Board of Sup'rs of Quitman County v. Self

• Decision Date: 20 January 1930
• Docket Number: 28289
• Parties: BOARD OF SUP'RS OF QUITMAN COUNTY v. SELF
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

125 So. 828

156 Miss. 273

BOARD OF SUP'RS OF QUITMAN COUNTY v. SELF

No. 28289

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 20, 1930

Division B

Suggestion of Error Overruled February 17, 1930.

APPEAL from chancery court of Quitman county HON. R. E. JACKSON Chancellor.

Suit by P. M. B. Self against the board of supervisors of Quitman county. Decree for complainant, and defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded in part, and reversed and rendered in part.

Judgment reversed and remanded.

W. E. Gore, T. N. Gore and A. A. Pogue, all of Marks, for appellant.

Section 170 of the Constitution of Mississippi gives the board of supervisors full jurisdiction over roads, bridges and ferries, and they have the exclusive power to locate roads.

Board of Supervisors of Claiborne County v. Callender, 90 So. 722, 128 Miss. 159; Board of Supervisors of Lauderdale v. Wilson, 114 So. 609, 148 Miss. 316.

Where the orders and proceedings of the board recite all necessary jurisdictional facts and constitute a valid judgment of the facts therein recited, it cannot be attacked collaterally. The remedy was by appeal from the orders of the board, which the appellee did not do, and he cannot avail himself of the remedy by injunction.

Johnson et al. v. Board of Supervisors of Yazoo County, 74 So. 321, 113 Miss. 435.

Lowrey & Lamb, of Marks, for appellee.

The money arising from the sale of road bonds belonged to the taxpayers of the district and debt which produced the money could never have been incurred without the consent of the majority of the qualified electors and these electors had the right and were given the power to say whether the bonds should be sold and if sold where the money arising therefrom should be spent.

Rhodes v. Robinson, 109 Miss. 114, 68 So. 145.

Under section 4, chapter 207, Laws of 1920, it is provided and required that the proceeds of any bonds issued under the authority of the act shall be used for no other purpose than the one set forth in the original resolution of the board of supervisors.

Board of Supervisors of Lauderdale County v. G. F. Wilson et al., 148 Miss. 316, 114 So. 609.

The requirements of the statute that an estimate of the cost of the construction and maintenance of a public road be filed is mandatory.

Dixon et al. v. Greene County et al., 76 Miss. 794, 25 So. 665; Board of Supervisors of Leflore County v. Cannon et al., 81 Miss. 334, 33 So. 81.

Argued orally by W. E. Gore, for appellant, and by Lomax B. Lamb, for appellee.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

The appellee, Self, was complainant in the court below, and filed a bill in the chancery court seeking an injunction against the board of supervisors from paying out funds derived from a bond issue of road district No. 3 east of Coldwater river in Quitman county, Miss. He alleged that, upon a petition of more than twenty per cent of the qualified electors of such road district, the board of supervisors had filed with it a petition for the issuance of thirty-five thousand dollars of bonds for the road district, under the provisions of chapter 277, Laws of 1920, Hemingway's Supplement of 1921, sections 7158 to 7178c, inclusive. He further alleged that under the petition filed before the board the roads to be improved out of the bond issue were designated. The petition, made an exhibit to the bill and petitioning for the road to be built, described the road desired to be constructed as follows:

"Beginning where the line between Quitman and Panola counties is intersected by the road known as the Marks and Batesville public road and which said intersection is in section 23, township twenty-eight (28), range one (1) east, in Quitman county, Mississippi, and running thence westwardly through sections twenty-three (23), twenty-two (22), twenty-one (21), twenty (20), and nineteen (19), of township twenty-eight (28), range one (1) east, and section twenty-four (24), township twenty-eight (28), range one (1) west, in Quitman county, to where the said public road turns southwardly west of main dwelling house on Riverview plantation of P. M. B. Self and which said work of construction shall begin at the intersection of said Marks and Batesville public road with said line between Panola and Quitman counties and proceed westwardly to where said road turns southwardly west of main dwelling house on the Riverview plantation of P. M. B. Self and thence southwardly until said sum has been expended.

"Your petitioner further prays that the sum of ten thousand dollars for the proceeds of said bond issue be used in the construction and maintenance of the public road in said district described as:

"Beginning where the public road running from Marks to what is known at McLean Neal Place crosses south line of said road district and running thence north eastwardly to town of Marks in said Quitman county, and which said work of construction shall begin at south line of said road district and proceed northwardly towards town of Marks, in said Quitman county, Mississippi."

The petition also prayed that the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars of the bond issue be used for the construction of the first road described, and ten thousand dollars of it be used for the construction of the second road described.

On this petition the board of supervisors entered an order adjudging that the petition contains names of more than twenty per cent of the qualified electors of the territory comprising the proposed district, and that the district came under the provisions of sections 7158 to 7178c of Hemingway's 1921 supplement, chapter 277, Laws of 1920, and amendments thereto; that the proposed bond issue, added to the amount of all outstanding bonds heretofore issued against the territory comprising said district, does not exceed fifteen per cent of the assessed value of all the taxable property within said district; and declared it to be the purpose of the board to issue the bonds of the district in the said sum, and ordered an election to be held in the district at a named place on the 3d day of June, 1927, at which election the proposal of the board to issue said bonds in the said sum should be submitted to the qualified electors of the district, and directed the election commissioners to give notice as required by law under the provisions of the registration, election chapter, Code of 1906; and that the ticket contain provision, "For the issuance of bonds," and provision, "Against the issuance of bonds," with appropriate places to mark the ballot in conformity to the statute. The order of the board under the petition did not specify what road should be built from the proceeds so issued. The election commissioners of the county published a notice to the qualified electors of the district of the county which reads as follows:

"Notice of Election.

"To the Qualified Electors of Road District Number Three, East of Coldwater River, in Quitman County, Mississippi:

"Notice is hereby given that on May 3, 1927, the board of supervisors of Quitman county, Mississippi, by an order entered in Minute Book 9, page 519, of the minutes of said board, ordered an election to be held on Friday June 3, 1927 at the residence of A. H. Nobles in said district, submitting the proposal of said board of supervisors to issue the bonds of said road district in the sum of thirty-five thousand ($ 35,000) dollars, the proceeds of which shall be used in the construction and maintenance of public roads in said district.

"You will therefore please take notice of said election which will be held at said place and said time and govern yourself accordingly."

This notice was published as required by law in the newspaper of the county for the time required, and proof of publication was made. The election commissioners, however, in prescribing the ballot and in printing the tickets for the election, followed the petition above set out specifying the roads to be constructed, and specifying the law under which the election was to be held, and the amount to be devoted to each of the said roads. This ticket was published by the election commissioners without consulting with the board of supervisors or its attorney, one of the election commissioners stating that he prepared the ticket and followed the petition in doing so, and that he was acting on his own initiative in so doing. The result of the election was fifteen votes for the bond issue and none against it. Prior to the filing of this petition, there had been a former petition filed for the same district for the same amount of bonds without any designation in the petition as to where the funds would be used or upon what roads they would be expended, and this petition had been acted upon, an election ordered in conformity to the law, and at that election the proposal had been defeated by a vote of two to one, or twelve to six. This proceeding had been only a few weeks prior to the institution of the present proceeding for the present bond issue.

The chancery judge granted the injunction as prayed, and the county answered the bill, and the cause was tried before the chancellor upon bill, answer, and proof, at which hearing the chancellor made the injunction perpetual. The bill of injunction, in addition to the matters stated above, set out that the board did not comply with the law in letting the contract, in that it did not have appropriate plans and specifications showing the cost of each mile of the proposed road.

It appears that the main question discussed in the court below and here was whether the board must conform to the roads specified in the petition and on the election ticket. It was repeatedly stated in the trial below that the complainant did not object to the board paying for the road out of any funds other than the bond...