Town of Crenshaw v. Panola County

76 So. 741, 115 Miss. 891
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 76 So. 741 (Town of Crenshaw v. Panola County) 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
Town of Crenshaw v. Panola County, 76 So. 741, 115 Miss. 891 (Mich. 1917).

Opinions

Cook, P. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This suit was begun in the court of a justice of the peace' of Panola county. The cause of action is thus stated:

Town of Crenshaw v. Panola County.

Panola County, Mississippi, Dr., to the Town of Crenshaw, a Municipality.

To one-half of one-mill road tax collected on property within the corporate limits of said town of Crenshaw for the year 1907..................$102.21

To one-half of one-mill road tax collected on property within the corporate limits of said town of Crenshaw for the year 1908.................. 96.49

$198.70

Judgment was rendered by the justice of the peace in favor of the plaintiff, the town of Crenshaw, and the defendant, Panola‘county, appealed to the circuit court, in which court the judment of the justice of the peace [899]*899was reversed, and the case dismissed. From this judgment the town of Crenshaw has appealed to this court.

The case was submitted to the learned circuit judge upon an agreed statement of facts as follows:

“In this case it is agreed that the following constitutes an agreed statement of facts:
“That during all the years 1907 and 1908 the town of Crenshaw was a duly constituted municipal corporation, situated in said county and state of Mississippi, and that during all of said years 1907 and 1908 the streets situated within the corporate limits of said county were worked wholly at the expense of the treasury of said municipality and by the municipal authority of said town, and that the county of Panola did not work on any of the streets of said town, nor paid any part of the expense of working the streets situated within the corporate limits of the said town, during either of the said years.
“That the board of supervisors of Panola county, acting under the authority of section 4443 and other similar .provisions of the Mississippi Code of 1906, levied a one-mill ad valorem tax upon all taxable property in said county of Panola, including the taxable property situated within the'corporate limits of said town of Crenshaw, for each of said years 1907 and 1908, and the tax collector of said county of Panola collected said one-mill acl valorem tax upon all of the taxable property situated within the corporate limits of said town of Crenshaw for each of the said years 1907 and 1908, the gross amount of said one-mill tax levied and collected for the years 1907 being two hundred and four dollars and forty-two cents, and the gross amount of said taxes collected for the year 1908 being one hundred and ninety-two dollars and ninety-eight cents; that said taxes was not divided between the county road fund and the municipal street fund of said town of Crenshaw, and no part thereof was ever paid over to the said town of Crenshaw, and no part thereof ever received by it.
[900]*900“That all of said above-described .taxes for each of the years of 1907 and 1908, less the commission allowed to said tax collector, which on the amount herein sued for is agreed to have been six dollars and fifty cents, were by the tax collectors of said county of Panola turned over to the county treasurer and placed to the credit of the separate road fund of said county along with the other ad valorem road tax levied and collected as above, and were by the proper officers of said county expended for the working of the public roads of said county throughout said county of Panola, including the public roads leading to and about the said town of Crenshaw, but not including any roads or streets within the corporate limits of said town of Crenshaw; that said amounts have long since been expended by said county of Panola, and that no demand was ever made by the said town of Crenshaw upon the said count for the. payment over to it of any part of said fund until sometime in the year 1915; that no part of said funds is now in the county treasury, and no part of said funds was in the county treasury at the time of the presentation of the claim by the said town of Crenshaw to the said county for payment; that none of the amounts sued for were ever placed to the credit of the general .funds of said county of Panola.
“That the said town of Crenshaw duly presented a claim in writing to the board of supervisors of said county of Panola for said amounts sued for, which claim was by the said board of supervisors declined; all of which was done before suit was instituted.
“This statement and agreement of facts shall not prejudice in any way the right of defendant county to object to the jurisdiction of the court, or to ask that same be transferred to the chancery court.”

We here copy the opinion of the judge, viz.:

“In the decision of this case there are two important questions to be considered, i. e.: (1) Whether or not section 104, Constitution of Mississippi, applies to suits between a county and a municipality, a county and the [901]*901state, or where the interest of any two of them, may conflict; or (2.) whether or not a municipality, entitled to a moiety of road taxes collected by the provisions of sections 44431 and 4460, Code of 1906i, may, without protest, see the entire tax paid over to the county treasurer, and by him credited to the separate road fund of the county, and all of it expended by the proper authorities of the county in working the county roads, including those of the particular district in which the municipality is situated, and even upon those roads leading into the municipality, and then, after the lapse of years, sue for and recover of the county its pro rata share thereof.
“Under the Code section referred to, I think the tax collector should account directly to the municipality whose streets are worked at the expense of the municipal treasury for their part of the fund collected, and thus save any conflict or confusion that might result from payment thereof into the county road fund, against which', under, our present deplorable credit system, warrants might be outstanding that would consume the entire amount; but the question is not involved here.
This suit is for the taxes collected for the years 1907 and 1908, the collection, amount, and appropriation of which to the county roads is agreed upon, and that no demand whatever was made therefor until some time in the year 1915', when, the same being rejected by the board, of supervisors, the town of Crenshaw sued the county of Panola before a justice of the peace, where a plea of the six-year statute of limitations and the general issue, with notice, was interposed, and from whose decision an appeal was taken to this court.
“I have made diligent search for some authority to assist me in determining what, if any, application section 104 or the Constitution and section 3096, Code of 1906, should have to a suit by a municipality against a; county, but have not been able to find anything bearing, even remotely, upon the question, but it is in my opinion [902]

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Bluebook (online)
76 So. 741, 115 Miss. 891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/town-of-crenshaw-v-panola-county-miss-1917.