State ex rel. Umatilla County v. Hawks

222 P. 1071, 110 Or. 497, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 212
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 13, 1924
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 222 P. 1071 (State ex rel. Umatilla County v. Hawks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon 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. Umatilla County v. Hawks, 222 P. 1071, 110 Or. 497, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 212 (Or. 1924).

Opinion

McCOURT, J.

This is a proceeding in mandamus, instituted originally in this court by Umatilla County, acting by and through its County Court, to compel the assessor of that county to enter and apportion upon the assessment-rolls of Umatilla County the sum of $66,976.81 for market road purposes, in compliance with the order of the County Court levying a tax in the above-mentioned sum for the aforesaid purpose and directing the county assessor to extend the tax so levied upon the tax-rolls of Umatilla County, as by law required.

The alternative writ of mandamus, and the return thereto, discloses the facts hereinafter stated.

In 1923 the State Highway Commission, by its annual apportionment of the state market road appropriation, created, established and produced under the provisions of Chapter 431, Laws of 1919', apportioned to Umatilla County from the funds in that appropriation the sum of $66,976.81, which sum Umatilla County was entitled to receive, in the event it provided by uniform levy on all the taxable property of the county for the specific purposes of market road construction during the year 1924, an amount equal to the above-mentioned sum apportioned to the county by the State Highway Commission.

The Budget Committee of Umatilla County, consisting of the County Court and three duly and regularly appointed electors and freeholders of the county, prior to the first day of December, 1923, prepared and adopted, in the manner and form required by law, the annual budget for the county, and set forth therein an estimate of the total amount of money proposed to be raised by taxation upon the real and personal property in the county and expended for all purposes during the fiscal year next ensuing.

[500]*500The budget so prepared and adopted included a specified item of $66,976.81, which the county proposed to levy for the purpose of availing itself of the amount apportioned to the county by the State Highway Commission from the state market road appropriation as above stated, and to expend the same, together with the sum received from the state market road fund, for the specific purpose of constructing market roads within the county. The total amount proposed to be raised by taxation, as shown by the aforesaid budget, was in excess of the tax limitation of the county, as prescribed by Section 11, Article XI of the Constitution, to the extent of approximately $21,000. When completed and adopted by the Budget Committee as above stated, the aforesaid budget was delivered and submitted by the Budget Committee to the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Umatilla County, Oregon, for the consideration of that commission, as required by the provisions of Chapter 142, Laws of 1923.

Thereafter on the first day of December, 1923, the County Court of Umatilla County in regular session adopted a resolution declaring the desire and intention of Umatilla County to avail itself of the state market road law (Chap. 431, Laws 1919), and caused a copy of the resolution to be served upon the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Umatilla County.

After a hearing upon, and consideration of, the proposed budget for Umatilla County, the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of that county made findings and conclusions upon said budget, and the various items cbntained therein, whereby said budget was reduced by the commission in the aggregate sum of $92,591.81, and as a part of the reduction [501]*501of said budget, the commission rejected the item of $66,976.81, included therein for market roads.

On December 4, 1923, the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission, by formal order directed the levying board of Umatilla County to levy a tax upon the real and personal property subject to assessment and taxation within said county, in accordance with the aforesaid findings and conclusions of the commission, for the purpose of meeting the necessary expenditure, which, in the judgment of the commission, should be made for the next ensuing fiscal year, which order, and findings and conclusions upon which the same was based, were by the commission reported back in writing to the levying board of the county, and certified copies thereof were filed in the offices of the' county clerk and county assessor of Umatilla County.

Thereafter on the eleventh day of December, 1923, the County Court of Umatilla County, at a regular term of said court, made and entered an order levying a tax in the sum of $66,976.81 upon all taxable property in Umatilla County for market road purposes to match the amount apportioned to Umatilla County from the state market road fund by the State Highway Commission, and by said order the County Court directed the respondent, as county assessor, to extend the said tax so levied upon the rolls of Umatilla County as by law required. The respondent, as such assessor, refused to comply with said order, and refused to enter and apportion such tax and levy for market road purposes upon the assessment-rolls of Umatilla County, and notified relators that he would not at any time enter and apportion such tax, unless ordered to do so by a court of competent jurisdiction.

The respondent, as assessor, based his refusal to [502]*502enter and apportion the item of taxes in question upon the assessment-rolls upon the following- objections: (1) That the market road law is unconstitutional, for the reason that the title of the act, as enacted by the legislature, contains no reference to the levy of taxes by counties for the purpose of raising funds to construct market roads, or for any other purpose; (2) That the County Court was without authority to levy a tax for market road purposes and the statute prohibited its extension upon the assessment-rolls after the item relating thereto had been rejected by the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission; (3) That the addition of the item of $66,976.81 for market roads to the amount of taxes to be levied for other purposes, produced a total in excess of the tax limitation of the county, as defined by Section 11, Article XI of the Constitution.

Relators, in support of their petition for a permanent writ of mandamus, contend that taxes levied for market and road purposes are, by Chapter 431, Laws of 1919, expressly excepted from the constitutional limitation above mentioned, and that the act providing for Tax Supervising and Conservation Commissions in the several counties of the state (Chap. 142, Laws 1923) is unconstitutional and void, and the acts of the Tax Supervising and Conservation Commission of Umatilla County pursuant thereto are without authority, and null and void.

Considering first the validity of Chapter 431, Laws of 1919, relating to market roads, the bill for that act it appears was adopted by the legislature as other bills are enacted, but it contained an express provision, directing that the act should be referred to the people for their approval or rejection at the next regular or special election to be held throughout the [503]*503State of Oregon. As the act came from the legislature, it was merely a proposed law, and did not become valid or effective as a law until approved by a vote of the people: Section 1, Art. I, Or. Const.

The act was submitted to the voters of Oregon at the special election held June 3, 1919.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Pendleton v. State Tax Commission
3 Or. Tax 238 (Oregon Tax Court, 1968)
Administrator of Veterans' Affairs v. U. S. National Bank
229 P.2d 213 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1951)
Anthony v. Veatch
221 P.2d 575 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1950)
Sprague v. Fisher
203 P.2d 274 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1948)
First National Bank v. Benton County
154 P.2d 841 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1944)
State Ex Rel. Pardee v. Latourette
125 P.2d 750 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1942)
Hansen v. Malheur County
86 P.2d 964 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1938)
Salt Lake Union Stock Yards v. State Tax Commission
71 P.2d 538 (Utah Supreme Court, 1937)
Brugger v. Wagner
297 P. 343 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1931)
Wilmington Trust Co. v. Highfield
153 A. 864 (Supreme Court of Delaware, 1931)
Korth v. City of Portland
261 P. 895 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1927)
State v. Eaton
250 P. 233 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1926)
McLaughlin v. Helgerson
241 P. 50 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1925)
City of Astoria v. Cornelius
240 P. 233 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1925)
State Ex Rel. Kendall v. Mohler
239 P. 193 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1925)
First National Bank v. County Court of Yamhill
222 P. 1077 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1924)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
222 P. 1071, 110 Or. 497, 1924 Ore. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-umatilla-county-v-hawks-or-1924.