City of Ravenna v. Boyer Fire Apparatus Co.

• Decision Date: 22 February 1927
• Citation: 218 Ky. 429
• Parties: City of Ravenna v. Boyer Fire Apparatus Company.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky

218 Ky. 429

City of Ravenna v. Boyer Fire Apparatus Company.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided February 22, 1927.

1. Municipal Corporations — Statute Providing Procedure for Appropriation Exceeding $50.00 by City of Sixth Class Held Repealed as to Obligations for Fire Apparatus (Ky. Stats., Section 3699: Acts 1922, c. 136). — Ky. Stats., section 3699, requiring yeas and nays of four members of board of trustees of city of sixth class to bind city for appropriation exceeding $50.00, held repealed so far as obligation for fire apparatus is concerned by Acts 1922, c. 136, authorizing board to incur such indebtedness by majority vote.

2. Statutes — Any Provision of Statute Relating to Subject Expressed in Title, Having Connection Therewith, and Not Foreign Thereto, is Expressed in Title (Constitution, Section 51). — No provision of statute or act, directly or indirectly relating to subject expressed in title, having natural connection therewith, and not foreign to it, should be deemed within inhibition of Constitution, section 51, requiring laws to relate to but one subject, which shall be expressed in title.

3. Statutes — Provision of Statute Authorizing Purchase of Fire Apparatus by City of Sixth Class Held Within Title "An Act Relating to Cities of the Sixth Class" (Acts 1922, c. 136; Constitution, art. 51). — Provision of Acts 1922, c. 136, authorizing board of trustees of city of sixth class to incur indebtedness for fire apparatus by majority vote, held within title "An act relating to cities of the sixth class," and not invalid as violating Constitution, art. 51, requiring laws to relate to but one subject which shall be expressed in title.

4. Municipal Corporations — City Must Pay Warrants Issued for Fire Truck, Pursuant to Motion Carried by Majority at Meeting of Board of Trustees (Constitution, Sections 157, 158). — City held required, as matter of law, to pay warrants issued to pay for fire truck, pursuant to motion carried by majority at meeting of board of trustees, at which four members were present, where indebtedness did not exceed annual revenue or limits fixed by Constitution, sections 157, 158.

Appeal from Estill Circuit Court.

RIDDELL & SHUMATE for appellant.

BURNAM & GREENLEAF for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY COMMISSIONER SANDIDGE.

Affirming.

At a regular meeting of the board of trustees of the town of Ravenna, Kentucky, a municipality of the sixth class, at which four of its members were present, held October 2, 1922, the following was entered on its official record book:

"Motion by Powell, seconded by Caywood, to adopt resolution to purchase fire truck and authorize chairman to sign contract. Motion carried. Motion by Powell, seconded by Hunt, that warrant be drawn on city treasurer to pay the Obenchain-Boyer Company, Logansport, Indiana, $650.00, one-fourth price of fire truck. Motion carried."

Other business was transacted by the board at that meeting, record of which was entered in the order book, and the minutes appear to have been duly signed by the chairman of the board and attested by the city clerk after having been approved. Shortly after this meeting of the board the Obenchain-Boyer Company, of Logansport, Indiana, delivered to the town of Ravenna the fire truck referred to in the orders above, and there was issued and delivered to it in payment four warrants for $650.00 each, one due immediately and the others due in one, two and three years respectively. These warrants directed the treasurer of the municipality to pay the sum indicated on the dates indicated to the Obenchain-Boyer Company, and were signed by the city clerk and countersigned by the chairman of the board of trustees. The warrant that was due immediately was presented to the treasurer and paid. None of the other three warrants were paid when due, and this action was instituted by appellant, Boyer Fire Apparatus Company, formerly the Obenchain-Boyer Company, to recover the amount due on them. The municipality defended upon the theory that the above quoted record made by the board of trustees of the city on its record book was not sufficient to bind it in view of the provisions of sections 3699 and 3700, Kentucky Statutes. A jury was impanelled and sworn, and at the conclusion of the evidence offered by both parties, the trial court peremptorily instructed the jury to find for appellee the full amount of the three warrants sued on, and on the verdict returned in conformity therewith the judgment appealed from was entered.

By section 3699, Kentucky Statutes, relating to municipalities of the sixth class, it is provided:

"No orders incurring a liability or requiring an appropriation of exceeding $50.00 for any one object or purpose shall be valid unless the same be voted for and the yeas and nays be so entered upon the journal by four members of the board."

In view of the provisions of that section of our statutes it has been held that any attempt upon the part of a municipality of the sixth class to incur a liability in excess of $50.00, whether by ordinance or resolution, is invalid unless four members of the board vote for same and the yeas and nays on the vote taken be entered upon the journal. See Fiscal Court of Breckinridge County v Board of Trustees of the Town of Hardinsburg, 118 S. W. 298. Under the statute, supra, in view of the only record evidence of its efforts to obligate itself to pay for the fire truck, quoted above, there would seem to be no alternative but to hold that the entries upon the record book of the board of trustees at its October meeting, 1922, were ineffectual to bind it to pay for the fire truck in question, if the requirements of that section of our statutes are still effective.

The General Assembly of 1922 enacted what now is carried in Baldwin's Kentucky Statute Service, supplementing Carroll's Kentucky Statutes, as section 3704a-1-2-3. It was chapter 136 of the Acts of 1922. By the first subsection of that act it is provided: "That all cities of the sixth class shall have the right to incur indebtedness not to exceed $4,500.00 for fire apparatus;" and by the second subsection it is provided: "The board of trustees of said sixth class cities by a majority vote shall have the power to incur said indebtedness." The concluding subsection of the act provides: "All acts or parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed." If this act may be held to be valid it readily becomes apparent that the provision of section 3699, requiring that any ordinance incurring a liability or requiring an appropriation exceeding $50.00 for any one object or purpose, must be voted for by four members of the board, in so far as that section may be sought to be invoked where the liability was incurred or appropriation made in purchasing fire apparatus has been superseded by the latter act, which expressly authorizes an indebtedness not to exceed $4,500.00, to be incurred by a majority vote of the board of trustees of sixth class towns. Boards of trustees of that class towns are...