State ex rel. School City v. Swanson

107 N.E. 275, 182 Ind. 582, 1914 Ind. LEXIS 170
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1914
DocketNo. 22,716
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 107 N.E. 275 (State ex rel. School City v. Swanson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana 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. School City v. Swanson, 107 N.E. 275, 182 Ind. 582, 1914 Ind. LEXIS 170 (Ind. 1914).

Opinion

Cox, J.

The relator filed its complaint for mandate to compel appellee as treasurer of Labe County to mabe monthly estimates of the taxes collected by him as ex officio tax collector for relator during each month preceding and to certify the respective amounts to the auditor of the county and to pay warrants to be drawn by such auditor for the sums so certified, as provided by §24 of the public depositories act of 1907 as such section was amended by the General Assembly in 1911. Acts 1907 p. 39; Acts 1911 p. 616, §7545 Burns 1914. Appellee demurred to the complaint for want of facts and in the memorandum which was made a part of the demurrer asserted the facts alleged were insufficient for the reason that the part of the amended section involved in the action violated certain constitutional limitations and was therefore void. The lower court yielded to appellee’s contention and sustained his demurrer. That ruling is assigned as error in this appeal.

It is provided by §24 of the depositories act, supra, that “All public funds paid into the treasury of the state, counties, cities and towns and school cities and school towns shall be deposited daily in one or more designated depositories in the name of the state, county, municipality, or school corporation by the officer having control thereof.” It is also provided in that section “That all taxes collected by the county treasurer shall be deposited as one fund in the several depositories selected for the deposit of county funds, and except as hereinafter provided, shall so remain until the same is distributed at the following semiannual distribution made by the county auditor.” The same section contains [584]*584the further provision “That every county treasurer who, by virtue of his office, shall be the collector of taxes for any city, town, school city or school town, within his county, shall on the first day of each calendar month, make an estimate of such taxes so collected by him for each such city, town, school city or school town, respectively, during the preceding month and certify the respective amounts to the auditor of such county, and the auditor of such county shall thereupon draw his warrants upon such county treasurer in favor of such city, town, school city or school town for the respective sums so certified which warrants shall be delivered by such auditor to such respective cities, towns, school cities or school towns through the city controller, if any, and if not then to the city or town clerk, and upon the presentation of such warrants to the county treasurer he shall promptly pay the same to the treasurer of such city, town, school city or school town, which respective sums shall be immediately available for the use of such city, town, school city or school town pending a full settlement with the county 'auditor at the time of his next regular semiannual distribution of funds.”

Section 15 of the act as the same was amended in 1909 (Acts 1909 p. 437, §7536 Burns 1914), provides for proposals from concerns qualified to act as depositories to receive on deposit the funds respectively of the State, a county or any public corporation and fixes the rates of interest which shall be paid on such deposits and “That all interest so earned shall be added respectively to the tuition fund of the township, general fund of the state, city and town, county fund of the county, and to the tuition fund of the school city or school town, except in all cases interest on school fund shall be applied to tuition revenue” and “interest derived from the funds of a state educational institution, shall be added to the fund from which it is derived.”

Sections of the act preceding §15 contain specific provisions for boards of finance, for depositories and for deposit[585]*585ing the funds respectively of the State, and the counties, cities, towns, townships and school corporations of the State.

In support of the ruling of the lower court holding the facts averred in appellant’s complaint insufficient to state a cause of action appellee contends that the last provision of §24 set out above, and on which the right to the mandatory relief which appellant is seeking depends, is discriminatory class legislation, special and local in its nature and not of uniform operation. Counsel specifically claim that this provision. is violative of that clause of §2 of Art. 4 of the Federal Constitution which relates to privileges and immunities ; that it defies §23 of the Bill of Rights of our State Constitution which forbids the General Assembly to grant special privileges or immunities; that it ignores the restrictions §22 of Art. 4 of our State Constitution which forbids special and local laws in certain enumerated cases in that it is a special and local law for the assessment and collection of taxes, for the support of the common schools and for the preservation of school funds and in relation to interest on money all of which are forbidden by that section as subjects for local or special legislation; and finally that the provision infringes §23 of Art. 4 of our State Constitution which requires that in all cases where a general law can be made applicable all laws shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State.

The objections urged against the constitutional validity of this provision are all based almost wholly on the assumption that as §24 also provides that all taxes collected by a county treasurer shall be deposited as one fund in a depository selected for the deposit of county funds, all such taxes become, while so deposited and until separation and distribution of them at a time fixed by law, a part of the funds of the county and that interest collected thereon from the depository for the time they are so held before distribution, must go to the general fund of the county in obedience to the provision of §15, supra, that interest earned by funds de[586]*586posited by a county in its depository shall be added to the general county fund. Prom this premise it is argued that while the taxes levied by a civil township, or a school township, and collected by the county treasurer must, under the law, remain in the general fund of the county until the semiannual settlement and the interest earned thereon during the time between the collection and the semiannual settlement go to the county, on the other hand, under the terms of that provision of §24, supra, which is assailed, a city or town, or school city or school town is given the right to withdraw the taxes levied by it and collected by the county treasurer on the first of each month after collections have been made, deposit in its own depository the sums so withdrawn and so secure to itself interest earned thereon prior to the semiannual settlement. So, it is earnestly contended, an arbitrary and unreasonable discrimination favorable to citizens of cities and towns and school cities and school towns and against citizens of townships and school townships appears in the application of the law. And, so, too, it is claimed it is thus made a special and local law and one lacking in uniform operation.

1.

Section 2 of Art. 4 of the Federal Constitution which is first called into service in the assault on the law in question has so obviously no application to the question involved that it requires no further consideration than a reference to the wording of that constitutional provision. It does not profess to control the power of the state government over the rights of its own citizens.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
107 N.E. 275, 182 Ind. 582, 1914 Ind. LEXIS 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-school-city-v-swanson-ind-1914.