University of Utah v. Richards

59 P. 96, 20 Utah 457, 1899 Utah LEXIS 68
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 16, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 59 P. 96 (University of Utah v. Richards) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
University of Utah v. Richards, 59 P. 96, 20 Utah 457, 1899 Utah LEXIS 68 (Utah 1899).

Opinion

Miner, J.

This is an action brought to obtain a writ of mandamus against the State Auditor, requiring him to issue a warrant for $5,000, to be expended by the plaintiff, through its regents, under the provisions of Ch. 5, Sess. Laws 1899, the defendant having refused on application to draw a warrant for such sum on the ground that Ch. 53, Sess. Laws 1899, supersedes and is repugnant to Ch. 5, and that the plaintiff had not complied therewith. We are required to place a construction or interpretation on these two provisions of the statute.

The legislature of this state, at its session in 1899, enacted Ch. 5, p. 20, which, among other things, provides for the removal of the University of Utah and its establishment on the site granted by Congress. By the first section of the act the regents of the university are authorized and directed to expend $200,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary to plat the grounds, procure plans, erect necessary buildings, equip and furnish the same, and do all other acts and things necessary to establish and construct said university. Section 7 of this act reads, as follows:

“Appropriation. There is hereby appropriated one hundred thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to effectuate the- purposes mentioned in section 1, of this act; not to exceed fifty thousand dollars thereof may be drawn by the regents of the university of Utah at such times as they may deem proper during or after the year 1899; and not to exceed fifty thousand dollars may be drawn by the regents of the university of Utah at such times as they may deem proper during or after the year 1900; and the state treasurer and the state auditor are hereby authorized and directed to issue and pay warrants [462]*462for such one hundred thousand dollars as herein specified.”

This act was approved and took effect on the 24th day of February, 1899.

Subsequently, at the same session, the legislature enacted ch. 53, p. 76, Sess. Laws, Utah, 1899. The object of this act is expressed in the title being to amend section 2070 Rev. Stat. 1898, in relation to state institutions drawing their biennial appropriations, and reads as follows: ‘‘ Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Utah; Sec. 1. That section 2070 of the Revised Statutes of Utah, 1898, be amended to read as follows:

“Sec. 2070. Appropriations. When Available. How Drawn. That on the first day of each month, or as soon thereafter as the bills for the expenses for the previous month have been audited, the board of control of each state institution, or the proper committee thereof, duly authorized by the board for such purpose, shall make a requisition upon the state auditor for a warrant in sufficient amount to pay the bills so audited, and thereupon the state auditor shall draw his warrant against the appropriation made for such institution for the amount named in the requisition, in favor of the treasurer of the governing board of the institution, or in case of the state prison in favor of the warden thereof. To obtain such warrant the treasurer of the board or the warden must present to the state auditor a written authorization from the board.”

This act took effect on its approval March 9, 1899.

The appellant contends that this last act repeals or is repugnant to that part of Sec. 7, Ch. 5, as provides that the regents may draw not to exceed $50,000, or such part thereof as may be necessary, during or after the year 1899, and not to exceed $50,000 during or after the year 1900, and therefore claims that so much of said sum found necessary, should be drawn under Ch. 53, and that [463]*463requisition for the same should be made at the beginning of each month sufficient to pay bills audited for the previous months.

The law makers did not see fit to embrace in the latter any express words of repeal of the former act. If such former act is repealed, it must be by implication. If the acts are repugnant or are so irreconcilably in conflict with each other and cannot be harmonized together, in order to effectuate the purpose of their enactment, then it may fie said the later act may by implication repeal the former. Repeals by implication, however, are not favored by the law. One act is not to be allowed to defeat another if by reasonable construction the two can be made to stand together. Particular provisions relating to a former subject must govern in relation to that subject as against general provisions in another part of the law which might otherwise be broad enough to include it.

Where a statute enumerates the persons and things to be affected by its provisions, there is an implied exclusion of others, and the natural inference follows that it is not intended to be general.

Irrigation Co. v. Canal Co’s., 14 Utah, 163. So, as said in Sutherland on Statutory Construction, 157, 8, “It is a principle that a general statute without negative words will not repeal by implication from their repugnancy the provisions of a former one which is special or local, unless there is something in the general law or in the course of legislation upon its subject matter that makes it manifest that the legislature contemplated and intended a repeal. When the legislator frames a statute in general terms, or treats a subject in a general manner, it is not reasonable to suppose that he intends to abrogate particular legislation to the details of which he had previously given his attention, applicable only to a part of the same subject [464]*464unless the general act shows a plain intention to do so.” Ex parte Crow Dog, 109 U.S. 570; Sedgwick on Con. Statute & Const. Law, p. 97; Mallory v. Reinhart, 115 Pa. St. 25; 23 Am. & Eng. Ency. of Law, pp. 424-5; Sutherland Statutory Construction, Sec. 147.

The University Act had special reference to the removal of the university of Utah and its establishment on the site granted by Congress, and to plat the grounds, procure plans, erect necessary buildings thereon, and to equip and furnish the same as a state university, and the sum of $200,000 was appropriated for that purpose to be drawn at such times as the regents thought proper, not to exceed $50,000 to be drawn during or after the year 1899, and a like sum during or after 1900. The regents are directed by the act to expend the sum appropriated, or so much thereof as is necessary for this purpose. It was doubtless within the contemplation of the legislature that contracts could be made to better advantage and material and labor procured at a greater saving to the state when cash could be paid at the maturity of the obligations entered into by the regents.

By requiring the regents to comply with the law and to draw the money at such times as they may deem proper, the legislature intended to vest in such board a large discretion, as to the amount of money to be drawn and when it should be drawn, in order to meet the various expenses and obligations that they were required to incur. The appropriation was made for a special, temporary and specific purpose. The plan was to be carried out in a special way, .by a special board, when the object was accomplished, the improvements made, and the appropriation exhausted, the act so far ceased to be operative. The act applies to no other board, building or fund. Nor are the payments to be made biennially. At the end of [465]

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Bluebook (online)
59 P. 96, 20 Utah 457, 1899 Utah LEXIS 68, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/university-of-utah-v-richards-utah-1899.