Tally v. Board of Supervisors

307 So. 2d 553, 1975 Miss. LEXIS 1826
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 3, 1975
DocketNo. 47825
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 307 So. 2d 553 (Tally v. Board 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
Tally v. Board of Supervisors, 307 So. 2d 553, 1975 Miss. LEXIS 1826 (Mich. 1975).

Opinion

INZER, Justice:

This is an appeal by Joe H. Tally, acting in his official capacity of Superintendent of Education of Smith County, and the Board of Education of Smith County from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Smith County affirming an order of the Board of Supervisors of Smith County relocating the offices of the County Superintendent of Education from the county office building to the courthouse. We affirm.

The order in question was entered by the board of supervisors at its regular June 1973 term and it reads as follows:

The Board having considered the matter of starting a food stamp program in this County and having requested the Director of the County Welfare Department to submit the requirements for a food stamp program and the Director of the County Welfare Department has submitted the requirements in response to said request and based on this report from the said Director and from other evidence this Board finds that it is necessary to have office space to administer this program and since the program will be administered by the County Welfare Department and since the space now oc[555]*555cupied by the County Superintendent of Education is located next to the County Welfare Department and since the Board finds that the County Superintendent of Education should be in the courthouse with other offices, this Board now finds that it would be to the best interest of Smith County, Mississippi for the Justice of the Peace of District No. Four to move from the three offices now occupied by him on the west end of the annex to the courthouse to the office previously occupied by Judge Currie and for the County Superintendent of Education to move to the three rooms on the west end of the Courthouse annex now occupied by the Justice of the Peace of District No. Four; now, therefore
Be it ordered by the Board of Supervisors of Smith County, Mississippi, that the Justice of the Peace of District No. Four of Smith County, Mississippi, move from his present location to the upstairs office on the Southeast corner of the Courthouse and for the County Superintendent of Education to move to the three rooms on the West end of the Courthouse annex now occupied by said Justice of the Peace with the School Board meetings to be held in the Supervisor’s Board room.
Be it further ordered that the office transfers be made within ten days from this date and the Clerk is hereby directed to furnish certified copy of this Order to each of the offices concerned.
Ordered this the 4th day of June, 1973.

A copy of the order in question was served upon the parties involved and on June 14, 1973, the county superintendent of education wrote the following letter to the board of supervisors:

I am taking this means of informing you that, with the support' of the Smith County Board of Education, I decline to obey this order.
It is my information that the minutes of the meeting wherein the said order was made have never been drawn or signed by the president of the Board of Supervisors, as is required by law. Until this has been done the order has no legal effect and cannot bind either me or the Board of Education.
If and when the Board of Supervisors decides to make this action final, please notify my office.

The board of supervisors remained in session until June 20, 1973, when it adjourned, and at that time the minutes were duly signed. After the board adjourned another copy of the order was served upon the parties involved. Thereafter on June 22, 1973, the superintendent of education and the county board of education filed a petition styled “Petition for a Hearing.” On June 28, 1973, the superintendent of education and the school board filed a bill of exceptions with the clerk of the board of supervisors. On June 29, 1973, the president of the board of supervisors refused to sign the bill of exceptions on the ground that the instrument submitted as a bill of exceptions was not a proper bill of exceptions. Thereupon the county superintendent of education and the board of education served notice of appeal on the clerk of the board requesting him to transcribe the complete record including the bill of exceptions and other documents, and to forward the same to the clerk of the Circuit Court of Smith County. The clerk complied with the request and upon a hearing of the appeal in circuit court, a jugdment was entered affirming the order of the board of supervisors. Hence this appeal.

Appellants assert five grounds for the reversal of the judgment of the circuit court. They are as follows :

1. The appellant was denied due process of law because it did not receive adequate notice and a hearing prior to the decision of the board of supervisors.
2. The order is without effect because it was not issued by the board of supervisors in an open and public proceeding.
[556]*5563. The order is void because it is unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious and not based on substantial evidence.
4. The order is void because it is impossible of performance.
5. The board of supervisors is without authority to determine where the board of education shall have its office.

The principal contentions of appellants are that they were denied due process of law in that they had no notice that their rights were being adjudicated, and they were denied a hearing wherein they could present evidence. Appellants’ argument in this regard is based upon the assumption that the board of supervisors was acting in its judicial capacity when it entered the order in question. This makes it necessary to first determine exactly what function the board was performing when it entered the order in question.

It has long been recognized that the board of supervisors is a body which exercises judicial, legislative and executive powers. In the case of Ex Parte Fritz, 86 Miss. 210, 221, 38 So. 722, 724 (1905), it was contended that the board of supervisors was a judicial body and as such could not properly exercise under the Constitution of Mississippi powers of the other two branches of government. In reply to this argument, this Court stated: “It [Board of Supervisors] is not, strictly speaking, a judicial body. Its jurisdiction is now, and has always been, mixed, being in part legislative, in part judicial, and in part executive ”

As we understand the argument of appellants, it is not contended that the board of supervisors does not have the power to control the buildings in question and to allocate office space in the courthouse and in the county office building. We are of the opinion that the board of supervisors does have the power to allocate space in the courthouse and in the county office building, and when it makes such an allocation it is performing an executive function and not a judicial function. In the exercise of this function it was not required to give those affected by the order notice of its intention so to do. Neither were the parties affected thereby entitled to a hearing.

We are not dealing in this case with a dispute between the board of supervisors and individuals, but rather a dispute between state agencies created by the legislature. The board of supervisors is a constitutionally created agency endowed by the legislature with certain powers.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
307 So. 2d 553, 1975 Miss. LEXIS 1826, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tally-v-board-of-supervisors-miss-1975.