Board of County Commissioners of Santa Fe County v. Territory of New Mexico Ex Rel Bird Coler No 42 Board of County Commissioners of Santa Fe County v. Territory of New Mexico Ex Rel Bird Coler No 43

• Decision Date: 20 December 1909
• Docket Number: Nos. 42,43,s. 42
• Citation: 30 S.Ct. 111,215 U.S. 296,54 L.Ed. 202
• Parties: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SANTA FE COUNTY et al., Appts., v. TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO EX REL. BIRD S. COLER and E. T. Chapman. NO 42. BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SANTA FE COUNTY et al., Appts., v. TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO EX REL. BIRD S. COLER and E. T. Chapman. NO 43
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

215 U.S. 296

30 S.Ct. 111

54 L.Ed. 202

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SANTA FE COUNTY et al., Appts.,

v TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO EX REL. BIRD S. COLER and E. T. Chapman.

NO 42.

BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS OF SANTA FE COUNTY

et al., Appts.,

v. TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO EX REL. BIRD S. COLER and E. T. Chapman.

NO 43.

Nos. 42, 43.

Submitted November 29, 1909.

Decided December 20, 1909.

Mr. A. B. Renehan for appellants.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 297-299 intentionally omitted] Mr. Charles A. Spiess for appellees.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

These appeals are prosecuted to review judgments of the supreme court of New Mexico, modifying, and affirming as modified, judgments of mandamus of the district court of Santa Fe county, commanding the appellants to levy a tax of 10 mills in each case on each dollar of taxable property in the county, to pay certain judgments for the amount of principal and interest upon bonds issued by the county. The cases are here on separate records, but, as they are submitted together, we dispose of them, as the supreme court of the territory did, in one opinion.

The proceedings were commenced by petitions, which are alike, except as to the amount of the judgment recovered. In No. 42 it is alleged to be $60,926.02; in No. 43 it is alleged to be $74,358.19. Both judgments were recovered in the district court of the county in which the petitioners (appellees here) were complainants and the board of county commissioners were defendants. It is alleged that the judgments ordered the sums due as above stated, and the interest thereon to become due at 5 per cent per annum from the date of the judgments, 'to be assessed and levied upon and out of the taxable property situate in the said county of Santa Fe, and to cause the same to be collected in the manner provided by law, and to pay the same out of the treasury of said county to the said complainants, their legal representatives or assignees, upon the delivery of a proper voucher therefor.' Default in the payment of each of the judgments and its requirements is alleged, and that the board held a meeting during the month of July or August, 1905, and made a levy for various territorial purposes, but 'wholly failed and refused to make any levy whatsoever, and still fail and refuse to make any levy whatsoever, for the said year of 1905, for the purpose of raising funds to pay the aforesaid judgment, and interest and costs thereon.' The want of a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law is also alleged. Peremptory writs of mandamus were issued without a hearing.

Subsequently the appellants filed a petition in each case in the district court, and prayed 'that the peremptory order be suspended herein, and that they be permitted to show cause and be heard before the order and writ are made permanent.'

To sustain this prayer they alleged that, at the date of the rendition of the judgments of appellees, all of the property within the county of Santa Fe subject to taxation was liable for the payment of its pro rata of the judgments; that the thirty-fifth legislative assembly 'eliminated' portions of Santa Fe county, and attached them respectively to the county of Rio Arriba and the county of Torrance, and made them subject to their proportions of the indebtedness of Santa Fe county; that the taxable property situate therein is liable for its part of the indebtedness; that the county commissioners are without jurisdiction to levy and assess taxes upon it, and that the peremptory writs include only 'the property and territory within the present boundaries' of Santa Fe, and do not pretend to include that in Rio Arriba and Torrance; that by a mandamus issued out of the district court on the 25th day of January, 1901, the county commissioners were required to levy a tax upon the taxable property in Santa Fe sufficient in amount to produce a sum of $135,284.19, with interest thereon from the 24th of September, 1900, until paid, at 5 per cent per annum, and $30 costs, the said sum being for the amount of the judgments in cases 4091 and 4092 of the district court of Santa Fe county; that the board obeyed the writ, and levied 82 mills on each dollar of taxable valuation, and certified the same to the treasurer and ex officio tax collector of the county, and directed him to place the same on the tax rolls and collect in the manner provided by law; that the levy is still standing on the tax rolls of the county, and is a lien upon the taxable property of the county as then existing, and subject to the payment of the judgments; that the commissioners are without authority to enforce the same, and that the levy is ample and sufficient to cover the amount of the judgments in cases Nos. 4091 and 4092, and that the levy of 10 mills in each case is largely in excess of the amount required, and is 'unjust and unfair' to the taxpayers of the county of Santa Fe, and ruinous to its 'progress and prosperity.' It is alleged that the board is entitled to be heard on the amount of levy, or whether any levy should be ordered, as there exists a legal and adequate levy to cover the judgments; that it is impossible to determine the amount of levy necessary to be made for the year succeeding 1905 until the tax roll for that year has been completed and the amount of taxable property determined; that the board should not be held in default until the time shall arrive when the levy can be made, and they shall have failed to perform their duty; that the levy of the tax, as required by the writ, is not one which the law 'enjoins as a duty resulting from an office, trust, or station,' because the levy of 82 mills, when collected, will be sufficient to pay the judgments, and that it is not a duty of the board to collect it, but 'the duty of the treasurer and ex officio tax collector of Santa Fe county.' It is alleged appellees have a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law.

As an additional ground of the motions, it is alleged that the act of Congress, by which the bonds are 'pretended to have been validated, approved, and confirmed is indefinite, uncertain, and incapable of reasonable interpretation and enforcement, so as to be applied to any bonds issued by the county of Santa Fe,' and does not sufficiently identify what bonds are intended to be validated, approved, and confirmed nor what holders of the bonds, it being alleged that they 'are subjects of different ownership and are not all in the hands of one person, and it cannot be determined from the said act of Congress what holder of said bonds, in excess of the amount named in the said act of Congress, shall not have the benefits of validation.' And further, that at the time of the passage of the act of Congress there was more than one refunding act in force in the territory, but what refunding act is referred to by the act of Congress is not disclosed.

The motions to suspend the peremptory writs were denied, and the orders denying them were affirmed by the supreme court of the territory. The latter court, however, modified the writs, as will be presently pointed out.

The assignments of error in the supreme court of the territory repeated and emphasized the grounds urged in the motions to suspend the peremptory writs of mandamus. In this court the modification of the judgments by the supreme court of the territory is attacked and some new contentions are made.

The case is submitted on briefs, and we shall not attempt to trace an exact correspondence of the arguments of appellants with the assignments of error, nor, indeed, shall we follow the details of the argument, but consider those matters only which we think can in any way affect the merits of the controversy. It will be observed in the beginning that the writs of mandamus issued by the district court are but the execution by it of its judgments of the 24th of September, 1900, the amounts of which the board of commissioners were ordered to assess against the taxable property of the county and pay the same. We may say, therefore, at the outset, that whatever could have been urged to prevent the rendition of the judgments cannot now be urged to prevent their enforcement. This...