Protest of Kansas City Southern Ry. Co.

1932 OK 328, 11 P.2d 500, 157 Okla. 246, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 872
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 26, 1932
Docket22626
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 1932 OK 328 (Protest of Kansas City Southern Ry. Co.) 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
Protest of Kansas City Southern Ry. Co., 1932 OK 328, 11 P.2d 500, 157 Okla. 246, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 872 (Okla. 1932).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

The plaintiff in error filed its protest with the Court of Tax Review protesting certain tax levies made in Sequoyah county, Okla., for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1930. After a hearing that court sustained the protest as to some of the items and overruled it as to others. Both the protestant and the protestee appealed to this court.

On its cross-appeal the defendant in error, hereinafter referred to as the protestee, presents but one proposition, to wit, that the Court of Tax Review erred in holding invalid the judgment in what was therein designated as case No. 675, Mildred Watts v. Board of County Commissioners. The judgment roll in that case consists of a “bill of particulars,” with the exhibits thereto, a “waiver of issuance and service of summons, appearance and answer,” and a “journal entry of judgment.” The “waiver of issuance and service of summons, appearance and answer,” with the caption omitted, is as follows:

“Comes now J. A. Taylor, Chairman of the Board of County Commissioners of Sequoyah County, Oklahoma, and waives issuance and service of summons in the above-entitled cause and said board enters its' personal appearance herein, and for answer to plaintiff’s bill of particulars denies each and every allegation set out and contained therein-.
“J. A. Taylor,
“Chairman, Board of County Commissioners of Sequoyah County, Oklahoma.”

By (that instrument the chairman of the board of county commissioners attempted to waive the issuance and service of summons and to enter an appearance for the board of county commissioners. It contained an answer in the form of a general denial. The journal entry of judgment shows that “* * * the court having heard the evidence and by agreement of the parties hereto, finds the issues in favor of the plaintiff, Mildred Watts, and against the defendant, the board of county commissioners. * * *” There is no legal authority for the chairman of a board of county commissioners to waive the issuance and service of summons for the county, as was attempted to be done in this case, or for the county attorney to agree to a judgment against the county, as was recited in the journal entry in this case. Under the rule stated in Re Protest of Gypsy Oil Company, 141 Okla. 291, 285 Pac. 67, and other decisions of this court, the judgment roll shows the purported judgment to be void. Since the judgment is void, it could not be included in the needs of the county for sinking fund purposes, and there was no error in the Court of Tax Review sustaining the protest thereto.

The plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as the protestant, attacks the judgment of the Court of Tax Review on a number of the several items involved. Its contentions are based in part on a decision of this court in Protest of St. L.-S. F. Ry. Co., case No. 21412, opinion filed July 7, 1931. A rehearing has been granted in that cause and the opinion therein is not an authority. [Final decision reported in 157 Okla. 131, 11 P. (2d) 189.]

We think that no good purpose will be served by discussing separately the various items involved herein. We will confine our discussion to legal principles and leave to the Court of Tax Review the application of those principles to the various items protested.

The protestant contends that the several judgments which it had protested, and which protests were denied by the Court of Tax Review, are each illegal and void.

With reference to what is denominated case No. 5441, Gravelle-Hamfolin Co. v. Board of County Commissioners, the Court of Tax Review denied the contention of the protestant that (the judgment is void, on the theory that the trial court had tried the issues presented and that it had not rendered a judgment by confession. The Count of Tax Review refused to permit the protestant to show that no appropriation had been made which could have been the basis of the claim of the plaintiff in that action, on the theory that that issue was litigated in the trial court and that the trial count had determined that an appropriation for that purpose had been made. The basis of the holding of the Court of Tax Review was that the judgment of ithe trial court could not be collaterally attacked before the Court of Tax Review. That holding is correct if the trial court had jurisdiction of the person of the county at (the time it rendered the judgment and if it had jurisdiction to render the particular judgment rendered. The plaintiff in the ease under consideration, in *250 its petition, alleged a copartnership, a written contract between the copartners and the county commissioners! of Sequoyah county to construct a bridge for an agreed price therein stated, the construction of the bridge in accordance with the contract, the payment of a portion of the contract price, and the amount of the balance due. It further alleged :

“That at the time of the execution of said contract there was an estimate made and approved by the county excise board of said county, in the sum of $4,500, to apply on the construction of said bridge and all of the cost over that sum was to be paid out of the funds received by said county from the State Highway Department collected as an excise tax on gasoline. That said estimate of $4,500 for the purpose of applying on (the construction of said bridge was made and approved at the time the material was placed on the ground and the work actually begun on said bridge, by the plaintiff, but for some reason. unknown to the plaintiff the county excise board met and said iitem of $4,500 was stricken from the estimate made and approved for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1926, ending June 30, 1927, all of which, was done after all of the material for said bridge was on the ground and the construction was begun and the action of said county excise board was not discovered by the plaintiff until said bridge was completed and accepted.”

It further alleged therein that a claim for the balance due was filed and disallowed and

“That the county excise board was without authority to strike item of $4,500, made for the purpose of applying on the payment of said bridge, from the general estimate, after the contract for said bridge had been let, and the actual construction begun.”

That petition was .filed on June 23, 1927. An examination thereof discloses that the contract relied upon by the plaintiff (therein, a copy of which was attached thereto as an exhibit, was dated July 19, 1926, and that the plaintiff in the petition alleged that the contract was entered into on the 19th day of July, 1926. There is no provision of law for the making of an appropriation during a fiscal year prior to the first meeting of the excise board during the fiscal year, which, by the provisions of section 9698, O. O'. S. 1921, is on the last Saturday of July. The last Saturday of July, 1926, was after July 19', 1926. As a matter of law, the excise board could not have legally approved an estimate of the county for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 1926, on or prior to July 19, 1926, the date on which the contract was entered into. The “estimate made and approved by the county excise board,” referred to in the petition, must have been an estimate made to and approved by the county excise board during a preceding fiscal year, for, as stated, it could not have been for the current fiscal year. The trial court and the Oourt of Tax Review evidently overlooked that fact.

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 328, 11 P.2d 500, 157 Okla. 246, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 872, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/protest-of-kansas-city-southern-ry-co-okla-1932.