McClellan v. Guerra

258 S.W.2d 72, 152 Tex. 373, 1953 Tex. LEXIS 472
CourtTexas Supreme Court
DecidedMay 6, 1953
DocketA-3776
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 258 S.W.2d 72 (McClellan v. Guerra) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Texas Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClellan v. Guerra, 258 S.W.2d 72, 152 Tex. 373, 1953 Tex. LEXIS 472 (Tex. 1953).

Opinions

Mr. Justice Smith

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Respondent, H. P. Guerra, plaintiff below, filed this suit against the petitioners, alleging that certain expenditures of county funds were being made in contravention of the Uniform Budget Law, Articles 689a-9 - 689a-12, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes. Respondent’s prayer for a temporary injunction was denied. On appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals, the order denying the temporary injunction was reversed with instructions to the trial court to issue a temporary injunction restraining petitioners from paying out sums of money not provided for by the 1951 budget of Starr County adopted on September 11, 1950.

The original order refusing the temporary injunction was signed on August 15, 1951. The trial court had before it the original budget adopted September 11, 1950, and an amendment to the budget adopted January 11, 1951. The court did not have before it an amendment to the budget which was adopted on August 16, 1951. The Court of Civil Appeals refused to consider the latter amendment for the reason that it was not a part of the record, but instructed the trial court to grant the temporary injunction “without prejudice to the right of appellees (petitioners) to urge the legality of the August 16,1951 order amending the budget as the basis of a motion to dissolve the temporary injunction, or urge the same as a defense to appellants’ suit upon a trial of the merits.” 243 S. W. 2d 715.

On November 26, 1951, the trial court granted a temporary injunction “commanding said defendant’s and each of them to desist and refrain, until final trial and judgment herein, from paying out sums of money for 1951 obligations and indebted[376]*376ness which are not provided for by the 1951 budget of Starr County, adopted on September 11, 1950. This order is entered without prejudice to the right of said defendants to urge the legality of the August 16, 1951 order amending the budget as a basis of a motion to dissolve this temporary injunction or urge the same as a defense to plaintiff’s suit upon a trial of the merits of this cause”. On November 26, 1951, petitioners filed a motion to dissolve the temporary injunction alleging in part: “On August 16, 1951, the Commissioners’ Court of Starr County, Texas, acting in accordance with the provisions of law, duly and properly amended the budget of said county for the year 1951, and said amended budget authorizes the payment of all salaries and other items of expense involved in this suit and there is now no legal justification for any injunction against these defendants within the pleadings before the court in this cause * *

On November 30, 1951, the motion to dissolve the temporary injunction was granted, and on appeal, the Court of Civil Appeals reversed the trial court and granted an injunction that “during the pendency, of this suit, the appellees and each of them are hereby enjoined from paying out any sums of money upon 1951 obligations of Starr County not provided for in the original budget for the year 1951, adopted on the 11th day of September 1950 * * A dissenting opinion was filed by Chief Justice W. 0. Murray, 250 S.W. 2d 241. This Court has granted a writ of error.

It is apparent that the trial court dissolved the temporary-injunction on- the theory advanced by petitioners that “tax-monies collected as a result of the levy of-county taxes for the' year 1951, irrespective of when they are collected, constitute ‘current revenues’ for the year 1951”. Respondent contends that the Constitution and budget and tax' laws forbid petitioners creating even' current expenses in anticipation of the ad valorem taxes to be collected in October, November, and December, 1951, and that these taxes are to be used for 1952 operations and are not “current revenues” for the year 1951.

Article XI, Section 7-, Texas Constitution, provides in part that

“*■* * no debt for any purpose shall ever be incurred in any manner by any city or county unless provision is made at the time of creating the same, for levying and collecting a sufficient' [377]*377tax to pay the interest thereon and provide at least two per cent as a sinking fund; * * *”

Article 689a-9, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes, provides that the county judge of each county shall serve as budget officer for the Commissioners’ Court, and shall, during the month of July of each year, assisted by the County Auditor or by the County Clerk, prepare a budget to cover all proposed expenditures of the county government for the succeeding year, and Article 689a-9 further provides that

“* * * such budget shall be carefully itemized so as to make as clear a comparison as practicable between expenditures included in the proposed budget and actual expenditures for the same or similar purposes for the preceding year. The budget must also be so prepared as to show as definitely as possible each of the various projects for which appropriations are set up in the budget, and the estimated amount of money carried in the budget for each of such projects. The budget shall also contain a complete financial statement of the county, showing all outstanding obligations of the county, the cash on hand to the credit of each and every fund of the county government, the funds received from all sources during the previous year, the funds available from all sources during the ensuing year, the estimated revenues available to cover the proposed budget and the estimated rate of tax which will be required.”

Article 689a-10, Vernon’s Annotated Civil Statutes reads:

“When the County Judge has completed the budget for the county, a copy of it shall be filed with the clerk of the County Court, and it shall be available for the inspection of any taxpayer.”

Article 689a-ll reads as follows:

“The Commissioners’ Court in each county shall each year provide for a public hearing on the county budget — which hearing shall take place on some date to be named by the Commissioners’ Court subsequent to August 15th and prior to the levy of taxes by said Commissioners’ Court. Public notice shall be given that on said date of hearing the budget as prepared by the County' Judge will be considered by the Commissioners’ Court. Said notice shall name the hour, the date and the place where the hearing shall be conducted. Any taxpayer of such county shall have the right to be present and participate in said [378]*378hearing. At the conclusion of the hearing, the budget as prepared by the County Judge shall be acted upon by the Commissioners’ Court. The Court shall have authority to make such changes in the budget as in their judgment the law warrants and the interest of the taxpayers demand. When the budget has been finally approved by the Commissioners’ Court, the budget, as approved by the Court shall be filed with the Clerk of the County Court, and taxes levied only in accordance therewith, and no expenditure of the funds of the county shall thereafter be made except in strict compliance with the budget as adopted by the Court. Except that emergency expenditures, in case of grave public necessity, to meet unusual and unforeseen conditions which could not, by reasonably diligent thought and attention, have been included in the original budget, may from time to time be authorized by the Court as amendments to the original budget. In all cases where such amendments to the original budget is made, a copy of the order of the Court amending the budget shall be filed with the Clerk of the County Court, and attached to the budget originally adopted * * *.”

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McClellan v. Guerra
258 S.W.2d 72 (Texas Supreme Court, 1953)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
258 S.W.2d 72, 152 Tex. 373, 1953 Tex. LEXIS 472, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclellan-v-guerra-tex-1953.