Newberry v. Road Improvement District Number 1

245 S.W. 824, 156 Ark. 276, 1922 Ark. LEXIS 312
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 18, 1922
StatusPublished

This text of 245 S.W. 824 (Newberry v. Road Improvement District Number 1) 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
Newberry v. Road Improvement District Number 1, 245 S.W. 824, 156 Ark. 276, 1922 Ark. LEXIS 312 (Ark. 1922).

Opinion

Wood, J.

This is an action brought by the appellants against the appellees. The appellants, after alleging that they are property owners, and setting out a description of the property and the amount of taxes paid by them, respectively, to the collector, further allege that Road District No. 1 of Greene County was created under the Alexander road law, act 338 of the Acts of 1915; that on April 14, 1920, District No. 1 and its commissioners were enjoined by decree of the chancery court from constructing or letting any contract for the construction of any part of the road proposed by the plans of the district from Light, Arkansas, to Rhea Bridge, Arkansas, and from issuing, selling, or delivering bonds for that purpose; that, in violation of such decree, the defendants purported to file with the county clerk of Greene County a tax levy for the purpose of extending against all assessed benefits in said district a tax sufficient to pay interest and principal of an $80,000 bond issue for the purpose of constructing the purported improvements in the district, including the road from Light to Rhea Bridge. The appellants alleged that the tax levy was void for the following reasons:

1. The plans of said district on which said purported assessments were based were null and void and of no effect, being plans for the construction of a road including the road from Light to Rhea Bridge.

2. ' The assessment of benefits against which said tax was levied was null and void because the same was based on illegal plans.

3. Said tax was made and collected for the purpose of paying interest and principal on 15 annual installments on an $80,000 bond issue covering all lands in said district, based on void plans and on void assessments.

4. Said tax levy was for the purpose of paying interest and principal on a bond issue which this honorable court enjoined said district from selling, and which, under present conditions, can never be sold and marketed.

5. Said tax levy is illegal and void for the reason that said district is enjoined from making the improvements contemplated by the plans of the district; and for the further reason that said plans are unlawful, void, and incapable of being- carried out.

The appellants further set up that the collector of Greene County had paid a part of the money collected from them to the treasurer of the county, and that the treasurer was about to pay over the same to the commissioners ; that the district had sold no bonds, owed no interest, and had let no construction 'contracts, and therefore had no need of the money collected from the appellants; that the commissioners contemplated paying out the money on illegal claims and indebtedness. The appellants further set up that the illegal tax was extended against their lands for a period of fifteen years, and that it constituted a cloud on their title, which should be canceled and set aside. The prayer of the complaint was that the collector and treasurer be restrained from paying the money to the commissioners of the district and required to refund to appellants the taxes already paid, and, that the collector be restrained from collecting any future installments levied against appellants’ lands; that the county clerk be enjoined from further extending any levies upon the tax-books, and that the order levying the taxes and extending the same on appellants’ lands be declared null and void.

Attached to the complaint was an exhibit containing the complaint in the case of Sulf v. Road Dist. No. 1, and its commissioners and its exhibits. This complaint set up that the act creating the Tri-County Highway Improvement District provided for the construction of a highway from Harrisburg to Jonesboro via Light and Rhea Bridge; that the Tri-County District had the right to build that part of the road from Light to Rhea Bridge, and that District No. 1 was thereby deprived of that right; that District No. 1 could not carry out its plans to build the roads petitioned for, and therefore could not build the road between Light and Walcott, and prayed that the commissioners be enjoined from issuing and selling bonds and letting contracts to carry out its plans. Among the exhibits was an order of the county court establishing Road Improvement District No. 1 of Greene County, Arkansas, May 28, 1919, after the original order establishing the district had been declared null and void by the Supreme Court on March 24, 1919, in the case of Light v. Self, 138 Ark. 221. This order of the county court described the boundaries of the district, the route of the road, and shows the route to be the identical one described in the case of Light v. Self, supra.

Another exhibit was the decree of the chancery court rendered on the 14th day of April, 1920, which provides in part as follows:

“It is therefore considered, ordered and adjudged by the court that the complaint of plaintiffs, so far as the complaint of plaintiffs seeks to invalidate Road Improvement District No. One of Greene County, Arkansas, is dismissed for want of equity, and that the defendants be enjoined, until the further orders of this court, from constructing or letting any contract for the construction of any part of the road proposed by the plans of defendant district from Light, Arkansas, to Rhea Bridge, until the further orders of this court; that the defendants be enjoined, until the further orders of this court, from issuing, selling or delivering any bonds of said district for the purpose of constructing that part of its proposed road from Rhea Bridge to Light, Arkansas.”

Another exhibit is a resolution of the commissioners of the Road District No. 1 providing that the local assessments shall be paid in successive annual installments of $9,030 each from the year 1921 to the year 1935, and showing an application to the county court for a bond issue in the sum of $80,000, the last issue to become due June 1, 1935. Following this is an application for the levy of taxes and authorizing the issuance of bonds entered August 23, 1920, and an order making ,W. L. Gage and Ben Noblins parties plaintiff.

The appellees entered a general demurrer to the complaint. The court sustained the demurrer in all things except the paying out of the funds arising from the taxes paid by the appellants, and'entered a decree that the “defendants be restrained from paying out any of the funds collected by defendants from the plaintiffs on the lands herein described until the further orders of this court, and the cause as to that feature is hereby continued.” In all other respects the decree dismissed the complaint for want of equity. From this decree both pax*ties have appealed.

1. The facts alleged in the appellants’ complaint show that the appellees were proceeding in the acts s-oecificallv set forth in the complaint in violation of the decree of the chancery court rendered Anril 14, 1920. There is no allegation in the complaint itself that the decree of April 14, 1920, ivas but a temoorax-y injunction agaixxst the appellees from’ proceeding to do the acts of which the appellants here complain.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Light v. Self
211 S.W. 369 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
245 S.W. 824, 156 Ark. 276, 1922 Ark. LEXIS 312, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/newberry-v-road-improvement-district-number-1-ark-1922.