Protest of Texas Pipe Line Co.

1930 OK 258, 288 P. 1113, 143 Okla. 177, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 594
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 20, 1930
Docket20512
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 1930 OK 258 (Protest of Texas Pipe Line 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 Texas Pipe Line Co., 1930 OK 258, 288 P. 1113, 143 Okla. 177, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 594 (Okla. 1930).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the Court of Tax Review sustaining the protest of the Texas Pipe Line Company against certain tax levies of Creek county for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1928, alleged to be illegal, excessive, and void.

The protestee appeals' to this court from the judgment on the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grounds of protest.

The protestee’s brief contains the following statement:

“Defendant in error has dismissed, or will dismiss, its protest contained in the said sixth ground of protest, being school district No. 65, so that this matter will not come before this court”

• — and no other reference to the sixth ground of protest is made. The protestant makes no comment thereon. We assume, therefore, *178 that the protestant has abandoned the sixth ground of protest, and in order that the record may be clear, it is ordered that the judgment of the Court’ of Tax Review be reversed as to the sixth ground of protest and the protest as to school district No. 65 general fund be dismissed.

The protestee presents the appeal from the judgment as to the third and fourth grounds of protest, being school district No. 2 sinking fund and school district No. 5 sinking fund, together and says that they present the same question.

This contention was determined by this court in Coggeshall & Co. v. Smiley, 144 Okla. 8, 285 Pac. 48, wherein this court said:

“We cannot approve a reservation of funds derived from a tax for a fiscal year for the purpose of paying a liability that will not arise until the next fiscal year.”

In that case the same suggestion was made as to the difficulty connected with the payment! of in)te¡rest( maturities, and this court said:

“We have heretofore discussed the handling of a surplus, and we do not consider it necessary to engage in a further discussion thereof other than to say that there is ample provision in our statute for handling the interest on bonds so as to avoid the difficulty which defendant suggests. It is a common practice authorized by our statute for the first interest coupon to be made payable at a time far enough in advance of the date of the bonds for tax funds to be available for the payment of the interest. Where a bond is dated July 2, 1929, the first possible levy for the payment of interest would be July 1, 1930, and the tax so levied would not be due until November 1, 1930. If the municipal authorities provide for the maturity of the first interest coupon thereon prior to November 1, 1930, they do so with full knowledge that there will be no funds for the payment of that interest at maturity and the purchaser of the bond does so with the same knowledge. We cannot change the law with reference to fiscal affairs to suit the convenience of individuals. We cannot approve a reservation of funds derived from a tax for a fiscal year for the purpose of paying a liability that will not arise until the next fiscal year.”

In McMahan v. School District, 142 Okla. 110. 285 Pac. 958. this court announced the rule for computing a sinking fund rate of levy.

There was no error in the judgment of the Court of Tax Review as to the sinking fund of school district No. 2 and the sinking fund of school district No. 5, and that judgment is affirmed.

On the fifth ground of protest, being the sinking fund of school district No. 20, the protestee contends that the indebtedness reduced to judgment and included in the sinking fund appropriation was valid, when incurred, and that its validity was not affected by the fact that the existing indebtedness of the school district was, at that time, in excess of 5 per centum of the assessed valuation of the property subject to ad valorem taxation. The protestee says:

“It appears by the admitted facts herein that school district No. 20, Creek county, for sometime has been indebted to an amount equal to 5 per cent, of its assessed valuation; that during such years warrants were issued to the amount of the appropriations made and approved by the excise board, but because of failure of tax collections all warrants were not paid, and judgments were rendered upon such warrants so written and issued within the appropriation made and approved.”

The protestant contends that these warrants

“ * * * do not represent an indebtedness of the municipality, but are only orders drawn against a particular fund payable if and when the cash is available in such fund. If these warrants created an indebtedness against the school district at the time they were drawn, they were invalid because such indebtedness was in excess of the 5 per cent, limitation.”

The judgment of the Court of Tax Review is erroneous in that it failed to give effect to a portion of section 26, art. 10, of the Constitution. A debt was created at the time the contract was made (Buxton & Skinner Stationery Co. v. Board of County Commissioners, 53 Okla. 65, 155 Pac. 215), and being valid at the time it was entered into, is not affected by subsequent conditions. City of Woodward v. Manhire Grate & Equipment Co., 98 Okla. 83, 224 Pac. 356.

Section 26, art. 10, of the Constitution provides, in part:

“No county, city, town, township, school district, or other political corporation, or subdivision of the state, shall be allowed to become indebted, in any manner, or for any purpose * * *”

—and that provision is clear and unambiguous. When we add thereto, “to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year,” we have said in plain and unambiguous language that indebtedness may be incurred *179 to an amount not exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year. The section is in no wise a limitation upon the right to become indebted to an amount not exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for' such year. An examination of more than 130 decisions of this court discloses that this court has never either directly or by inference, held that such an indebtedness may not be incurred. On the other hand, this court has repeatedly held that an indebtedness incurred to an amount not exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, is valid.

Section 26, art. 10, Const., supra, is not a limitation on the power of counties, cities, towns, townships, school districts, and other political subdivisions of the state to become indebted' in any manner or for any purpose to an amount not exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year, and is a limitation on those political subdivisions of the state becoming indebted to an amount exceeding, in any year, the income and revenue provided for such year.

The indebtedness in this case was within the income and revenue provided for the year in which it was contracted, and that indebtedness is valid. When it was reduced to judgment it remained valid, and, being in the form of a judgment, it is subject to payment in the manner authorized by the statutes. An appropriation for the payment thereof and a levy based thereon is valid.

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Bluebook (online)
1930 OK 258, 288 P. 1113, 143 Okla. 177, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 594, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/protest-of-texas-pipe-line-co-okla-1930.