Slayton v. Crittenden County, Ark.

284 F. 858, 1922 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1244
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Arkansas
DecidedDecember 5, 1922
DocketNo. 2102
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 284 F. 858 (Slayton v. Crittenden County, Ark.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Slayton v. Crittenden County, Ark., 284 F. 858, 1922 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1244 (E.D. Ark. 1922).

Opinion

TRIEBER, District Judge.

This is an action praying for a decree against the county for $120,872.50 due on unpaid county warrants or scrip issued by the defendant for the construction of a bridge by the assignors of the plaintiff. The prayer of the complaint is that the judgment be declared a hen on the bridge, and, if the amount awarded is not paid within a time specified, that the Hen be foreclosed. The plaintiff and the county, the latter acting by its county judge and attorneys, filed a stipulation and presented a form of a decree granting the plaintiff a judgment for the amount claimed and costs, appointing a receiver to take charge of the bridge and operate the same as a toll bridge, establishing the tolls the receiver is to charge for the use of the bridge by the public, and in addition enjoining the defendant county from providing any additional bridge or viaduct connecting with the [860]*860Harrihan bridge across the Mississippi river (the warrants having been issued for the erection of a bridge by plaintiff’s assignors, connecting with the Harrihan bridge) until plaintiff’s judgment is fully paid and satisfied.

It will be noticed that the stipulation and the consent decree presented to the court provide for relief that plaintiff does not ask in his complaint. There is nothing in the prayer for relief, nor is there any averment in the complaint, asking for a receiver, or that, if a receiver is appointed, he be authorized to collect tolls; that this court establish the tolls to be charged by the receiver, nor that the defendant county be enjoined from providing any additional bridge connecting with the Harrihan bridge across the Mississippi river.

Plaintiff’s cause of action is based on a contract made by his’ assignors with the defendant county, the material provisions of which, as far as necessary to a determination of the questions to be determined at this time, are contained in a supplemental contract between the parties, executed at the same time the contract for the construction of the bridge was made, and made a part thereof. They read:

“Article 4. It is further agreed and said county does hereby agree and promise to pay the contractor, Ball & Peters, the principal sum and contract price of one hundred forty-seven thousand dollars ($147,000.00) in Crittenden county warrants, without interest, at the times and in the manner here set out and shown. Said warrants, aggregating one hundred forty-seven thousand dollars ($147,000.00), shall be issued in amounts, and become due and payable to the contractor in installments as follows, to wit: [It then sets out the list of warrants.]
“It is hereby agreed and understood that said contractor, or his assigns and successors in interest, will not make demand of said county or its county treasurer for the payments of any of the deferred payments and installments of the contract price above referred to, to be evidenced by future warrants, prior to the time of the date due and for the amounts hereinabove set out and shown. Said warrants shall show dates of their maturity on their face: Provided, however, that if so much as three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) of said contract price shall remain unpaid for thirty days after maturity, then in that event the whole sum remaining unpaid shall become due and payable at the option of the owner of said three thousand dollars ($3,000.00) portion of said debt past due and unpaid, and all warrants shall fall due and become payable at once.
“It is further agreed by said county that the sums of money in the foregoing installment shall be paid promptly at the times and dates above set forth, and that said amount at the proper time shall be voted and appropriated by the quoi-um or levying court of said county and set apart in lawful money out of the county revenue and the special bridge tax fund, which said county hereby agrees to levy and create annually hereafter; but, in event there shall be no special tax revenue available or sufficient for the purpose of paying said sums of money as they fall due, and the county warrants which may be issued to represent and evidence said installments accordingly as any of said warrants are presented to the county treasurer for payment, then and in that event said county hereby agrees to pay said installments and warrants evidencing them, out of the general fund of the county, or any other money in the county treasury not otherwise appropriated, and until said bridge debt shall be fully paid, and said contract and bridge debt, and the warrants representing them, are hereby declared to be a special charge against said special tax fund, and also the general obligation of Crittenden county, Arkansas, and if the road tax shall have been levied and collected after having been voted, it shall be a special charge against such road tax.
“Article 5. And whereas, the contract price and consideration for the-[861]*861erection of bridges by counties in tbe state of Arkansas may be made payable by installments, as provided by law and the decisions of the Supreme Court of the state of Arkansas, by virtue of which statutes and decisions of the Supreme Court the said county has made this contract and ordered the contract price broken into installments falling due and payable at the time and for the sum and in the manner herein provided:
“Therefore, it is further agreed that said county and its county court shall have prepared and signed at the expense of the county, not to exceed the sum of two hundred dollars ($200.00), as evidence of the said several annual installments and representing the said contract price shown herein, a sufficient amount of Crittenden county, Arkansas, bridge certificates and county warrants drawn upon the county treasurer of Crittenden county, Arkansas, and signed and sealed with proper seal by the clerk of county court and attested and countersigned by the county judge. Said warrants and certificates shall be divided into denominations and amounts and have such forms and contain such recitals in their face as provided by law and satisfactory to the contractor. There shall be bridge certificates numbered from 1 to 108, both inclusive, with' proper number of county warrants annexed thereto, being in denominations of $1,000.00, $500.00, $55.00, and $27.50, and one of $1,677.50 of demand warrants as hereinbefore set forth. Said warrants shall not bear interest. They shall be made payable at the office of the county treasurer of Crittenden county, at the city of Marion, Arkansas. Said warrants shall be in form as provided by law, but shall have such recitals in their face as to fully show the purpose of their issues, and shall be signed and sealed as provided by law. Said warrants shall have the following numbers and mature in the installments as follows, to wit: [Here follows a list of the warrants, giving their mimbers, amount, and date of maturity.] All of which foregoing warrants, upon their presentation and surrender at the county treasury, shall be fully and promptly paid in lawful money as any of them shall become due and payable at the times above specified.
“Said warrants, when signed and delivered to the contractor, shall represent the contract price, and shall be delivered to the contractor upon certificates of the commissioners, which certificates shall declare that the said warrants have been respectively earned.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
284 F. 858, 1922 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1244, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/slayton-v-crittenden-county-ark-ared-1922.