Lowe v. Board of Comm'rs of Howard County
| Decision Date | 17 April 1884 |
| Docket Number | 11,328 |
| Parties | Lowe v. Board of Commissioners of Howard County |
| Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
From the Howard Circuit Court.
Judgment affirmed.
J. W Kern, M. Bell and W. C. Purdum, for appellant.
M Garrigus, for appellee.
The ruling question in this case is this: Can the public square of a county be sold on a precept issued on an assessment levied for the cost of improving a street?
The term "public square" has acquired a legal meaning, and courts adopt tat meaning in all cases where the term is not shown by the language with which it is associated to have a different signification. The public square of a county is property of a public nature, held for governmental or public purposes. Westfall v. Hunt, 8 Ind. 174; Com. v. Bowman, 3 Pa. 202; Langley v. Gallipolis, 2 Ohio St. 107.
The general rule is that the property of a public corporation held for public or governmental purposes can not be sold under any legal process. Property of this description can not be sold on execution. President, etc., v. City of Indianapolis, 12 Ind. 620; 2 Dillon Mun. Corp. (3d ed.), section 576. Laws creating liens in favor of mechanics do not operate on the public property of municipal corporations. Board, etc., v. O'Conner, 86 Ind. 531 (44 Am. R. 338); 2 Dill. Mun. Corp., section 577; Board, etc., v. Norrington, 82 Ind. 190; Leonard v. City of Brooklyn, 71 N.Y. 498; S. C., 27 Am. R. 80. Lands held by public corporations for public purposes are exempt from taxation. Worcester Co. v. Worcester, 116 Mass. 193. These examples sufficiently show that public property can not be seized for debts due from the public corporation, and the reason of the rule applies quite as forcibly to seizures for street assessments as to seizures under any other legal process. The rule rests on the principle that the public good requires that property needed for the proper administration of local governmental affairs shall not be taken from the local authorities, lest the due administration of such affairs be so much disturbed as to cause the public to suffer. It is obvious that this principle applies as well to seizures under precepts as to seizures under ordinary legal process. There is still another reason for the rule, and that is the danger that public property would be sacrificed at forced sales, because there is no one having a direct personal interest in protecting it, and, therefore, no one directly interested in either preventing a sale or in taking measures to make the property sell for its fair value. It is evident that whatever be the true reason for the rule, public policy requires that the public property of counties should not be sold on either ordinary or extraordinary legal process.
It is true that the statute is very broad in...
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