Railey v. City of Magnolia

126 S.W.2d 273, 197 Ark. 1047, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 327
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMarch 20, 1939
Docket4-5493
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 126 S.W.2d 273 (Railey v. City of Magnolia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Railey v. City of Magnolia, 126 S.W.2d 273, 197 Ark. 1047, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 327 (Ark. 1939).

Opinion

Smith, J.

The court below dismissed as being without equity the suit of appellant, a citizen and taxpayer of the city of Magnolia, in which he sought to enjoin the officials of that city from proceeding, under Ordinance 244 of that city, which ordinance, if valid, authorized an election upon the question of the construction of a municipal hospital.

. This appeal is from that decree, and appellant, the plaintiff below, questions first the action of this court in advancing the cause for submission. The cause affects the public interest, and it has always been the policy of this court to advance such causes for submission.

The second point made is that the ordinance was passed August 23, 1938, and the election which it provided for, to determine whether the city should issue bonds, pursuant to the provisions of the Amendment No. 13 to the Constitution, to erect a hospital, was held September 26, 1938, thus defeating the right to have' the ordinance itself referred to the electorate of the city for approval or rejection.

The ordinance does not authorize the issuance of bonds. It provides that an election shall be held, at which time the electors shall vote upon that question, and requires the affirmative vote of the electors to confer that authority.

The authority to issue bonds for certain designated purposes, and, among others, the erection and equipment of hospitals, conferred by Amendment No. 13, is conditioned upon the submission of that question to the electors of the city, and an affirmative vote upon the subject. The question must be referred to and be approved by the electors before the power may be exercised, so that the election is, itself, a referendum. Campbell v. City of Eugene, 116 Ore. 264, 240 Pac. 418. But it is not essential to the decision of this case to hold that there was no right to have the ordinance authorizing the election to be referred, and we may treat that question as being reserved without changing the conclusion which must be reached.

Amendment No. 7, commonly referred to as the I. & B. Amendment, provides that ‘ ‘ Municipalities may provide for the exercise of the Initiative and Referendum as to their local legislation.” Pursuant to this power there ivas passed, in 1927, an Ordinance No. 167, by the city of Magnolia, which limits the time for filing a referendum petition to thirty days after the passage of any ordinance, and no attempt was made to exercise this power within thirty days after the passage of the ordinance, or at any other time. In view of the fact that only ninety days is allowed after the adjournment of the General Assembly in which to file petitions for referendum on a law statewide in its operation, we cannot say that thirty days is too short a time in which to petition for a referendum on a city ordinance.

The testimony shows very clearly that when Ordinance No. 244 was passed it contained the emergency clause declaring that the ordinance should be in force and effect from and after the date of its passage. It is true the emergency clause did not defeat the right to have a referendum on the ordinance, hut the emergency clause did have the effect of making the ordinance effective from and alter its passage, subject, of course, to the right of the electors of the city to reject it, had they exercised their right of referendum within the time and manner allowed by Ordinance 167 for that purpose, which was not done. Ordinance No. 244, therefore, authorized the holding of the election on the day on which' it was held. Wait v. Hall, 196 Ark. 508, 118 S. W. 2d 853.

It is insisted that the election was not held at the usual voting places, as the ordinance required. There are three wards in the city of Magnolia, and two voting places in Ward No. 1. The elections do not appear to have always been held at the same place in one of the precincts in Ward No. 1. There were three such places where elections had 'been held at one time or another, but all were within a block of each other. ' The last preceding-election in one of the precincts of Ward No. 1 had been held at an office across the street from the Western Union Telegraph Company’s office, but the election here in question was held in the Telegraph Company’s office, and the witness by whom the showing was made that the place of the election had been changed admitted that he had no difficulty in locating the place where the election was in progress. In Ward No. 2 the usual place of holding the elections was in the main court room in the courthouse. The election in question was held in another room on the. same floor of the courthouse, only twelve feet away.

The election in Ward No. 3 was usually held in the rear of the Farmers ’ Bank & Trust Company building. A notice was posted on the door of the room where the elections -were usually held in that ward advising that the election was being held in the City Hall, a block away, and the witness who testified as to this change of place admitted that he had no trouble in finding the place where the election was in progress. There appears to have been no attempt to deceive or prevent any voter from exercising his right of suffrage by misleading or confusing him as to the place of the election. The changes in the places were unimportant.

The case of- Rural-Dale Consolidated School District No. 64 v. Carden, 178 Ark. 257, 10 S. W. 2d 253, involved the validity of a school election which had been held at a place other than that designated by the school directors in the notice of election. In holding that this circumstance did not invalidate the election we quoted from the case of Bordwell v. State, 77 Ark. 161, 91 S. W. 555, as follows: “ ‘Election was not void because, instead of being held at the place lawfully fixed for that purpose, it was held at another place near at hand, if persons attending the latter place could be seen from the former place, and it did not appear that any one was misled.’ ”

It is insisted that the election was ineffective as it was held for the purpose only of determining whether a hospital should be erected, and the ordinance made no reference to its equipment. We think, however, that authority to erect a hospital would imply authority to equip it. A naked building would not be a hospital. It would require the essential equipment to make it such, and authorization to erect a hospital would import authority to equip it. •

It is insisted that the election was ineffective because no definite millage of taxation was voted. But the Amendment No. 13 imposes a limitation upon the tax which may be levied (except for waterworks and light plants) not exceeding five mills. The affirmative vote in this case does not, of course, authorize a levy of not exceeding five mills to erect a hospital and five mills additional to equip it. The building and equipping of a hospital is a single enterprise, and the levy to pay for both cannot exceed five mills. Watkins v. Duke, 190 Ark. 975, 82 S. W. 2d 248. The amendment does not require that the ordinance shall state the millage to be levied, but it does limit the amount which may be voted, and there is no showing of any attempt to exceed this limit.

The title of Ordinance No.

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Bluebook (online)
126 S.W.2d 273, 197 Ark. 1047, 1939 Ark. LEXIS 327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/railey-v-city-of-magnolia-ark-1939.