Blaine County v. Smith

• Decision Date: 23 March 1897
• Citation: 5 Idaho 255,48 P. 286
• Parties: BLAINE COUNTY v. SMITH
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

48 P. 286

5 Idaho 255

BLAINE COUNTY v. SMITH

Supreme Court of Idaho

March 23, 1897

BOARD OF ACCOUNTANTS APPOINTED BY LAW.-A board of accountants whose appointment is provided by law, and whose duty it is to ascertain the amount of indebtedness of a certain county at a certain time, and apportion such indebtedness among said and other named counties, on a given basis, performs clerical acts, and such board of accountants cannot defeat the object for which it was appointed by attempting to pass, directly or indirectly, on the validity of such indebtedness.

MANDAMUS-MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS.-When a duty is enjoined by law upon the officers of a municipal corporation (a county), and such officers fail or refuse to perform the duties so enjoined upon them, mandamus will lie to compel the performance by such officers of the duties so enjoined upon them, and in such case the court will, to avoid multiplicity of suits and repeated applications for peremptory writs direct full compliance by all officers of such corporation properly before the court with the requirements of the law under which it is their duty to act.

(Syllabus by the court.)

Original proceeding in supreme court by writ of mandate.

Demurrer overruled.

S. B Kingsbury, for Plaintiff.

No brief filed.

F. S. Dietrich, for Defendants.

The record shows that when the bonds in question were issued there were dollars in the treasury of Alturts county, applicable to the payment of the floating debt which the bonds were to fund. This had to be first applied, and valid bonds to be issued only for the balance. (Bannock Co. v. Bunting, 3 Idaho 156, 37 P. 277; Sess. Laws 1895, sec. 3603, p. 57.) All of the apparent indebtedness described in the accountant's report was void, in that the obligations were contrary to and in violation of the act of Congress of July 30, 1886, and especially sections 3 and 4 thereof as found on page 33 of the Revised Statutes of Idaho. Counsel says the county, having reached its limit, could not exist or continue its business without incurring debt. But the language of the act is most emphatic, namely: "Become indebted in any manner or for any purpose to any amount." The decisions make no distinction between indebtedness imposed and that voluntarily or unnecessarily incurred. The balance of the bonds mentioned in the accountant's report are void for the following reasons: 1. They were sold for cash, and not exchanged. Thus a new indebtedness was incurred. (Bannock Co. v. Bunting, 4 Idaho 156, 37 P. 277.) That the word "refund" is never used to designate the process of putting a varied floating warrant indebtedness into the form of bonds. I have found no such case or application. I cite as throwing some light on the question City of Cadillac v. Woonsocket, 58 F. 935, 7 C. C. A. 571; Coffin v. City of Indianapolis, 59 F. 221.

QUARLES, J. Sullivan, C. J., and Huston, J., concur.

OPINION

QUARLES, J.

By an act of the legislature of the territory of Idaho approved February 7, 1889 (Acts 15th Sess., p. 35), the county of Elmore was created out of a portion of the theretofore existing territory of Alturas county, the county of Logan created out of another portion, and still another portion was added to Bingham county. Sections 7 and 8 of said act are as follows:

"Sec. 7. The indebtedness of Alturas county at the date of the passage and approval of this act shall be apportioned between the counties of Alturas, Elmore, Logan and Bingham counties, in the same proportion that the taxable property of the three counties have acquired from Alturas county, and that the four counties bear to each other as shown by the assessment-roll of the year 1888 in Alturas county, and at their regular meeting in April, 1889, the boards of commissioners of the four counties mentioned shall, respectively, appoint each a competent accountant who shall meet at the town of Hailey and proceed to audit and ascertain the amount of indebtedness to be paid by each of the aforesaid counties to Alturas county, and they shall apportion all moneys in the treasury of said Alturas county in the same proportion that they apportion the debt, but in apportioning the debt and bonds, they shall make no apportionment of the bonds issued for the erection of the courthouse or other public buildings in Alturas county, nor of any cash on hand to pay said bonds and interest, and they shall make out four certificates, one to be delivered to the board of commissioners for each county, showing the total indebtedness of Alturas county, its character, whether bonded or otherwise, and also the proportion to be paid by each county, and such accountants shall be allowed a reasonable sum for their services, to be paid by the county appointing each respectively.

"Sec. 8. Immediately after filing of the certificate of the proportion of the indebtedness named in the preceding section 7, the auditors of Elmore and Logan and Bingham counties, under the supervision of their respective boards of commissioners, must draw his warrant in sums of $ 500, but one warrant may be drawn for a less amount in order to pay a fractional part of the debt, and not transferable, and bearing interest at the rate of seven per cent per annum, in favor of Alturas county, to the full amount of the indebtedness apportioned to their respective counties, the interest on said warrants to be paid on first day of January and first day of July in each year at the office of the county treasurer of Alturas county, or at such bank in the city of New York as may be designated by the board of county commissioners of Alturas county, such warrants to be redeemed by each respective county in the following manner: Ten per cent of the total amount issued to be paid in eight years from the date of issue, and ten per cent annually thereafter, until all of said warrants are paid, making the last warrants redeemable eighteen years from the date of issue, and the money so received from the counties of Elmore, Logan and Bingham by Alturas county, shall be applied only to the payment of the present indebtedness of Alturas county, or the securities into which it has been funded."

It appears that the officers of Alturas county utterly disregarded the duty enjoined upon them by said act, and failed for more than three years to appoint such accountant, and that in 1894 the counties of Elmore, Logan and Bingham (defendant county) united in a proceeding in this court, and procured, in this court, in May, 1894, a writ of mandate compelling the appointment of said accountants to apportion said indebtedness. (SeeElmore Co. v. Alturas Co., 4 Idaho 145, 37 P. 349.) Pursuant to the requirements of said writ of mandate, each of said counties appointed its accountant, and the four accountants met at Hailey on the sixteenth day of August, 1894, and ascertained and apportioned said indebtedness, their report being in words and figures as follows:

"We the undersigned, accountants for the counties of Alturas, Bingham, Elmore and Logan, duly appointed in accordance with an act of the legislative assembly of the territory of Idaho entitled 'An act creating and organizing the counties of Elmore and Logan and defining the boundaries of Bingham and Alturas counties,' approved February 7, 1889, and in accordance with the mandate of the supreme court of the state of Idaho issued by the said court, June 1, 1894, did meet at the town of Hailey on the twenty-third day of July, 1894, and, after having duly qualified as such accountants, proceeded to apportion the indebtedness of Alturas county in accordance with said act. And we hereby certify:

"1. That the total valuation of all assessable property in the county of Alturas for the year 1888, as appears from the assessment-roll of said county for said year, is $ 3,787,533; that the value of said property lying within the limits of the county of Bingham after division is $ 85,770; that the value of said property lying within the limits of the county of Alturas, after division, is $ 890,432; that the value of said property lying within the limits of the county of Elmore, after division, is $ 881,660; that the valuation of said property lying within the limits of the county of Logan, after division, is $ 1,929,671.

"2. That the amount of moneys in the treasury of the county of Alturas on the seventh day of February, 1889, is $ 36,338.39. Of this sum there was apportioned during the year 1889 the following amounts: To the territorial fund, $ 2,271.66; to the school fund, $ 8,997.09; to the bond tax fund to meet July interest, $ 7,817.98==$ 19,096.73; leaving a net balance to be apportioned, $ 17,251.66. Of this amount Alturas' portion is $ 4,055.80; Bingham's portion is $ 390.65; Elmore's portion is $ 4,015.83; Logan's portion is $ 8,789.38.

"3. That the floating indebtedness of Alturas county on the seventh day of February, 1889, is as follows: Outstanding general road and bridge warrants and interest to February 7, 1889, $ 10,104.94; outstanding district road and bridge warrants, being drawn on road districts lying outside the boundaries of Alturas county after division and interest thereon to February 7, 1889, $ 6,697.21; outstanding current expense fund warrants and interest to February 7, 1889, $ 26,049.44; outstanding hospital indebtedness $ 262.50; total floating indebtedness, February 7, 1889, $ 43,114.09. The total floating indebtedness is apportioned as follows: To Alturas, $ 10,135.92; to Bingham, $ 976.32; to Elmore, $ 10,036.10; to Logan, $ 21,965.75==$ 43,114.09.

"4. We find that Alturas county delinquent tax of 1888, amounting to $ 4,263.20, was collected in 1889 and on February 7, 1889, we find that Custer county warrants were held by Alturas county to the amount of $ 2,000, making the sum of $...