Protest of St. Louis-S. F. Ry. Co.

1932 OK 356, 11 P.2d 189, 157 Okla. 131, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 815
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 3, 1932
Docket21412
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 1932 OK 356 (Protest of St. Louis-S. F. 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 St. Louis-S. F. Ry. Co., 1932 OK 356, 11 P.2d 189, 157 Okla. 131, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 815 (Okla. 1932).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

We have here for consideration an appeal from the Court of Tax Review of the state of Oklahoma. There are two propositions submitted for our consideration; the first is the protest of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, a corporation, against alleged illegal and excessive tax levies for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1929, and ending June 30, 1930, by the county excise board of Lincoln county, state of Oklahoma. Petitioner alleges that of said levy for sinking fund purposes, .2063 mills thereof was made by the county excise board for the purpose of paying a portion of judgments and interests on judgments hereinafter particularly described, to wit;

To Whom Court

Issued No. Date Amount Interest Principal.

H. G. Olsen 9602 10-1-27 $ 450.00 $ 68.25 $ 150.00

J. W. Cherry 9657 5-12-27 469.80 88.08 156.60

Jas. Lowe 9650 6-27-29 11,518.05 691.08 3,839.05

M. Sloan 9688 6-27-29 1,230.25 73.81 410.08'

Total $13,668.10 $921.22 $4,555.73.

*132 Petitioner further alleges that each and all of said judgments were rendered upon purported claims, but that each and all of said judgments, and the claims upon which they were based, were wholly illegal and void for the following reasons, to wit:

“(a) Because each of said claims was issued without any appropriation having been provided therefor, or without any fund existing at the time of the attempt to. incur said claim, to pay for the same, and, hence, such claims were wholly forbidden by section 26, art. 10, of the Constitution of Oklahoma and the statutes of Oklahoma, enacted in pursuance of and declaratory of the purposes and limitations of section 26, art. 10 of the Constitution.
“(b) Petitioner further alleges that chapter 106, page 154, of the Session Laws of 1925, specifically withholds from any court jurisdiction to render judgment upon any claim or warrant issued by any municipality of the state of Oklahoma, unless and until proof of the following described fact, as provided by said statute, shall be made to the court, and the statement shall be made out and filed under oath by the officers having custody of the records involving-such claim and fund, showing the following-facts :
“ T. An itemized statement of the bonded indebtedness of said municipality.
“2. An itemized statement of the legal indebtedness of said municipality, exclusive of the bonded indebtedness and the alleged indebtedness proposed to be converted into a judgment.
“3. An itemized statement of the indebtedness proposed to -be converted into a judgment, so classified as to show, i-n separate exhibits, all items of questionable legality, if any, and the reasons of said officer or officers therefor:
“ ‘(a) The appropriations against which each warrant was drawn or claim accrued if in judgment, and if within the limits and purposes thereof as provided by law;
“ ‘(b) The income and revenue provided for the respective years, consisting of taxes levied and the actual collections of “estimated income” ; the total warrants issued agginst the same or the accumulated accruals as the case may be, and the amount, if any, in excess of the total income and revenue of the year;
“ ‘(c) The condition of each fund from which such indebtedness is payable as of the close of the month next preceding the filing of application.’
“Petitioner alleges that at the time of the hearing upon said purported claims, and at the time of the' rendition of said pretended judgments, and each of them, no such proof was submitted to the court, and no such statement as required by chapter ii06, page 154 of the Session Laws of Oklahoma, 1925, was prepared under oath or filed, and hence, the court was wholly without jurisdiction to enter any judgment upon any of such pretended claims, and such judgments were, each of them, under the specific provisions of section 3 of said chapter 106 of the Session Laws of 1925, as well as under the provisions of section 26, article 10, of the Constitution of Oklahoma, and the statutes declaratory thereof and supplementary thereto, wholly void and of no effect, and- by reason thereof said coun-' ty excise board was wholly without jurisdiction, under the premises, to authorize any levy for the purpose of paying any part of the principal or interest of said judgments, and said levy for sinking fund purposes was, by reason thereof, illegal and void to the extent of .2063 mill, and should be reduced by the court.”

The petitioners then allege that certain persons, naming them, are the owners and holders of said judgments, and allege that they are necessary parties to the action in the Court of Tax Review and should be made parties. Relative to the second proposition, the allegations of the protest are practically the same as relate to the first proposition, except in the second proposition it is alleged that the judgments were rendered upon warrants issued within the appropriation for the years 1928 and 1929, alleging, however, that the court did not have jurisdiction to render judgment upon the warrants until proof was made in compliance with the provisions of chapter 106, Session Laws 1925.

The county excise board of Lincoln county .filed and presented in the Court of Tax Review a demurrer to each of the two items of the protest hereinabove mentioned, which demurrer was by the Court of Tax Review sustained, and the protestants elected to stand upon their protest and bring the case here for review. It will be noted that nowhere in the protest is it alleged that the judgment rolls of Lincoln county show upon the face thereof that the judgments upon the claims or the judgments upon the warrants were v-oi-d or that the claims were in excess of the constitutional limitations, but it seeks in a collateral way to attack the judgments of the district court of Lincoln county, Okla., which is a court of general jurisdiction.

All presumptions are in favor of the validity of judgments of courts of general jurisdiction. Thomason v. Thompson, 123 Okla. 218, 253 P. 99. When a court of competent *133 jurisdiction has rendered judgment in relation to any subject within its jurisdiction, the presumption arises that it had before it sufficient evidence to authorize it to award such judgment, and where facts are required to be proved to confer jurisdiction, that such facts were duly proved, although the record was silent upon the matter. Kehlier v. Smith, 112 Okla. 183, 240 P. 708. Unless the record affirmatively shows want of jurisdiction, and every fact not negatived by the record is presumed in support of the judgment of a court of general jurisdiction, and where the record of the court is silent upon the subject, it must be presumed in support of the proceedings that the court inquired into and found the existence of facts authorizing it to render the judgment which it rendered. Bowling v. Merry, 91 Okla. 176, 217 P. 404; Hawkins v. Bryan, 128 Okla. 27, 261 P. 167; Orth v. Hajek, 127 Okla. 50; 259 P. 854; Greer v. McNeal, 11 Okla. 519, 69 P. 891; Hocker v. Johnson, 38 Okla. 60, 131 P. 1094.

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 356, 11 P.2d 189, 157 Okla. 131, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/protest-of-st-louis-s-f-ry-co-okla-1932.