Worthen v. Roots

34 Ark. 356
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 15, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 34 Ark. 356 (Worthen v. Roots) 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
Worthen v. Roots, 34 Ark. 356 (Ark. 1879).

Opinions

Eakin, J.

At the October term, 1879, of the Pulaski county court, in full session with the justices, a tax of five mills on the dollar, for general purposes, was levied upon the assessed value of real and personal property in the county; estimated at $6,573,650, and the proceeds from said tax were appropriated as follows:

Eor expenses of the circuit court.................... $7,000 00

For expenses of the county court.................. 6,800 00

For expenses of prisoners in jail.................... 7,000 00

For making tax and assessment books............ 1,750 00

For paying for public records........................ 300 00

For support of paupers................................. 1,000 00

For building bridges and repairing roads......... 1,250 00

For expenses of justices’ courts................. 3,000 00

For county expenses allowed by law............... 1,481 41

Total..........................................$29,581 41

Afterwards', on the fourteenth of October, the judge alone presiding, it was ordered by the court, “ that the clerk issue proper warrants on the treasurer of the county for all claims that have been allowed, or that may hereafter be allowed, in the order in which they have been allowed.”

On the seventeenth of October, Roots, and others, citizens of the county, and taxpayers, filed this bill in the Pulaski chancery court against defendant 'Worthen, the clerk; exhibiting the foregoing proceedings of the court, ’ and alleging: that, at different times, the court had made large allowances, in favor of many individuals, too numerous to be made parties, amounting in all to about $65,000; upon which, no warrants had, as yet, been drawn, and which remained unpaid. Of these, about $21,354 had been allowed prior to the eighteenth day of March, 1879.

The usual form in which those allowances had been made, prior to said date, is shown by an order exhibited for example, which merely states that “ the same is allowed and audited as an established claim against Pulaski county.”

The form, after said date, is shown in like manner, which is the same, followed by these words: “ and the clerk is ordei’ed to draw his warrant on the county treasurer, payable out of the appropriation to defray the legal expenses of the county.”

The amount of allowances already made, at the time of filing the bill, even those made after said date, greatly exceeded the amount of said appropriations.

They complain that the indiscriminate issue of county warrants, authorized by the order of October 14, in disregard of the objects and amounts of said appropriations, would be illegal, and injurious to the public service, and detrimental to the taxpayers. They fear the clerk will proceed to issue them, and, as the circuit court was not then in session (nor would be for some time), they pray that the defendant be restrained from issuing any warrants, on any allowances made since the eighteenth of March, 1879, exceeding in the aggregate the amounts of the said several appropriations ; and, also, from issuing any warrant on any of said funds, after said fund shall have been exhausted by prior warrants ; prays, also, for general relief.

The defendant appeared, and, without answer, or formal demurrer, the cause was submitted on the seventeenth of October. On the thirty-first, the chancellor, by a final order restrained the defendant from drawing any warrant on any fund, unless there should he a balance of said fund, duly appropriated by a proper court, consisting of a majority of the justices. Defendant appealed.

It would have been better to have required an issue of law or fact to be made before final hearing. The submission, however, may be taken as an admission by defendant, of all the matters contained in the bill and exhibits. The order of the fourteenth of October is not, upon its face, illegal. It was in conformity with the usual and long established mode of administering the county revenues. The clerk was directed to issue proper warrants on the treasurer for all claims, etc. This was, so far, right, that it requires extrinsic evidence to support the claim of illegality, on the ground of excess of warrants over the appropriations. It is not clear that a writ of certiorari could have brought to the notice of the circuit court the point made by the bill, which is not the power of the county court to direct the clerk to issue warrants in the mode prescribed; but the power of the clerk, under such order, to issue them after the appropriations may be exhausted. The remedy, if the complainants have one, is not at law, plain, adequate and complete, and the chancellor properly exercised jurisdiction in the case.

The question is rather as to the scope and meaning of the order, than as to its validity. In a normal condition of county affairs, where there was no county debt, and where the appropriations met the county expenditures, the order would be a very proper one. But it is alleged that in Pu-' laski county such a healthful normal condition does not exist; that, in truth, the allowances greatly exceed the appropriations, and that the order, properly construed, does not authorize the clerk, as a ministerial officer, to continue the issue of such warrants as the order directs, after the books of the office show that warrants, properly issued, have exhausted the appropriation. The proper construction of the order, and the powers conferred by it, are to be determined by the policy of our constitution and laws with regard to the county revenues and expenditures. If they contemplate the issue of warrants, and the use of them by citizens, in anticipation of appropriations to be made for the particular funds drawn upon, the threatened action of the clerk would be right. If they do not, the complainants have the right to require that he be restrained to the narrower construction of the order, and follow it only to the-extent of the appropriations. In short, did the constitution and laws, on the fourteenth of October, 1879, require or empower the county court to issue warrants upon allowances, judicially made, irrespective of any consideration as to whether the proper appropriations for such warrants had been exhausted by previous warrants?

Let us look to the system as it existed up to the time of the constitution of 1874. The county revenue then consisted of divers funds, raised by taxation for special purposes. These were for county purposes generally; for public buildings; for support of the poor; for bridges; for roads; and for interest and principal on the public debt. The board of supervisors, answering to the old, and present county courts, determined the amount to be raised for each purpose, which was set forth specially on the record. The clerk was required carefully to ascertain the amounts collected for each purpose, and it was forbidden to use any specific fund for any other purpose than that for which it was levied, until the purposes of the special tax had been accomplished. Gantt’s Digest, sec. 5059. It is to be observed that the amounts which might he levied for such purpose-was limited to a definite maximum per centage, as was also-the school tax for each district.

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Bluebook (online)
34 Ark. 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/worthen-v-roots-ark-1879.