Porter v. Oklahoma City

446 P.2d 384
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 22, 1968
Docket43175
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 446 P.2d 384 (Porter v. Oklahoma City) 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
Porter v. Oklahoma City, 446 P.2d 384 (Okla. 1968).

Opinions

LAVENDER, Justice.

In this original proceeding, William T. Porter, as a resident and taxpayer of the City of Oklahoma City, asks this court to assume original jurisdiction and to enjoin the City of Oklahoma City and the individuals composing its governing body from issuing (a) “Series ‘A’ General Purpose Bonds of 1968” of said city, dated as of October 1, 1968, in the aggregate principal amount of $32,625,000, and (b) “Series ‘A’ Limited Access Facility Bonds of 1968” of said city dated as of October 1, 1968, in the aggregate principal amount of $2,670,000, and (c) “Series ‘A’ Fire Station and Fire Equipment Bonds of 1968” of said city, dated October 1, 1968, in the aggregate principal amount of $365,000.

62 O.S.1961, § 11, adopted in 1910, made the Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma ex officio Bond Commissioner of the State of Oklahoma; 62 O.S.1961, § 13, provides that:

“It shall be the duty of the Bond Commissioner to prepare uniform forms and prescribe a method of procedure under the laws of the State in all cases where it is desired to issue public securities or bonds, in any county, township, municipality or political or other sub-divisions thereof of the State of Oklahoma; and it shall be the further duty of said Bond Commissioner to examine into and pass upon any security so issued, and such security, when declared by the certificate of said Bond Commissioner to be issued in accordance with the forms of procedure so provided shall be incontestable in any court in the State of Oklahoma unless suit thereon be brought in a court having jurisdiction of the same within thirty days from the date of the approval thereof by the Bond Commissioner; ”

and 62 O.S.1961, § 14, also adopted in 1910, provides that “No bond hereafter issued by any political or municipal sub-division of this State shall be valid without the certificate of said Bond Commissioner.”

This proceeding, contesting the validity of these three issues of bonds because of alleged fatal defects in the election held in the City of Oklahoma City on July 16, 1968, authorizing the issuance of the bonds, was commenced in this court within the 30-day period prescribed in 62 O.S.1961, § 13. It was commenced on September 10, 1968, subsequent to the issuance, on the same date, by the Attorney General, as ex-officio Bond Commissioner of the State of Oklahoma, of his separate certificates approving each of the three issues of bonds as being issued in accordance with the Constitution and laws of this State and the forms and method of procedure prescribed by the Bond Commissioner for the issuance of such bonds. Copies of the transcripts of the proceedings with respect to the bonds, examined by the Bond Commissioner, are a part of the record before this court.

[387]*387Those transcripts disclose that the governing body of the City of Oklahoma City, on August 13, 1968, received written bids for the three issues of bonds, and, on August 15, 1968, accepted the bid of Harris Trust and Savings Bank, Chicago, Illinois (and associates) for the “Series ‘A’ General Purpose Bonds of 1968,” and sold that issue of bonds to those bidders, and accepted the bid of The First National Bank and Trust Company, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for the other two issues of bonds and sold them to that bidder; that the successful bid for the “Series ‘A’ General Purpose Bonds of 1968” is conditioned, among other things, upon delivery of the bonds to the bidders at a named bank in the City of New York, New York, “within seventy-five days from the date of sale,” accompanied by a certificate of non-litigation as of the date of delivery of the bonds; and that the successful bids for the other two issues of bonds is conditioned, among other things, upon delivery of the bonds to the bidder, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, “on or before October 28, 1968,” accompanied by a similar certificate of no litigation.

The record before us also discloses that on August 1, 1968, an action, numbered 183,721, was commenced in the District Court of Oklahoma County by S. Dale Rorem, an individual, and Oklahoma Taxpayer’s Association, Inc., a corporation, as plaintiffs against the City of Oklahoma City, a municipal corporation, and the Oklahoma County Election Board, as defendants, alleging that, after the voting at the bond election of July 16, 1968, had been completed and the polls closed and the results of the voting at each polling place in the city certified to the County Election Boards involved, an error was discovered in the printing of the official “ballots” used at the polling places in Oklahoma County, which error caused an incorrect tally of the votes cast at said election on Proposition No. 1 (which involved the Limited Access Facility bonds mentioned above); “that, upon the discovery of the printing error and the incorrect tally of votes as hereinbefore described, persons whose names are unknown to these plaintiffs, but who were within the employment, supervision and direction of the defendant, Oklahoma County Election Board, agent of the defendant, The City of Oklahoma City, made corrections upon the face of the official ballot, thereby altering, defacing and mutilating the official ballot as marked by the voters in said election;” and, based thereon, those plaintiffs prayed that the district court decree said election and the results thereof to be a nullity and a void election, and prohibit the defendant, City of Oklahoma City, from acting upon any alleged authority granted to it as a result of said election.

The record before us also discloses that on August 23, 1968, after considering the stipulations of the parties, the evidence adduced at a hearing held on that date, and the briefs of the parties, the district court found that the issues were “(1) that the election of July 16, 1968, is illegal because ballots used at such election were mutilated, (2) that the election of July 16, 1968, is illegal because it was conducted through the use of voting machines, and (3) that the election of July 16, 1968, is illegal because the certificates posted outside each precinct polling place did not correctly reflect the votes cast in such precinct,” and held that the evidence before the court was not sufficient to constitute a cause of action or entitle the plaintiffs to any judgment against the defendants in the action. It also appears, that those plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial was overruled on September 3, 1968, and they gave notice in open court of their intention to appeal to this court. However, as of the date of this opinion, such an appeal to this court has not been perfected.

The respondents in the present proceeding deny the applicant’s contentions concerning the invalidity of the bond election and of the bonds, and join with the applicant in asking this court to assume jurisdiction and to determine the questions of law raised by the applicant. They also ask that this court, in this proceeding, issue a writ of certiorari to the district judge who tried [388]*388the above-mentioned case No. 183,721 in the District Court of Oklahoma County, commanding him to certify to this court all of the records in that case and all things pertaining thereto, for review by this court, and that this court consolidate the two causes and determine, immediately, all of the questions of law presented, so that, if the bonds are not invalid for any of the reasons asserted by the plaintiffs in the two causes, they may be delivered to the successful bidders within the time specified in their respective bids.

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Porter v. Oklahoma City
446 P.2d 384 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
446 P.2d 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-oklahoma-city-okla-1968.