Cross County Road Improvement District No. 4 v. Henderson
| Decision Date | 22 December 1924 |
| Docket Number | 64 |
| Parties | CROSS COUNTY ROAD IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT No. 4 v. HENDERSON |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Cross Chancery Court; A. L. Hutchins, Chancellor reversed.
Decree reversed, and cause remanded.
Ogan & Shaver, and T. E. Lines, for appellant.
The effect of the act annexing the land to the district determines the question of benefits. The extent thereof is to be arrived at according to the plan in the original act creating the district. 81 Ark. 208; 125 Ark. 330; 145 Ark 49.
Killough Killough & Killough, for appellee.
Property cannot be taxed solely for revenue. 239 U.S. 478. The act is retroactive and interferes with vested rights, and is therefore unconstitutional. 25 R. C. L., p. 785; 130 Ark 128; 147 Ark. 24. The act is void because it purports to amend a repealed act and is not sufficient in itself to be complete. 25 R. C. L. 1035. While the title of an act is not controlling, it is proper to consider it in determining the meaning of the lawmakers. 150 Ark. 244; 151 Ark. 486. The repeal of a statute need not be express. 140 Ark. 628; 141 Ark. 247. The original act, being repealed, could not be amended. 61 Ark. 238. The power to tax additional territory was not saved by the act of 1921, and the commissioners have only such powers as are given by that act. 130 Ark. 410. The act is void for vagueness and arbitrary exclusion. 139 Ark. 595; 146 Ark. 288.
Cross County Road Improvement District No. 4 was created by an act of the General Assembly of 1919 (Road Acts of 1919, vol. 2, p. 2362), authorizing the improvement of a certain public road in Cross County, running south from the city of Wynne. The statute was in the customary form, describing the boundaries of the district and the road to be improved, naming the commissioners, and authorizing the formation of plans, the improvement of the highway, borrowing money and issuing bonds, the assessment of benefits to adjacent property situated in the district, and the levying of taxes to pay for the improvement and to pay off the bonds as they became due. The improvement authorized by the statute was completed, and bonds were issued and sold to raise funds in advance to construct the improvement. Before this was done, however, there was another statute, enacted at the extraordinary session of the General Assembly in February, 1920, confirming the assessments made by the commissioners. No question is raised in the present litigation concerning the validity of the original statute, or the statute confirming the assessments or any proceedings thereunder. However, the General Assembly of 1921 enacted a statute prohibiting the commissioners of the aforementioned district front issuing any additional bonds or other obligations. Special Acts 1921, p. 1353. The title of this act provides for the repeal of act No. 44 of the special session of 1919, confirming the assessment of benefits in Road Improvement District No. 4 of Cross County, and also recites the repeal of the act of 1919 creating said district. Section 1 of the statute provides that the commissioners of said district "are hereby prohibited from issuing any additional bonds or obligations for or on behalf of said district from and after the passage of this act." That section reads, further, that the commissioners "are hereby authorized and empowered to spend the balance of the funds on hand for the purpose of constructing the road heretofore laid out in said district, and, when said funds have been expended, it shall be the duty of the board of commissioners for said district to file a true and complete report of expenditures with the clerk of Cross County, Arkansas." Section 2 of the statute provides that the commissioners "are hereby empowered and directed to continue to serve as a board of commissioners for said district for the purpose of paying all bonds, certificates of indebtedness or other outstanding indebtedness of the district, and that it shall be the duty of the board of commissioners for that district, from time to time, to levy such annual taxes for collection as shall be necessary for the maintenance and operation of the district, which have heretofore been entered into by said board." This section also provides that the board "shall have full authority and power to take any and all necessary proceedings under the terms of act 625 of the Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas of the year 1919, approved on April 2, 1919, and as amended by act 44 of the extraordinary session of the General Assembly of the State of Arkansas for the year 1919, approved February 4, 1920, but said board shall not have authority to issue any additional bonds or obligations from and after the passage of this act."
The General Assembly of 1923 enacted still another statute in regard to this district (Special Acts 1923, p. 354) purporting to amend the original statute creating the district hereinbefore mentioned. It amends the first section of the original statute only by including certain other real property in the district. This is the only extent to which the amendment operates, and the additional property thus included constitutes that portion of the city of Wynne lying south of the Memphis-Bald Knob branch of the Missouri Pacific Railroad.
Appellees are the owners of some of the lots of real property added to the territory of the district by the act of 1923 supra, and they instituted this action in the chancery court of Cross County to restrain the board of commissioners and the assessors of the district and also the tax collector of the county from assessing benefits and levying and collecting taxes on any of the property added to...
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