State ex rel. Arrington v. Bd. of Supervisors

73 So. 2d 169, 221 Miss. 548, 67 Adv. S. 109, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 562
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 14, 1954
DocketNo. 39390
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 73 So. 2d 169 (State ex rel. Arrington v. Bd. of Supervisors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Arrington v. Bd. of Supervisors, 73 So. 2d 169, 221 Miss. 548, 67 Adv. S. 109, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 562 (Mich. 1954).

Opinion

Kyle, J.

This case is before us on appeal by the complainant from a decree of the Chancery Court of Perry County dismissing the bill of complaint filed by Lawrence Arrington, District Attorney for the Twelfth Judicial District, for and on behalf of the school districts in supervisors’ districts Nos. 1, 4 and 5 of said county, against the board of supervisors of said county, seeking to compel the board of supervisors to restore certain funds paid over to the county by the state treasurer under authority of Chapter 269, Laws of Mississippi, 1950, and Chapter 195, Laws of Mississippi, 1952, as the county’s share of the moneys received from the Federal Government on account of national forest lands in Mississippi, and alleged to have been wrongfully expended by the board of supervisors, and to compel the board of supervisors to reallocate said funds for expenditure on the public roads of the above mentioned school districts on the basis of the road mileage of each school district.

The record shows that the national forest lands of Perry County consist of 160,253 acres. The lands are situated in supervisors’ districts Nos. 1, 4 and 5, and constitute parts of five consolidated school districts. The school districts referred to are the Janice Consolidated School District and the Deep Creek Consolidated School District, which lie wholly within Supervisor’s District No. 5; the Beaumont Consolidated School District, which lies wholly within Supervisor’s District No. 4; the McLain Consolidated School District, which is a line school district lying partly in Supervisor’s District No. 4 and partly in an adjoining’ county; and the New Augusta Consolidated School District, which embraces and includes all of the territory in Supervisor’s District No. 1 and approximately 15,000 acres of land in Supervisor’s District No. 2. There are no national forest lands in Super[551]*551visor’s District No. 2 or in Supervisor’s District No. 3. The record shows that each of the five supervisors’ districts constitutes a separate road district.

The county’s share of the funds received from the national forest lands for the year 1950 was $17,690.24; for the year 1951, $22,168.70; for the year 1952, $31,900.04; and for the year 1953, $30,378.77. Fifty per cent of the funds received for each of those years was expended for the benefit of the public schools, as provided in Chapter 269, Laws of 1950, and Chapter 195, Laws of 1952. The remaining fifty per cent of the funds received for the year 1950 was expended by the board of supervisors for road purposes in the school districts within which the national forest lands were located. The remaining fifty per cent of the funds received for the year 1951 was divided equally among the three supervisors’ districts (road districts) Nos. 1, 4 and 5, and was expended for road purposes in said districts. The remaining fifty per cent of the funds received for the year 1952 was allocated for expenditure on the public roads as follows: The sum of $900 was allocated to Supervisor’s District No. 2, and the balance of said funds was divided equally among the three supervisors’ districts (road districts) Nos. 1, 4 and 5. The remaining fifty per cent of the funds received for the year 1953 had not been allocated or expended at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint in this cause; and the money was impounded to await the decision of the court on the issues involved herein.

The complainant alleged in his bill of complaint that the fifty per cent of the funds which had been allocated by the board of supervisors for expenditure on the public roads had been arbitrarily divided equally among the three supervisors’ districts (road districts) in which the national forest lands were located, without regard to the law which required that the division be made for the benefit of the public roads of the school districts within which the national forest lands are located, and that the funds should be restored and reallocated for expenditure [552]*552on the public roads in the several school districts on the basis of the number of miles of public roads, other than state maintained highways, in each such district, or on the basis of the number of acres of national forest lands in each such district. The defendants in their answer denied that the law required that the funds be expended for the benefit of the public roads of the several school disti'icts on a mileage basis, or that the funds be apportioned to the several road districts in which the forest lands are located upon the basis of the number of acres of forest lands in each such district.

The cause was heard before the chancellor in vacation upon the pleadings and an agreed statement of facts; and at the conclusion of the hearing the chancellor entered a decree denying the relief prayed for and dismissed the bill of complaint.

Two questions were presented for our decision on this appeal: (1) Whether the chancellor erred in refusing to order that the funds expended by the board of supervisors under the provisions of the above mentioned statutes for the benefit of the public roads, during the years 1950, 1951, and 1952, be restored, or repaid into the county depository, and be reallocated and expended in the several school districts in which the national forest lands are located in proportions according to the road mileage of each such district; and (2) whether the chancellor erred in refusing to order the board of supervisors to apportion the funds allocated for expenditures for the benefit of the public roads, for the year 1953, among the three supervisors’ districts, or road districts, in which the national forest lands are located, on the basis of national forest land acreage in each district.

We think that both of those questions must be answered in the negative.

The contention of the appellant that the national forest land funds allocated by the board of supervisors for expenditure on the public roads during the years 1950 [553]*553and 1951 should have been allocated among the school districts in which the national forest lands were located according to the road mileage in each of the several school districts, and that the funds allocated by the board of supervisors for expenditure on the public roads during the years 1952 and 1953 should have been apportioned to the three supervisors’ districts (road districts) in which the national forest lands are located on the basis of the national forest land acreage in each of said districts, finds no legal basis of support in the Federal statute or the State statutes.

The federal statute, Section 500, Title 16, United States Code Annotated, merely provides that the funds shall be expended “as the State legislature may prescribe for the benefit of the public schools and public roads of the county or counties in which such national forest is situated : Provided, That when any national forest is in more than one state or county the distributive share to each from the proceeds of such forest shall be proportional to its area therein.” Neither school districts nor road districts are mentioned in the federal statute.

The State statute, Section 6044, Code of 1942, as amended by Chapter 269, Laws of 1950, which was in effect during the years 1950 and 1951, provided that the moneys paid to the State by the United States should be apportioned by the state treasurer to the several counties in which the national forest lands were located in proportion to the area of such national forest lands in each; and the statute then provided as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
73 So. 2d 169, 221 Miss. 548, 67 Adv. S. 109, 1954 Miss. LEXIS 562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-arrington-v-bd-of-supervisors-miss-1954.