State ex rel. City of Carthage v. Gordon

116 S.W. 1099, 217 Mo. 103, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 269
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMarch 9, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 116 S.W. 1099 (State ex rel. City of Carthage v. Gordon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. City of Carthage v. Gordon, 116 S.W. 1099, 217 Mo. 103, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 269 (Mo. 1909).

Opinion

BURGESS, J.

This is an original proceeding by mandamus to compel the respondent to register waterworks bonds of the relator, the city of Carthage, Missouri, in the sum of $220,000, dated April 1, 1908, and bearing interest at the rate of five per cent per annum, payable semiannually on the first day of April and October in each year, said bonds to wholly mature within the period of fifteen years.

The relator is a city of the third class, having a population of about twelve thousand, and its present indebtedness, exclusive of the bond issue in controversy, is $40,534.37.

On the 28th day of January, 1907, the city council of said city passed an ordinance, numbered 873, providing for an election to authorize the incurring of an indebtedness of $220,000 to be used for the purpose of erecting a waterworks system, and to authorize the issuance of bonds in- that amount, to bear a rate of interest not exceeding five per cent, and the levy of a tax to pay the interest thereon, and to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal; said bonds to be payable in twenty years from date, with option of the city to pay specified amounts in five, ten, and fifteen years.

Section 5' of said ordinance provided that the mayor give at least fifteen days’ notice of said election, and the proposition to be submitted thereat, by proclamation, to be published in the paper doing the city printing, and by notices posted in three public places in each ward of the city, specifying the amount of the debt, the length of time for which said bonds should run, the rate of interest, the object and purpose thereof, and the day on which said election should be held and the place of holding the same.

In due time a proclamation was issued by the mayor giving notice of the election, and it was published in the Carthage Evening Press, which was then doing the city printing, but no notice or proclamation [111]*111was posted in any of the wards of the city, although such was provided for by said ordinance. Said published notice recited that the bonds were to bear “a rate of interest not exceeding five per cent per annum, payable semiannually,” but it did not recite the fact that an ordinance authorizing the election had theretofore been passed. The election was held March 25, 1907, in accordance with said notice, and the proposition submitted was favored by more than two-thirds of the votes cast.

On July 22, 1907, the city council passed an ordinance (No. 909), authorizing ánd directing the execution of $220,000 waterworks bonds bearing interest at the rate of four and one-half per cent per annum, payable semiannually, providing for a levy of taxes sufficient to pay the interest and to provide a sinking fund for the payment of the bonds; and on the same day another ordinance was passed providing for a tax levy of seventy-five cents on each one hundred dollars assessed valuation, for the purpose of providing for the interest and the sinking fund.

Thereafter, on December 24, 1907, the council adopted, and the mayor approved and signed, the following resolution:

“On motion it was ordered that the collection of tax for payment of interest and principal of waterworks bonds be stopped, and that repayment be made to such persons as have paid such tax of the amount paid thereof, for the reason that said bonds have not been sold and issued.”

On February 24, 1908, an ordinance was passed amending the original ordinance (No. 873), which amendment directed the issuance of $220,000 bonds bearing date April 1, 1908, said bonds to bear interest at the rate of five per cent per annum, payable semiannually, and on July 27, 1908, the council adopted another amendment providing for a tax levy sufficient to meet the payment of the interest at the increased [112]*112rate of five per cent, and also the sinking fund. On August 7, 1908, the council passed a general levy ordinance (No. 1018), section 5 of' which provided for a levy of forty cents on each $100 assessed valuation, for the purpose of creating a sinking fund and paying the semiannual interest on said bonds, but, again, on September 18, 1908, said city council adopted resolution No. 222, directing that said levy be not enforced for the reason that said bonds had not been sold.

The bonds were issued under date April 1, 1908, and thereafter, in November, 1908, they were presented to the State Auditor for registration, who refused to register them. In his return, the respondent, as grounds for his refusal to register the bonds, assigns the following:

First. Because no notices of the election were posted in the various wards of the city of Carthage, although the ordinance authorizing the election specifically prescribed that such notices be so posted.

Second. Because the notice published in the newspaper did not specify the rate of interest that the bonds should bear, but instead provided that the interest should be “a rate of interest not exceeding 5 per cent per annum, payable semiannually,” although the ordinance specifically required that the rate of interest should be specified.

Third. Because neither the ordinance, proclamation nor notice designated the newspaper in which the notice should be published, nor did the notice recite that an ordinance authorizing the special election had been theretofore enacted.

Fourth. Because no provision was made at any time for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on the indebtedness as it falls due, and to constitute a sinking fund for the payment of the principal, although section 12, article 10, of the Constitution specifically requires same.

[113]*113Fifth. Because relator had practically abandoned the issue of the bonds before presenting same to be registered, and because the -delay in so presenting same to respondent was unreasonable, and cannot now be said to represent or declare the will of the voters.

Sixth. Because the assessed valuation of the taxable property of relator was at the time of the election $3,306,934, and by reason thereof relator was authorized by the Constitution to issue bonds in an amount not exceeding $171,507.55, whereas the amount of this issue is $220,000.

limits petition the relator states that the assessed valuation of the taxable property of the city, in the year 1906, for the taxes of 1907, was $3,306,934, and that the assessed valuation in 1907, for the taxes of 1908, was $3,430,051.

Relator filed its motion in this cause for judgment on the pleadings, notwithstanding the respondent’s return, and insists that, although section 5 of ordinance No. 873' provides for notice not only by publication in a newspaper but also by notices posted in three public places in each ward of the city, notice of the election, given for fifteen days previous to such election, by publication in the newspaper published in the municipality, was a compliance with the statute, section 6351, Revised Statutes 1899, and therefore sufficient, and that the provision of the ordinance requiring the posting of notices in three public places in each ward of the city, in addition to the statutory notice, was superfluous and unnecessary to be complied with.

Section 6351, Revised Statutes 1899, provides: “For the purpose of testing the sense of the voters of any incorporated city, town or village, upon a proposition to become indebted or to increase the debt thereof, .. . the council, trustees or other proper au[114]

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Bluebook (online)
116 S.W. 1099, 217 Mo. 103, 1909 Mo. LEXIS 269, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-city-of-carthage-v-gordon-mo-1909.