Mid-Continent Pipe Line Co. v. Seminole County Excise Board

1944 OK 85, 146 P.2d 996, 194 Okla. 40, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 358
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 15, 1944
DocketNo. 31348.
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 1944 OK 85 (Mid-Continent Pipe Line Co. v. Seminole County Excise Board) 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
Mid-Continent Pipe Line Co. v. Seminole County Excise Board, 1944 OK 85, 146 P.2d 996, 194 Okla. 40, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 358 (Okla. 1944).

Opinions

ARNOLD, J.

This is an appeal by the protestants from a judgment of the Court of Tax Review denying their protests as to tax levies for Seminole county in two school districts, consolidated school district No. 2 and joint consolidated school district No. 4.

As to consolidated school district No. 2, the protestants alleged that the tax levy against the property of said district is illegal to the extent of 1.99 mills provided to pay maturing portion1 of principal and interest on funding bonds dated September 1, 1941, in the total principal sum of $1,755; that said funding bonds were issued pursuant to a judgment of the district court of Seminole county; that the purported indebtedness funded is evidenced by a judgment of the district court of Seminole county which is wholly void because it affirmatively appears on the face of the judgment roll that the court had no jurisdiction to render such judgment because the- plaintiff therein failed to allege or prove, and the court failed to find, that any of the claims sued upon were, at the time the services or materials were furnished as claimed, within the unexpended balance of any appropriation made for the specific purpose thereof or were based on purchase orders or contracts which were, at the time of their execution, within the un-expended balance of any appropriation made within the fiscal year for the specific purpose thereof; further, that said judgment is void on the face of the judgment roll because the public records of said school district and county affirmatively show that no appropriation was ever made for the purposes of any of the claims sued upon and the court was without jurisdiction to find that any sum was lawfully due and the purported finding to the contrary was induced by fraud of the district officers.

*41 As to the judgment entered against joint consolidated school district No. 4, the same character of allegations and contentions are made as to invalidity of the judgment.

The protestants contend that a tax levy, to provide money to retire the principal of and to pay the interest on funding bonds, may be successfully protested where such funding bonds are based upon void or partially void judgments though such protest amounts to a collateral attack upon a judgment of a court of competent general jurisdiction if, as in this case, such invalidity is shown on the face of the judgment-roll; that the public records required to be kept showing the financial status of a municipal subdivision are a part of the judgment roll, and that the refusal of the Court of Tax Review to consider such records, which showed the budgets, appropriations, and unexpended balances of all appropriations of the school districts involved, was error. The further contention is made that the contracts sued upon were not alleged to have been certified as required by statute, were not attached to the petitions nor to be found in the record, and the court made no finding that they were introduced or had been certified as required; that the public records disclose that the required certification could not have been made truthfully, and therefore the judgments must have been procured by fraud.

A proceeding before the Court of Tax Review wherein the validity of a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction is questioned constitutes a collateral attack. It is admitted that the attack herein made is a collateral one.

The contention of protestants that the funding judgments and the bonds issued in conformity with such judgments are void is based solely upon their contention that the money judgments forerun-ning the funding judgments and issue of the bonds were void. We so treat the issue and confine our determination to the question of whether the money judgments were void.

Ordinarily, a party collaterally attacking a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction must allege and prove that such judgment is void on the face of the judgment roll. The presumption exists that such court had before it sufficient evidence to authorize judgment, and that facts necessary to confer jurisdiction were proven. Protest of St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 171 Okla. 180, 42 P. 2d 537; Town of Watonga v. Crane Co., 189 Okla. 184, 114 P. 2d 941. If the court which rendered the judgment had jurisdiction of the person of the defendant, jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action, and jurisdiction to render the particular judgment rendered, its judgment is valid even though the court was mistaken as to the facts, mistaken as to the legal effect thereof, or mistaken as to the law applicable. In such a case the invalidity of a claim against the county does not necessarily make the judgment rendered thereon invalid. See Protest of St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 166 Okla. 50, 26 P. 2d 212; Protest of Gulf Pipe Line Co. of Oklahoma, 168 Okla. 136, 32 P. 2d 42; In re Protest of St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co., 157 Okla. 131, 11 P. 2d 189. Where a political subdivision of the state is sued in a court of competent jurisdiction having jurisdiction of the subject matter of the action, and is brought before the court by proper service of summons and files an answer which contests the claim, and the court renders judgment thereon, usually that judgment, unappealed from, is binding and conclusive upon such political subdivision and upon the taxpayers thereof, subject only to the right to have the same vacated or set-aside in a proper proceeding. Such a judgment cannot be collaterally attacked. Standish Pipe Line Co. et al. v. Oklahoma County Excise Board, 187 Okla. 245, 102 P. 2d 606; Sinclair Prairie Pipe Line Co. v. Excise Board of Tulsa Co., 173 Okla. 375, 49 P. 2d 114; Faught v. City of Sapulpa, 145 Okla. 164, 292 P. 15. See, also, Protest of Kansas City Southern Ry. Co., 157 Okla. 246, 11 P. 2d 500.

In the action to obtain the judgment against consolidated school district No. *42 2 the plaintiff therein set forth six causes of action, and in the action against school district No. 4 the plaintiff set up one cause of action; in each cause of action in both suits it was alleged that at the time the contract was entered into and at the time the goods, wares, and merchandise were sold and delivered or services rendered, there was on hand, duly appropriated, an un-expended amount of money sufficient to pay the claim in full, but that subsequent thereto the funds became exhausted and the claim was disallowed for want of funds. It was further alleged as to each that a certificate of the county clerk of Seminole county, Okla., showing the bonded indebtedness, the legal indebtedness exclusive of the bonded indebtedness, the amount of this claim, and the amount of the appropriation, all as required by chapter 106 of the 1925 Session Laws (62 O. S. 1941 § 362), was attached thereto. Neither the itemized account of the goods sold nor the certificate of the county clerk is attached to the petition now shown in the record.

The defendant school districts answered by way of general denial.

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Bluebook (online)
1944 OK 85, 146 P.2d 996, 194 Okla. 40, 1944 Okla. LEXIS 358, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mid-continent-pipe-line-co-v-seminole-county-excise-board-okla-1944.