Airey v. Tugwell

• Citation: 3 So.2d 99,197 La. 982
• Decision Date: 26 May 1941
• Docket Number: 36143.
• Court: Supreme Court of Louisiana
• Parties: ALREY et al. v. TUGWELL, State Treasurer, et al.

3 So.2d 99

197 La. 982

ALREY et al. v. TUGWELL, State Treasurer, et al.

No. 36143.

Supreme Court of Louisiana

May 26, 1941

Barnett & Thurmon, of Baton Rouge, and Guion & Schulze, Henry & Kelleher, and T. Semmes Walmsley all of New Orleans, for Joseph Airey and others.

Eugene Stanley, Atty. Gen., and Philip Gensler, Edward J. Gay, Jr. and C. C. Wood, Sp. Asst. Attys. Gen., for A. P. Tugwell State Treasurer, and others.

L. H. Perez Dist. Atty., of New Orleans, for Board of Commissioners of Buras Levee Dist.

Liskow & Lewis, of Lake Charles, amicus curiae.

ODOM Justice.

The Gulf and Bayou Cook Oyster Company, Lte., a Louisiana corporation, now in the hands of receivers, acquired 840.96 acres of land on May 17, 1890, the land being in the Parish of Plaquemones. The ownership of the land passed from the corporation to others later, but was reacquired by it on June 20, 1900. On June 19, 1915, the property was adjudicated to the State of Louisiana for the unpaid taxes for the year 1914. No attempt was made by the corporation to redeem the property until December 27, 1938. On that date the receivers of the corporation, for the purpose of redeeming the property, paid to the sheriff and ex officio tax collector for the Parish of Plaquemines the sum of $6.55, that being the amount of the parish taxes for the year 1914, and on December 28, 1938, the receivers made legal tender in the sum of $27.36, the amount for which the land was forfeited to the state, to A. P. Tugwell, State Treasurer, and Lucille May Grace, Register of the State Land Office, and requested a certificate of redemption. The officers refused to accept the tender and to issue a certificate of redemption for the reason that on September 9, 1938, they had conveyed the said property to the Buras Levee District, a political subdivision of the state created by Act 18 of 1894. The law under which the conveyance was made to the Levee District is Act 324 of 1938.

The law under which the corporation attempted to redeem the property is Act 47 of 1938. That act provided that, at any time from the date on which the act took effect and up to 12 noon of the 31st day of December, 1938, the owner of any lands which had been did in or adjudicated to the state or any of its political subdivisions for the non-payment of taxes for the year 1936, or previous years' taxes, might redeem the property by paying to the State Treasurer the amount of the actual taxes for which the lands were adjudicated, provided the title thereto was still in the state. The reason the State Treasurer refused to permit the corporation to redeem the property was that title thereto was no longer in the state, the property having been transferred to the Buras Levee District on September 9, 1938.

The present suit was filed by the receivers of the corporation on May 9, 1939, the purpose of the suit being to have canceled and erased from the records the instrument by which the Register of the State Land Office and the State Auditor transferred the land to the Buras Levee District, and to compel the State Treasurer to accept the tender made for the redemption of the land and to compel the Treasurer and the Register of the State Land Office to execute the proper certificate of redemption in favor of the corporation.

The State Treasurer, the Register of the State Land Office, the State Auditor, and the Board of Commissioners of the Buras Levee District were made parties defendant.

The plaintiff alleged that Act 324 of 1938, under the provisions of which the Register of the State Land Office and the Auditor transferred the land in controversy to the Buras Levee District, is unconstitutional, null, and void, and, since the act is void, the State Auditor and the Register of the State Land Office were without authority to transfer the land to the Levee District, and that therefore title to the land was still in the state. Several alternative pleas were made by plaintiff, which pleas we shall not mention here. Defendant filed several exceptions, which were overruled. Defendants filed answer in which they denied that Act 324 of 1938 is unconstitutional, denied that the transfer made by the State Auditor and the Register of the State Land Office to the Buras Levee District was invalid, and prayed that plaintiff's demands be rejected and that its suit be dismissed.

The case was submitted on an agreed statement of facts. There was judgment decreeing Act 324 of 1938 unconstitutional, and that the transfer of the property by the Register of the State Land Office and the State Auditor to the Buras Levee District was null and void, and it was ordered that the proper officials accept the tender made to them by plaintiff and issue to plaintiff a certificate of redemption convering and redeeming the property described in plaintiff's petition. From this judgment defendants appealed.

The Buras Levee District was created by Act 18 of 1894. Section 11 of that act provides that, in order to provide additional means to carry out the purpose of the act and to furnish resources to enable the Board of Commissioners to assist in developing and completing a levee system in the said district, all the lands then belonging, or that might thereafter belong, to the State of Louisiana, and embraced within the limits of the Levee District, were donated to the Levee District, including lands which had been forfeited to the State of Louisiana for non-payment of taxes.

The same section of the act provides that lands theretofore forfeited to the state might be redeemed by the former owner at any time within six months after the effective date of the act. It provides further that after the expiration of six months it should be the duty of the Auditor and the Register of the State Land Office to convey such lands to the Board of Commissioners of the Buras Levee District by proper instruments whenever from time to time said Auditor and said Register of the State Land Office, or either of them, were requested to do so by the Board of Levee Commissioners or by the president thereof.

In State ex rel. Fitzpatrick v. Grace, Register of the State Land Office, 187 La. 1028, 175 So. 656, it was held that Act 237 of 1924 repealed those provisions of the various acts creating levee boards, which authorized the Auditor and the Register of the State Land Office to transfer to the levee districts lands belonging to the state which had been acquired by the state through tax forfeitures.

So that the only authority which the Register of the State Land Office and the Auditor had for transferring the lands here involved to the Buras Levee District was Act 324 of 1938, the lands involved having been forfeited to the State for the non-payment of taxes. Therefore, if Act 324 of 1938 is unconstitutional, the transfer of these lands to the Buras Levee District was null and void as having been made without authority of law, and the land was subject to redemption under Act 47 of 1938, on December 28, 1938, when plaintiff made the tender and asked for a certificate of redemption.

Act 324 of 1938, including the title, reads as follows:

'An Act

'To re-define the limits of the Buras Levee District as created by Act 18 of 1894; to prescribe certain powers and duties of the Board of Commissioners thereof; and to repeal all laws in conflict herewith.

'Section 1. Be it enacted by the Legislature of Louisiana, That the limits of the Buras Levee District as fixed by Act 18 of 1894 shall be taken as having comprised all the territory contained within the Parish of Plaquemines on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, south of the line drawn from the lower forty arpent line of Riceland Plantation to the limits of Harang Canal on Bayou Lafourche and extending to the 'Jump', including all of the lands made by the said 'Jump' crevasse to the lower boundary of West Bay; and that all lands not heretofore conveyed to said Levee District shall henceforth be conveyed to it, according to all the terms and provisions of the relative granting statutes.

'Section 2. That the Board of Commissioners for the Buras Levee District shall be invested with the control of all public levees and levee drainage in the District, with authority to require the State Engineers to lay off, furnish estimates and perform all engineering work necessary for the location, construction and repairs of levees and drainage, both front and rear, reserving, however, the right to the Parish in which the levees are located, also to provide funds, to construct and repair necessary levees and drainage and exercise the powers now delegated to them by law.

'Section 3. That all laws or parts of law which are inconsistent or in conflict herewith be, and the same are, hereby repealed.'

The validity of this act was attacked by plaintiff on 11 separate grounds. According to the view we take, it is necessary to mention only two of them, which are (1) that the body of the act is broader than its title and embraces more than one object, and (2) that the act attempts to revive and re-enact Section 11, Act 18 of 1894, by reference to its title only, without reenacting and publishing the same in full.

Section 16, Article III, of the Constitution, provides that 'Every law enacted by the Legislature shall embrace but one object, and shall have a title indicative of such object'.

The object of a law is the aim or purpose of the enactment. State v Ferguson, 104 La. 249, 28 So. 917, 81 Am.St.Rep. 123. The object of a law, 'properly speaking, is its general purpose'. 59 C.J. p. 800. The object of a law is the matter or thing forming the groundwork of the act. The title of an act of the Legislature is of the nature of a label, the purpose of which is to give notice of the legislative intent and purpose to those...