Orcutt v. McGinley

148 N.W. 586, 96 Neb. 619, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 108
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 1914
DocketNo. 18,011
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 148 N.W. 586 (Orcutt v. McGinley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Orcutt v. McGinley, 148 N.W. 586, 96 Neb. 619, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 108 (Neb. 1914).

Opinion

Hamer, J.

This is an action brought by Albert N. Orcutt, the plaintiff, and now one of the appellants, against James H. Mc-Ginley, the county treasurer of Keith county, the Alfalfa Irrigation District, the First National Bank of North Platte, and others. We will omit a statement of the contents of the pleadings, giving only such parts as may seem necessary to a general understanding of the case.

The plaintiff alleges the ownership of certain land within the Alfalfa Irrigation District, part of which he asserts may not be irrigated. It is his purpose (1) to set this land outside of the district, (2) to cancel the irrigation taxes against the plaintiff’s land for the year 1896 to and including 1909 because of certain alleged irregularities in the issue of the bonds, (3) to cancel the irrigation bonds issued by the Alfalfa Irrigation District of the date of July 1, 1895, in the sum of $22,000, also, to enjoin the different owners of such bonds from asserting any claim, against the district and against the plaintiff’s land on account of such bonds. The Alfalfa Irrigation District was formed in the year 1895. On May 14, 1895, the petition was filed in the office of the county clerk of Keith county looking to the organization of the “Alfalfa Irrigation District.” The boundaries of the proposed district were set forth in the petition. On June 8, 1895, an election was. held, and the district was declared to be organized.’ On July 13, 1895, there was an election to issue $22,000 of the bonds of the district for the construction of irrigation works, said bonds to mature in 20 years from their date.

[622]*622Before any of tbe bonds of tbe district were issued and before any construction fund was created for tbe building of an irrigation canal, tbe defendant W. O. Rogers, on or about August 21, 1896, submitted a bid in writing for tbe construction of tbe canal, and tbe same was let to bim at 8 cents a cubic yard payable in bonds. Tbe board accepted bis bid and entered into a contract with bim to deliver tbe bonds of tbe district in payment for tbe labor and at tbe rate of 8 cents a cubic yard, and thereafter delivered tbe bonds of said district from November, 1896, until some time in 1898. In August, 1895, a special proceeding was instituted in tbe district court for Keith county, Nebraska, by tbe board of directors of tbe said district, in which a confirmation of tbe action of tbe inhabitants of tbe district in organizing and voting and issuing tbe bonds was sought. Tbe validity of tbe organization of the district was challenged, as also its right to issue tbe bonds. On tbe 31st day' of August, 1895, a decree was entered in that proceeding in tbe district court for Keith county finding and adjudging that tbe said Alfalfa Irrigation District was lawfully organized, and tbe bonds issued as tbe law directed. There was an appeal from this judgment. This court affirmed tbe decree of tbe district court, and tbe bonds were declared to be valid obligations of tbe said Alfalfa Irrigation District. Board of Directors of Alfalfa Irrigation District v. Collins, 46 Neb. 411.

After tbe decree of tbe district court confirming tbe organization of the district, tbe then officers of tbe district, M. A. Daugherty, president, and H. C. Anderson, secretary, signed up and held in tbe office of tbe secretary tbe $22,000 of bonds, being tbe same bonds offered in evidence in tbe confirmation suit. On tbe 18th day of September, 1896, tbe said Alfalfa Irrigation District entered into a contract with said W. O. Rogers, by which be (Rogers) agreed to excavate tbe canal under tbe supervision of tbe engineer employed by tbe district. W. 0. Rogers died in March, 1898. Prior to his death be bad constructed tbe canal, and bis work bad been accepted by tbe district and [623]*623approved by its engineer. At- the time of Ms death he was the owner of $14,000 of the bonds. These bonds became the property of his widow and minor children, who are appellees in this case. In the spring of 1898 a contract for an extension or completion of the said irrigation system was entered into by the said Alfalfa Irrigation District with the appellee Elizabeth O. Rogers, the widow of W. O. Rogers. She performed her contract with the district and received from it bonds to the amount of $3,100. From the time of the issuance of these bonds down to 1906 the district made assessments and levied taxes upon land in the district for the purpose of paying interest on these bonds. The name of W. O. Rogers was written on the bonds as payee. The evidence shows that Rogers authorized the bonds issued to be destroyed and new bonds to be issued payable to bearer. The new bonds in the form in which they are now held by the defendant Rogers were executed by the then officers of the district. The new bond issue of $22,000 was printed by order of the officers, bearing date July 1, 1895, and the bonds were signed in the name of the district by the persons ‘‘who were the officers thereof. The said bonds with the coupons thereto attached were disposed of by the officers of the district for labor performed on the ditch. It is not denied that the ditch Avas constructed. It is not denied that water was used in the ditch and was applied by the irrigators. Elizabeth .0. Rogers and her children own of the bonds issued .about $17,500.

On September 4, 1906, William H. Thomas, a citizen and resident of the state of Iowa, began a suit in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Nebraska against the last named appellees and the bondholders, the Alfalfa Irrigation District, the county of Keith, and the officers of the irrigation district charged with the management of its affairs, and the county treasurer of the •said county of Keith. The purpose was to enjoin the district and the officers of the county from levying taxes upon the land in the district to pay the interest on these bonds [624]*624and to require the bondholders to surrender their bonds for cancelation. In the suit it was alleged that the said Alfalfa Irrigation District Avas not properly organized; that the statutory notice was not published in a proper manner; that the boundaries of the district Avere improperly changed; that the' notice of the election was not published as required by law; that the election was not held Avithin the limits of the proposed district; that the proposition submitted was defective because it did not set forth the terms and conditions of the same; that no estimate had been made of the amount of money necessary to construct the canal. The proceeding in the district court to declare the district organized, and which had been affirmed by this court, Avas assailed because of the lack of proper notice and because' the decree of the district court had been obtained by collusion and fraud; that no construction fuu,d had been created by the sale of the bonds at the time the contract was made with Rogers; that the contract made with Rogers contemplated that he should be paid for his work in bonds and not in cash; that the bonds delivered to him and devised to his AvidoAV and children were executed and delivered by the said Alfalfa Irrigation District in payment for the work performed by him under the said contract. There were the same averments respecting the contract with the defendant, Elizabeth 0. Rogers. Similar averments were made respecting the portions .of this issue of $22,600 of bonds not held by the appellees, and that the district court had been guilty of a large number of irregular acts in and about the levying of taxes and the payment of interest on said bonds.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
148 N.W. 586, 96 Neb. 619, 1914 Neb. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orcutt-v-mcginley-neb-1914.