Thibodeaux v. Comeaux

145 So. 2d 1, 243 La. 468, 1962 La. LEXIS 541
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 29, 1962
Docket45990
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 145 So. 2d 1 (Thibodeaux v. Comeaux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thibodeaux v. Comeaux, 145 So. 2d 1, 243 La. 468, 1962 La. LEXIS 541 (La. 1962).

Opinions

SUMMERS, Justice.

Plaintiffs and appellants are thirty-seven qualified voters and property taxpayers within what purports to be the Hackberry Recreation District in Cameron Parish. They seek an injunction against its commissioners, defendants herein, to prohibit the issuance or selling of bonds, or the assessment or collection of any taxes by that body.

Cities Service Refining Corporation, Pan American Petroleum Corporation and Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation own property aggregating approximately fifty-five percent of the total assessment in the recreation district, and they have intervened in support of the plaintiffs’ position.

The district court denied the injunction. This appeal followed.

Our jurisdiction is governed by Article XIV, Section 14(d—4) and Article VII, Section 10(1) of the Constitution of Louisiana, LSA. These articles constitute recreation districts as subdivisions of the State; and provide that, when the constitutionality or legality of taxes to be imposed and collected by subdivisions of the State are attacked, this court has appellate jurisdiction.

By LSA-R.S. 33:4562 et seq., police juries are authorized and empowered to. [473]*473form and create recreation districts; to own and operate playgrounds and facilities; to engage in activities which would promote recreation and any related activity designed to encourage recreation and promote the general health and well-being of youth. These recreation districts are authorized to vote and levy special maintenance taxes, and issue bonds when authorized to do so by a vote of the qualified electors of the district.

Acting pursuant to this authority the police jury of Cameron Parish adopted Ordinance No. BX-4, 1960, creating the Hack-berry Recreation District, and defined its boundaries as follows:

“Commencing at the NW Corner of Section 3, Township 12 South, Range 12 West, La. Mer., thence running South to SW Corner of Section 34, Township 13, South, Range 12 West, thence running East to the SE corner of Township 13 South, Range 11 West, thence South to Calcasieu Lake, thence Westerly along West bank of Calcasieu Lake to the Calcasieu Parish line, thence West along the line between the Parishes of Calcasieu and Cameron, Louisiana to point of commencement, and being the whole of Ward 6 of Cameron Parish, Louisiana.”

This ordinance also named and appointed the defendants as the five commissioners of the district, established Hackberry as the domicile of the district and fixed June 6 1960, as the date of the first meeting for the election of officers.

Accordingly, after their appointments the commissioners met, a chairman was elected and the organization completed. Subsequently, other meetings were held, an engineer was employed, and members of the commission accompanied advisors and consultants on trips of inspection of other recreational facilities in the area, and preliminary plans were prepared for the proposed recreational facility.

Thereafter, pursuant to resolution and order of the commissioners and legal notices published on August 12, 19, 26 and September 2, 9, and 16, 1960, a spécial election was called for September 17, 1960, to submit two propositions to the resident property taxpayers qualified to vote in the district: (1) to issue bonds to the amount of $290,000.00; and (2) to levy a four-mill maintenance and operations tax. Both propositions were adopted by a favorable majority, the results of the election being:

FOR: 126 votes, representing an assessed property valuation of $125,207.-50.
AGAINST: 79 votes, representing assessed property valuation of $101,-425.19.

On September 6, 1960, the Police Jury of Cameron Parish adopted Ordinances, Nos. BX-8 and BX-9,1960, redefining the bound[475]*475aries of “Ward 6 and the Hackberry Recreation District. However, these ordinances were not published in the official journal of the parish until September 30, 1960.

The defendants did not take their oaths of office as commissioners of the Hack-berry Recreation District until October 3, 5, and 6, 1960.

, Originally plaintiffs contended that the election was invalid because of irregularities at the. polls. However, after a recount of the ballots, under the supervision of the trial court, this position was abandoned.

' Plaintiffs persist in the other issues of the case contending for the invalidity of the proceeding leading to the elections because:

(1) The description of the boundaries of the Hackberry Recreation District is so vague, uncertain and defective, no valid recreation district ever came into existence.'
(2) • There -was no commission, either de jure or de facto, because no district had beén created and the commissioners had not taken their oaths of office.
(3) Even if the district were properly created and the commissioners were de facto officers, the proposed bond issue and tax levies were so grossly excessive ' as to constitute a taking of property 'without due process of law and' tb'e -proposed' action is an illegal abuse of power by the defendants acting as commissioners.

We consider first the contention of plaintiffs that the description of the boundaries of the Hackberry Recreation District are so vague, uncertain and defective that it could not serve to define the area of the district, and hence the district was never legally created and all subsequent actipns of its Board of Commissioners and the election of September 17, 1960, are null and void.

Since the Hackberry Recreation District is a political subdivision of the State, having the power of taxation when authorized by the qualified electors of the district, undoubtedly the rules of law governing the designation of boundaries 'of municipal corporations, and other governmental subdivisions having the power of taxation, will serve as a guide in determining the sufficiency of the designation of boundaries of recreation districts created under LSA-R.S. 33:4562 et seq. See McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, 3rd Ed., §§ 7.04 and 7.05.

The description used by the police jury in. Ordinance No. BX-4, 1960, in defining the boundaries of the Hackberry Recreation District, is the same as that used to designate the boundaries of Ward 6 of Cameron Parish, which were established in 1911. An important fact to be noted is the reference in the description of the rec[477]*477reation district to its “being the whole of Ward 6 of Cameron Parish, Louisiana.”

It follows, therefore, that any valid objection to the description of the recreation district must be a valid objection to the description of Ward 6 of Cameron Parish. Likewise any attribute of legality attaching to the description of Ward 6 must necessarily serve as an aid to the legality of the description of the recreation district. The two are concomitant.

It is represented, and not denied, that since its creation in 1911 Ward 6 has been recognized as a legally created ward for the purpose of the issuance of bonds and taxation, and no one has complained as to the defects in the boundaries since that date.

Furthermore, we note that a stipulation discloses the exact amount of the assessed valuation of property belonging to the intervenors, and the valuation of all properties in the recreation district on the Cameron Parish tax rolls for the year 1960.

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Thibodeaux v. Comeaux
145 So. 2d 1 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1962)

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Bluebook (online)
145 So. 2d 1, 243 La. 468, 1962 La. LEXIS 541, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thibodeaux-v-comeaux-la-1962.