Bacot v. Board of Sup'rs of Hinds County

• Decision Date: 17 January 1921
• Docket Number: 21693
• Citation: 86 So. 765,124 Miss. 231
• Parties: BACOT ET AL. v. BOARD OF SUP'RS OF HINDS COUNTY
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

86 So. 765

124 Miss. 231

BACOT ET AL. v. BOARD OF SUP'RS OF HINDS COUNTY

No. 21693

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 17, 1921

1 COUNTIES. Legislature may authorize and validate issuance of bonds.

The legislature has full power, within constitutional limits, to provide both for the issuance of bonds by public corporations and for the validation of bonds issued by such corporations after their issuance.

2. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Powers of state's bond attorney not judicial. The powers conferred upon the state's bond attorney by chapter 28, Laws Ex. Sess. 1917, are not judicial.

3 STATES. Powers of state's bond attorney not such as must be exericsed by attorney-general or district attorneys.

The powers conferred upon the state's bond attorney by chapter 28, Laws Ex. Sess. 1917, are not such as must be exercised only by the attorney-general or the district attorneys.

4. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. Legislature may add to jurisdiction of chancery court.

The legislature may confer upon the chancery court a jurisdiction which prior thereto was not possessed by any court, although not embraced within the sections of the Constitution by which the jurisdiction of that court is prescribed.

5 HIGHWAYS. Statute exempting road districts from taxation to pay road bonds repealed by later enactment.

The provision of chapter 277, Laws 1920, providing for the exemption of separate road districts from taxation for the payment of county road bonds, being in conflict with the provision of chapter 207, Laws 1920, a later enactment of the legislature, that such bonds, when issued, shall constitute a lien on and be paid by the taxation of all the taxable property in the county, is repealed thereby.

HON. V J. STRICKER, Chancellor.

APPEAL from chancery court of Hinds county, HON. V. J. STRICKER Chancellor.

Proceeding between B. F. Bacot and others and board of supervisors of Hinds county. Decree for the latter, and the former appeal. Affirmed.

This is an appeal by an intervening taxpayer from a decree of the court below in a proceeding authorized by chapter 28, Laws Ex. Sess. 1917, validating an issue of one million dollars of county road bonds authorized by a majority of the qualified electors of Hinds county at an election held on October 1, 1920. The proceedings for the issuance of these bonds were in accordance with section 331, Code of 1906, and chapter 207, Laws of 1920.

The bonds proposed to be issued are intended to be paid by taxation of all the taxable property in the county. Two special road bond districts in Hinds county have already issued road bonds under the provisions of chapter 176, Laws of 1914, which now appears as chapter 277, Laws of 1920, approved March 26, 1920. A majority of the qualified electors in each of these districts voted against the issuance of the bonds. Section 11, chapter 277, Laws of 1920, contains the following provision:

"But the districts separately taxed to pay principal and interest on bonds for building roads made of stone, gravel, chert, slag, or sand clay, or of a combination of such material, or any material equally durable, shall not be subject to an additional tax for building such roads in other parts of the county or for the payment of principal and interest on any county bonds hereafter issued for road purposes without the consent of a majority of the qualified electors of said district voting in an election held for that purpose."

Chapter 28, Laws Ex. Sess. 1917, provides for the appointment of a state's bond attorney, and that:

"Sec. 2. When any county, municipality, school district, road district, drainage district, levee district, sea wall district, or any other district or subdivision, authorized to issue bonds shall take steps to issue bonds for any purpose whatever, the officer or officers of such county, municipality, or district, charged by law with the custody of the records of same, shall, if the board issuing same shall so determine by order entered on its minutes, transmit to said bond attorney a certified copy of all legal papers pertaining to the issuance of said proposed bonds including transcripts of records and ordinances, proof of publication and tabulation of vote, if any, and any other fact pertaining to said issuance, and said bond attorney shall thereupon as expeditiously as possible, examine into said legal papers and pass upon the sufficiency thereof, and render an opinion in writing, addressed to the board proposing to issue said bonds, as to the validity of same, and if any further action on the part of said board is necessary, or any further data is desired, he shall indicate what is necessary to be done, in the premises in order to make said bonds legal, valid and binding, and when in his opinion all necessary legal steps have been taken to make the said bond issue legal, valid and binding, he shall render a written opinion to that effect, and shall transmit all legal papers together with his opinion to the clerk of the chancery court of the county in which the district or municipality proposing to issue said bonds is situated, or if said district embraces more than one county, then to the chancery clerk of any one of said counties, and the chancery clerk shall file the same and enter same on the docket of the chancery court, and shall promptly notify the chancellor of the district in writing that said papers are on file and the cause has been docketed, and the chancellor shall then notify the chancery clerk to set the matter for hearing at some future date, not less than ten days thereafter, and the clerk shall give notice by making at least one publication in some paper published in the county where the case is docketed, addressed to the taxpayers of the county, municipality or district, proposing to issue said bonds advising that the matter will be heard on the day named.

"If on the day set for hearing there is no objection filed by any taxpayer to the issuance of said bonds, a decree approving the validity of same shall he entered by the chancellor, and if the chancellor be not present, the clerk shall forward him the decree prepared by the state's bond attorney for his signature, and shall enter the said decree upon his minutes in vacation.

"If at the hearing any taxpayer of the county, municipality or district appears and objects to the issuance of said bonds, then the chancellor or the chancery clerk, if the chancellor be not present, shall set the case over for another day, convenient to the chancellor, not less than ten days thereafter, and shall notify the bond attorney to appear and attend the hearing. And on the hearing the chancellor may hear additional evidence and inquire into the validity of the bonds proposed to be issued, and enter a decree in accordance with his finding.

"If either party shall be dissatisfied with the decree of the chancellor an appeal shall be granted as in other cases, but such appeal must be requested at the time the chancellor enters his decree, or within ten days thereafter. The chancery clerk shall certify the record to the supreme court as in other cases, and the supreme court shall hear the case as a preference case.

"Sec. 3. If the chancellor shall enter a decree confirming and validating said bonds and there shall be no appeal by either party from said decree, or if on appeal the supreme court enters its decree, confirming and validating said bonds, the validity of said bonds so issued shall be forever conclusive against the county, municipality or district issuing same, and the validity of said bonds shall never be called in question in any court in this state."

Affirmed.

M. Ney Williams, for appellants.

This is a suit brought by the appellants herein, intervening taxpayers of Hinds county, Mississippi, contesting the law under which Hinds county, Mississippi, issued one million dollars in bonds for the purpose of constructing bridges and improved public roads in said county. The statement of the facts contained in the brief of Messrs. Watkins & Watkins and Eager, attorneys for appellee is true in the most minute detail and admitted by appellants to be the facts of the case. It seems that there is only one legal point involved in this case, and that is whether or not chapter 207 of the Laws of 1920 repeals section 11, chapter 277 of the Laws of 1920.

Section 11, chapter 277 of the Laws of 1920, approved March 26, 1920, provides as follows: "But the districts separately taxed to pay principal and interest on bonds for building roads made of stone, gravel, or any material equally durable, shall not be subject to an additional tax for building such roads in other parts of the county, or for the payment of principal and interests on any county bonds hereafter issued for road purposes, without the consent of a majority of the qualified electors of said district voting in an election held for that purpose.

Section 3, chapter 207 of the Laws of 1920, approved April 2, 1920, provides as follows: "Should the election provided for by section 2 of this act result in favor of the proposed bond issue, by a majority of those voting in said election voting in favor of the issuance of said bonds, the board of supervisors may issue said bonds either in whole or in part at such time within one year after the date of such election as they may deem best."

Appellants as citizens and taxpayers of Hinds county, Mississippi, filed their objections to the issuance of the said one million dollars in bonds before the chancery court of Hinds county, and set forth the fact that the Dry Grove voting precinct, and the Edwards Voting precinct both of said voting precincts being in separate gravel road districts and said separate gravel road districts being established and operating under existing road laws made by...