City of Tulsa v. Williamson, 36677
Decision Date | 29 October 1954 |
Docket Number | No. 36677,36677 |
Citation | 276 P.2d 209 |
Parties | CITY OF TULSA, Plaintiff, v. Mac Q. WILLIAMSON, Attorney General of the State of Oklahoma, Defendant. |
Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. By authority of the Constitution of Oklahoma, Section 27, Article 10, a municipality has the right, by proper vote at a legal election, to issue bonds for the purpose of purchasing and acquiring a designated valuable collection of American History and Art for public museum purposes.
2. The purchase of such property for public museum purpose out of bond issue properly approved by legal vote constitutes the purchase of a public utility within the meaning and the authority of the Constitution, Section 27, Article 10.
3. In a municipal bond election, when the ballot title states the proposition submitted to the voters in plain and comprehensive language, without contradiction, concealment or ambiguity, the inclusion therein of mere words of surplusage which could not confuse or mislead the voters, will not invalidate the election nor affect the bond issue approved by proper vote at such election.
4. Record examined, and held that the plan and purpose of the City of Tulsa to purchase and acquire the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation's Collection of American History and Art, for a public museum, is lawful; and that the bond election approving the issuance of negotiable coupon bonds in the sum of $2,250,000 for such purpose was legal and that such bond issue merits approval.
T. A. Landrith, Jr., City Atty., Edmund Lashley, John W. Hager, R. K. McGee and R. E. Lavender, Tulsa, for plaintiff.
Mac Q. Williams, Atty. Gen., Lynnie Clayton Spahn, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant.
This action presents the question whether the Attorney General as ex-officio Bond Commissioner of the State should be required in mandamus to approve a certain negotiable coupon bond issue of the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma
It was the overall purpose of the city to purchase from the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation a certain extensive collection of American History and Art then owned by the Foundation in the City of Tulsa, and to thereafter house and maintain the same as a Public Museum in the City of Tulsa.
The purchase price was $2,250,000, which the city intended to pay by a bond issue pursuant to authority granted by Sec. 27, Art. 10 of the Constitution of Oklahoma. By proper resolution and ordinance the matter of issuing such purported bonds was submitted to a vote of the people of Tulsa, and the election favored the issuance of such bonds by substantially more than the vote percentage required by law. There is no question on these points.
Three other questions, however, have arisen and it was the position of the Attorney General that he should not approve the bonds until these questions were judicially passed upon. This action commenced pursuant to proper resolution of the City of Tulsa presents for determination these three questions as follows:
'(1) Did the inclusion of the words 'operating and maintaining' in the ballot title render said proposed bond issue invalid?
'(2) Does the City of Tulsa have the right to issue bonds for the purpose of acquiring the collection of American History and Art owned by The Thomas Gilcrease Foundation?
'(3) Is the property to be acquired by the proceeds of the sale of these bonds a public utility within the meaning of Section 27 of Article 10 of the Oklahoma Constitution?'
The Thomas Gilcrease collection of American History and Art, among other things, contains the following:
'A fine collection of rare worth and interest is the peace medal group, those marks of esteem and appreciation given the Indian leaders by the English rules and the Presidents of the United States.
in the library's offerings.
'In addition to the manuscripts, there are books ranging from the first edition of the first complete book ever printed in the New World to early printings of Indian Territory and fine works of today. A listing of these is an introduction in history itself and a fabulous record. Folios, maps, prints, all the handiwork of man in the recorded word are in the Gilcrease collections, and add to the story of the paintings, artifacts, sculpture, etc.
'Manuscripts totaling over 10,000 pages, dating from 1526 and covering the Cortes period in Mexico.
'A few of the rare items in the manuscript and book collection is the letter signed by Diego Columbus, Christopher's son, which is his first letter ever to be sent from the New World, sent from Santo Domingo, in January 1512.
'Letters signed by Diego Columbus and Bartholome de las Casas, dated in 1519, written from the New World concerning the Christianization of the Indians of the land.
'A document signed by Hernando Cortes, an original manuscript of the first decree made by Cortes the day after capture of Mexico City, August 14, 1521.
'A document signed by Hernando De Soto, companion of Pizarro in Peru, and discoverer of the Mississippi River, issuing orders to fellow conquistador, Hernan Ponce de Leon, June 27, 1535.
'A letter from Thomas Jefferson expressing his concern over the State of the Union, July 1 and 2, 1776.
'The only original certified copies of the Articles of the Confederation and the Declaration of Independence outside the Library of Congress in Washington. These were ordered by the Continental Congress for the King of Prussia and are signed and attested by Benjamin Franklin and Silas Deane.
'The only known copy of the rarest book on Virginia, a poem by Christopher Brooks on a massacre there, it is a first edition and the first book of English poetry written about America, published in London in 1622.
'A copy of the first Bible printed in English, in the New World, published in Philadelphia by Robert Aitken, 1781. Bartholome de las Casas--complete set of the First Editions of his rare American Tracts, published in 1552. Bernaldez Codex, written by a friend of Columbus from the explorer's own account of his discovery of America, dated 1508-1510.
'Constitutions of the Thirteen United States of America, the most important of all of Benjamin Franklin's political publications. This book has been called the Magna Carta of Europe, unsurpassed as a legislative code in both the practical organization of a government and in the principles on which it rests. This was Franklin's own personal copy, and bears his coat of arms, dated 1783.
'The original document appointing Paul Revere...
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