Rodgers v. Board of Supervisors

75 So. 123, 114 Miss. 326
Mississippi Supreme Court·Decided March 15, 1917·Published

Opinion

Ethridge, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court..

This is an appeal from an order of the chancery court of Union county dissolving an injunction to prevent the issuance' of three hundred thousand dollars worth of county bonds under chapter 173, Laws 1916.

During the year 1910, after the passage of chapter 149, Laws 1910, the board of supervisors of Union county created a road district under said chapter, embracing districts Nos. 1, 2, and 3 of union county, and issued bonds to the amount of fifty thousand which was expended upon the roads of said road district in widening and grading and filling low ..places with common earth. The total bond fund was expended in this work, and the commissioner had been discharged in said district, hut said bonds and interest were outstanding and unpaid at the time of the order issuing the bonds sought to be enjoined in the present case. When the board published a notice to the voters 'of Union county of its purpose to issue bonds under chapter 173, Laws 1916; a protest signed by two hundred and twelve voters was filed protesting against the issuance of said road bonds, there being more than three thousand legal voters in Union county at the said time; consequently less than the number required to order an election petitioned for an election or made protest against' the [328]*328issuance of the bonds, and the board proceeded to order the issuance of three hundred thousand dollars road bonds of the county without ordering an election in the road district created under chapter 149, Laws 1910, during the year 1910. The bill for an injunction alleges that under the law the road district had a right to construct roads of stone, slag, chert, gravel, or sand and clay,, or a combination of said materials or of other material of equity durability, and it is contended that under section 11 of chapter 149, that the board could not issue the new. bonds without submitting the question to the electors of the district created in 1910 and obtaining a consent of the majority of such electors. The exhibits to the bill contain the orders of the board of supervisors, petitions, etc., constituting the proceedings before the board in each of the bond issues, and their answer was filed and a certificate ’ from the chancery clerk showing the assessed value of property for the year 1916 in Union county and certain affidavits showing that there was no stone, chert, slag, gravel, or sand and clay roads constructed under the road district created in 1910, but that the roads were merely improved, widened, etc., by the use of natural earth without mixing in any proportion or according to any formula. In December, 1916, the board, in ordering notice of its intention to issue the bonds under chapter 173, recited that they would issue the bonds not to exceed ten per cent, of the assessed value of the taxable property of the county, including outstanding bonds. The notice given appears by an order of the board to have been irregular in some undisclosed particular, and new notice was ordered published of the board’s intention to issue the bonds, and this newly published notice brought forth the protest of the two hundred and twelve qualified electors. Whereupon the board adjudged that the two hundred and twelve electors did not constitute the required percentage to order an election and proceeded to order the issuance of the three hun[329]*329dred thousand dollar bonds of the county, but the order of the board does not recite what the assessed value of the property of the county was, nor does it recite what the outstanding bonds of the county were. But in the record appears a certificate from the chancery clerk which shows that the assessed value of the taxable property of the county for the year 1916 was three million eighty-four thousand seven hundred and ten dollars, and that the bonded indebtedness of the county, including the three hundred thousand dollars, was three hundred sixty-five thousand dollars; in other words, that outside of the three hundred thousand dollars proposed to be issued there was sixty-five thousand dollars county bonds outstanding. The chancellor dissolved the injunction, and no other relief having been prayed for, final decree was entered denying relief sought.

Section 11 of ■ chapter 119, Laws 1910, reads as follows :

“Nothing in this act shall be taken to repeal any road laws of the state. Counties working the public road by contract or that may hereafter do so shall be authorized to levy and collect a road tax from the whole county including the districts electing to come under this act. Such portion of the proceeds of said tax as would have been necessary to work the roads in such districts hhd they not so elected, shall be subject to the control of the commissioners of. said district to be used therein. But the districts separately taxed to pay principal and interest on bonds for building roads made of stone, gravel, chert, slag, or sand clay, or of a combination of such material or any material equally durable shall not be subject to an additional tax for building such roads in other parts of the county, or for the payment of principal and interest on any county bonds hereafter issued for road purposes, without the consent of a majority of the'qualified electors of said district voting in an election held for that purpose. In counties working con[330]*330viets on the public roads, such convicts shall be worked as far as practicable in cutting down hills and reducing the grade of roads where they will not be subject to frequent and unnecessary removals from one place to another. ’ ’

It will be seen from the above section that the county was authorized, under the law of 1910, to levy and collect road taxes of the whole county, including the district created, but provided that in case the district had constructed roads of the material of stone, gravel, chert., slag, or sand clay, or combination of such material or any material equally durable, such district should not be taxed for building such roads in other parts of the county, or for the payment of the principal and interest on any county bonds thereafter issued for road purposes without the consent of a majority of the qualified electors of said district voting therefor. Inasmuch as it appears from the record in this case that no such roads were constructed under the road law of 1910, this provision of the law of 1910 is not applicable, and does not prevent, or interfere with, the creation of a road dis-. trict composed of the whole county under chapter 173 of the Laws of 1916. Of course, the board will continue to levy the taxes for the payment of the principal and interest of that bond issue,- but there was no necessity for ordering an election so far as this road district is concerned.

This is an appeal to get a construction of the road laws involved. There remains, in our view, one question to be settled, and that is whether the order dissolving the injunction was proper on the facts as they appear in the exhibit to the pleadings and in the record before the chancellor. The notice actually published to the taxpayers preceding the ordering of the issuance of the bonds sought to be enjoined does not appear in the record, but we take it that it is an exact copy of the order at the December meeting ordering notice to the taxpayers. The order of the board by which the bonds [331]

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Rodgers v. Board of Supervisors, 75 So. 123, 114 Miss. 326 (Mich. 1917).

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