusPublished

This text of 1936 OK 364 (Lowden v. Excise Bd. of Pottawatomie County) 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
Lowden v. Excise Bd. of Pottawatomie County, 1936 OK 364, 57 P.2d 609, 176 Okla. 646, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 289 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

GIBSON, J.

The excise board of Pottawatomie county made an appropriation for the county highway fund for the fiscal year 1935-1936 and included therein the sum of $42,200.17, representing a balance in the hands of the county treasurer at June 30, 1935, to the credit of the emergency investment fund. This balance accrued between July 1, 1933, and May 13, 1935, from ap-portionments of revenues, from motor vehicle license fees and the excise tax on gasoline, made to the county and placed in the emergency investment fund under authority of chapter 137, S. L. 1933. Plaintiffs in error, protestants below, protested the action of the defendant in error, protestee below, in including within the highway fund appropriation the above-mentioned balance, and contended that the balance should be transferred to and used in the sinking fund, thereby reducing the levy for the same.

From a judgment in favor of the excise board the taxpayers has appealed. The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the trial court.

The county emergency investment fund was created by chapter 137, S. L. 1933. Section 1 of the act reads as follows:

“Section 1. That one-half of all moneys apportioned to each county of the state on and after the first day of July, 1933, from motor vehicle license fees and the excise tax on gasoline, under existing laws, which has heretofore been apportioned to the several counties for the construction, maintenance and repair of county roads and highways shall be placed to the credit of a fund to be known and designated as the ‘County Emergency Investment Fund,’ and shall be invested under the direction of the county treasurer as hereinafter provided/

Section 2 of the act directs how the funds shall be invested, and reads as follows:

“Section 2. That the county treasurer of ieach of the several counties of this state, in order that the required governmental functions may be carried on, is hereby authorized, empowered and directed to use all moneys collected and deposited in the said ‘County Emergency Investment Fund,’ in the order hereinafter designated, or in the order that may be prescribed by the county excise board as hereinafter provided, and no part of the fund shall be used for the second or any succeeding designated purposes until the next preceding requirement shall have been satisfied, ,as follows:
“First: For investment in outstanding *647 legally issued nonpayable county warrants, at not to exceed par, and accrued interest, if any, which have theretofore been issued against appropriations for tbie current fiscal year, and that the same shall be deemed to be satisfied at the end of each month upon purchase of all such warrants as are presented for investment. - «
- “Second: For investment in outstanding legally issued nonpayable - county warrants, at not to exceed par .and accrued interest, which have theretofore been. issued against appropriations for any previous fiscal year, whether or not such warrants have been reduced to a judgment against the county; provided, that when any moneys in said fund have been used, to pay judgments rendered against any county on account of unpaid warrants, as herein provided, it shall be the duty of the proper - officers of any such county to make the levies necessary to pay such judgments the. same as if they had not been paid out of such fund; and when so levied and collected such moneys shall be used to reimburse the said fund as provided in section 3 of this’ act. Provided that warrants issued after "March 1, 1933, shall be given priority under-this subsection; As to all other unpaid and outstanding warrants, they shall be taken up by investment, as herein provided, in the ..order of their registration as provided in section 5951, Oklahoma Statutes 1931, upon notice by the treasurer of ten (10) days, inr the manner provided by said section; and, if the holder of any warrant, or warrants,'' fails to present the same within the time- specified, the available funds shall be used for investment in other outstanding warrants in the next order of their registration as provided in said section. And provided further, after the investment in warrants as above provided, additional funds may be invested in judgments based upon warrants as provided in this act.
“Third: For payment, into the sinking fund, so far as necessary, for the purpose of paying the accrued and accruing interest and principal of outstanding bonds issued for the construction of roads and highways; and any amount so used shall reduce, by a corresponding amount, the annual ad valorem levy made for the purpose of retiring such county highway bond indebtedness and interest thereon.
“Fourth; For payment, monthly, into the county highway construction and maintenance fund, to be expended therefrom as provided by law, in all cases where all such outstanding warrant, judgment or bond indebtedness has been paid, or where there is no such outstanding indebtedness, in which event, the provisions of this act shall not apply.
“Provided, further that the county excise board may, by proper order, direct the county treasurer to change the order of the three (3) first purposes above designated.
“No part of said fund shall be invested in the warrants of any other county than the county to which the moneys were first apportioned.”

The automobile license tax is levied and collected by the state under authority of section 10271, O. S. 1931, as amended by section 3, chapter 113, S. U. 1933. A portion of the tax so collected was apportioned to the counties of the state by section 10288, O. S. 1931, as amended by section 10, chapter 113, S. L. 1933. ’

Section 12551, O. S. 1931, as amended by section 3, chapter 111, S. L. 1933, imposed an excise tax on gasoline, and section 12527; O. S. 1931, amended by chapter 126, S. L. 1933, and by section 1, article 10, chapter 66, S. L. 1935, established the rate of tax. A part of the gasoline tax so collected was apportioned to each county of the state by section 12535, O. S. 1931, and its .use in the construction of county and township roads and permanent bridges was expressly -provided for in said act. ’ •

The Emergency Investment Fund Act did not contain any specific reference to the aforesaid acts; but by its terms it provides for a different apportionment of the automobile license tax and the gasoline excise tax from that provided for in the cited sections.

The County Emergency Investment Fund Act remained in force and effect until April 15, 1935, when the same was amended by article 3, chapter 35, S. L. 1935. The amendments therein contained are not material to the question under consideration.

On May 14, 1935, chapter 137, S. L. 1933, as amended by article 3, chapter 35, S. L. 1935, was repealed by section 1, article 3, chapter 50, S. U. 1935, which reads in part as follows:

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Related

Delaware County Excise Board v. St. Louis-S. F. R.
1935 OK 852 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)
Gallion v. Excise Board of Oklahoma County
1935 OK 202 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 364, 57 P.2d 609, 176 Okla. 646, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 289, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowden-v-excise-bd-of-pottawatomie-county-okla-1936.