Clark v. Eagerton
| Decision Date | 11 May 1922 |
| Docket Number | 4 Div. 954. |
| Citation | 207 Ala. 491,93 So. 455 |
| Parties | CLARK v. EAGERTON ET AL., COM'RS. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Appeal from Circuit Court, Coffee County; A. B. Foster, Judge.
Bill by W. F. Clark against J. T. Eagerton and others, as members of the Commissioners' Court of Coffee County, the State Tax Commission, and Sanders and Brunson, to enjoin payment of expenses of substituting tax records. From decree dissolving temporary injunction and sustaining demurrers, complainant appeals. Affirmed.
W. O Mulkey, of Geneva, J. A. Carnley, of Elba, and M. S Carmichael, of Montgomery, for appellant.
Harwell G. Davis, Atty. Gen., J. J. Mayfield, Asst. Atty. Gen., and W. W. Sanders, of Elba, for appellees.
We have in this state no statute expressly authorizing commissioners' courts to supply and establish lost county records. But those courts are intrusted with all the authority and jurisdiction, whether legislative, judicial, or executive committed by law to the counties. Commissioners' Court v. Moore, 53 Ala. 25. And in the exercise of its general powers of supervision and control over county affairs and county property there is not only an implied power, but an implied duty as well, to see that lost records, such as tax assessments, upon which the proper administration of county affairs vitally depends, shall be reestablished.
The collection of taxes must be grounded upon duly authenticated assessments. Taxes have often been called the lifeblood of government, without which it cannot perform its necessary functions, or even long endure. "Any delay in the proceedings of the officers, upon whom the duty is devolved of collecting the taxes, may derange the operations of government, and thereby cause serious detriment to the public." Dows v. Chicago, 11 Wall. 108, 20 L.Ed. 65; Ala., etc., Ins. Co. v. Lott. Tax Col. 54 Ala. 499, 507.
Without the record of assessments, county officials cannot safely or effectively proceed with the performance of the essential duties enjoined upon them by law with respect thereto, and the whole scheme of property taxation is thereby frustrated.
The amendatory language above quoted is more than a mere restriction upon the effect to be given to the language of the amended act; very clearly it confers the authority to employ counsel, and to pay them for their services, at their discretion, "when deemed advisable or necessary" in the administration of county...
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Young v. City of Hokes Bluff
...by the State alone. Constitution 1901, § 170. Walker v. Bridgeforth, 9 Ala.App. 257, 62 So. 323 [ (1913) ] (approved Clark v. Eagerton, 207 Ala. 491, 93 So. 455 [ (1922) ]). The form of suggested de novo complaint in § 363, ... [now Ala.Code 1975, § 12-22-113] begins as § 170, supra, requir......
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Arnold v. Custer County
...124 S.E. 810; Board of Revenue v. Merrill, 193 Ala. 521, 68 So. 971; Ensley Motor Co. v. O'Rear, 196 Ala. 481, 71 So. 704; Clark v. Eagerton, 207 Ala. 491, 93 So. 455; Foshee v. State ex rel. Messer, 210 Ala. 155, 97 565; Hall v. Lauderdale, 46 N.Y. 70; Wadsworth v. Board of Supervisors, 13......
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Wise v. State
...Co., 196 Ala. 447, 71 So. 427. The power of commissioners' courts to supply and establish lost county records was maintained in Clark v. Eagerton, supra. In instant case the original jurisdiction of equity to substitute or establish the existence of a lost or destroyed tax assessment is ass......
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State ex rel. Towle v. Stone
...supported by the cited authorities, and is not in harmony with the above-quoted established rule in the State. Stress is laid upon Clark v. Eagerton, supra. But the power implied related to a duty imposed upon the county as to its property and to the restoration of the lost tax assessment r......