Texarkana-Forest Park Paving, Water, Sewer and Gas District No. 1 v. State Use Miller County.

74 S.W.2d 784, 189 Ark. 617, 1934 Ark. LEXIS 11
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJune 11, 1934
Docket4-3517
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 74 S.W.2d 784 (Texarkana-Forest Park Paving, Water, Sewer and Gas District No. 1 v. State Use Miller County.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texarkana-Forest Park Paving, Water, Sewer and Gas District No. 1 v. State Use Miller County., 74 S.W.2d 784, 189 Ark. 617, 1934 Ark. LEXIS 11 (Ark. 1934).

Opinions

Johnson, C. J.

Appellant, Texarkana-Forest Park Paving, Water, Sewer and Gas District No. 1 was organized under and by authority of act 183 of 1927, which act was amendatory of act 126 of 1923 as amended by act 645 of 1923; Subsequent to the organization of appellant district, the General Assembly passed act 63 of 1931, the effect of which was to levy a one-cent tax upon all gasoline sold in this State for the benefit of county public roads as distinguished from State roads; the act of 1931 further provided, in effect, that the State Treasurer, prior to disbursing the funds to the respective counties, as provided therein, shall deduct the amount required to pay 75 per cent, of the maturing bonds and interest of all bonds issued by road improvement districts issued since February 4, 1927. The act of 1931 expressly provides in § 6 thereof that all districts organized under act 126 of 1923 and amendments thereto shall come within its purview and application.

On October 1,1931, pursuant to the provisions of act 63 of 1931, the State Treasurer deducted from Miller County’s allotment under said act a sum sufficient to pay 75 per cent, of the maturing bonds and interest of appellant district, and subsequent thereto made similar deductions and allotments in favor of appellant district and asserted his intention of continuing said deductions and allotments. Thereupon the State, for the use and. benefit of Miller County and J. J. Sewell, as county judge of Miller County and in his own right as a citizen and taxpayer thereof, instituted this suit in the Pulaski Chancery Court against Boy V. Leonard, State Treasurer, and appellant district praying a permanent injunction against the State Treasurer restraining and enjoining him from making any deductions from Miller County’s allotment under act 63 of 1931 in aid or for the benefit of appellant district. This suit progressed to trial and decree on March 23, 1934, and the court determined therein that the prayer of appellee’s complaint should be granted, and this appeal is therefrom.

Act 183 of 1927, under' authority of which appellant district was organized, is unconstitutional and void for the following reasons: Act 126 of 1923 as amended by act 645 of 1923 by its mandatory provisions applied to and had effect only in and to Pulaski County. Section 24 provides: “This act shall be operative only in counties with a population exeeediixg seventy-five thousand inhabitants, as shown by the last Federal census.”

In virtue of the section of the act just quoted, it and the amendment thereto of 1923 applied only to Pulaski County because Pulaski County was the only county in Arkansas in 1923 which contained the requisite seventy-five thousand population. So it was from the date of the passage of act 126 of 1923 until the passage of act 183 of 1927. Section 1 of act 183 of 1927 pimvides:

“Section 24 of act No. 126 of the Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas of the year 1923 is hereby repealed.”

The effect of § 1 of the act 183 of 1927 was to repeal § 24, act 126 of 1923; thereby making act 126 of 1923 and the amendments thereto apply to all counties of the State.

Act 183 of 1927 contains eight sections only. Section 1 is heretofore quoted. Section 2 amends § 25 of act 126 of 1923, which has to do only with the application of the act to districts created adjacent to certain cities and towns. Section 3 amends § 4 of act 126 of 1923, which has reference to the purpose only for which the district may be organized. ' Section 4 provides for the formation of districts authorized under act 126 of 1923 embracing lands in two or more counties. Section 5 provides for the annexation of territory to districts theretofore organized by authority of act 126 of 1923. Section 6 authorizes the commissioners of districts, organized under authority of act 126 of 1923, to sell and convey the improvements effected by the district under certain restrictions. Section 7 expedites litigation affecting districts organized under said acts. Section 8 is the emergency clause.

It definitely and certainly appears from a mere reading of act 183 of 1927 that no valid improvement district could be organized under its authority and mandate. Without the aid of acts 126 and 645 of 1923 the provisions of act 183 of 1927 are absolutely meaningless and void of purpose. Section 23 of article 5 of the Constitution of 1874 provides:

“No law shall be revived, amended, or the provisions thereof extended or conferred by reference to its title only; but so much thereof as is revived, amended, extended or conferred shall be re-enacted and published at length. ’ ’

In Watkins v. Eureka Springs, 49 Ark. 131, 4 S. W. 384, this court decided that an act of the G-eneral Assembly which had the purpose and effect of extending to cities and towns rights and remedies which existed by law in favor of counties could not be so extended by reference to title only. We have uniformly held, following the case just cited, that when a new right is conferred or cause of action given § 23 of article 5 of the Constitution of 1874 requires the whole law governing the right and remedy to be re-enacted in order to enable the court to effect its enforcement. Farris v. Wright, 158 Ark. 519, 250 S. W. 889; Beard v. Wilson, 52 Ark. 290, 12 S. W. 567; Common School Dist. v. Oak Grove Special School Dist., 102 Ark. 411, 144 S. W. 224; State v. McKinley, 120 Ark. 165, 179 S. W. 181; Harrington v. White, 131 Ark. 291, 199 S. W. 92; Palmer v. Palmer, 132 Ark. 609, 202 S. W. 19; Hermitage Special School Dist. v. Ingalls Special School Dist., 133 Ark. 157, 202 S. W. 26; Fenolio v. Sebastian Bridge Dist., 133 Ark. 380, 200 S. W. 501; St. L.-S. F. Ry. Co. v. Southwestern Telegraph & Telephone Co., 121 Federal 276.

In Rider v. State, 132 Ark. 27, 200 S. W. 275, we had before ns, in effect, the exact question here presented. There the Legislature of 1909 passed act 310 creating a stock district in the Charleston District of Franklin County. The General Assembly of 1915, by act 145, amended the former statute by adding two other townships in Franklin County to the stock district as formed by the act of 1909. This addition was effected by amending' the act of 1909 as follows: “That wherever act No. 310 of the General Assembly of 1909 now reads ‘ Charleston District of Franklin County,’ the same shall be amended and the same is hereby amended to read: ‘Charleston District of Franklin County and Barham and Wittich townships of Franklin County’.” We there said: “The act of 1915, under which appellant was convicted, was clearly an attempt on the part of the lawmakers to extend the provisions of another statute merely by reference to title without re-enacting and publishing the new statute at length. * * * The statute now under consideration falls clearly within the first rule stated above, for the power granted under' the new statute is not declared on its face, but is given merely by reference to the title of another statute.”

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74 S.W.2d 784, 189 Ark. 617, 1934 Ark. LEXIS 11, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texarkana-forest-park-paving-water-sewer-and-gas-district-no-1-v-state-ark-1934.