Ex parte Rowland
Decision Date | 01 October 1881 |
Citation | 26 L.Ed. 861,104 U.S. 604 |
Parties | EX PARTE ROWLAND |
Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
PETITION for a writ of habeas corpus.
This is an application for a writ of habeas corpus to procure the discharge of Peter M. Rowland, D. C. Shultze, and R. C. Germany from the custody of the marshal of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama. The facts, as shown by the return to a rule to show cause heretofore made, may be stated as follows: —
On the 31st of December, 1868, the General Assembly of Alabama passed an act to authorize counties, towns, and cities to subscribe to the capital stock of railroad companies. The sections of the act material to the present case are the seventh, eighth, ninth, and twelfth. These are as follows:——
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' . Pamph. Laws, 1868, pp. 516, 517.
Under the authority of this act the county of Chambers issued a series of coupon bonds to the Eufaula, Opelika, Oxford, & Guntersville Railroad Company. On the 25th of May, 1875, Dix & Co., subjects of Spain, recovered a judgment against the county in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Middle District of Alabama, for $2,040.50 and costs on account of unpaid coupons cut from these bonds. Execution was issued on this judgment, and returned 'no property found,' Aug. 6, 1875. On the 19th of November, 1875, an alternative writ of mandamus was issued from the Circuit Court on the petition of Dix & Co., directed 'to P. M. Rowland, judge of probate of Chambers County, Alabama, and ex-officio judge of the court of county commissioners of said county, and J. H. Forman, R. C. Germany, W. J. Grady, and D. C. Shultze, members of said court of county commissioners,' commanding them 'to levy and assess, in accordance with the provisions of said act of the General Assembly, . . . such a tax upon the real and personal property in said county of Chambers as will satisfy the said judgment, with interest and costs, and that they continue to levy and assess said tax as aforesaid, from time to time, until said judgment is fully satisfied, with interest and costs,' or show cause on the 3d of December why they ought not to be required to do so. No cause being shown against the writ, the court, on the 17th December, issued a peremptory writ with the following command:——
'Now, therefore, you, the said P. M. Rowland, judge as aforesaid, and R. C. Germany, J. H. Forman, W. J. Grady, and D. C. Shultze, members of and composing the court of county commissioners of said county, are hereby commanded forthwith and without delay to levy and assess, and cause the collection of, in accordance with the provisions of said act of the General Assembly of said State of Alabama, such a tax upon the real and personal property in said county of Chambers as will be sufficient to satisfy said judgment, with interest and costs, and that you continue to levy and assess said tax and cause the same to be collected, as aforesaid, from time to time, until said judgment is wholly satisfied, with interest and costs of suit, and how you shall have executed this writ make known to us, to the judge of this court, at the next term of said court, on the first day of said term, to wit, on the first day of May, A. D. 1876.'
On the 24th of April, 1876, the court of county commissioners, at a regular adjourned term, made the following order, which was duly recorded:——
In obedience to, the command of the peremptory writ, the commissioners, on the 3d of May, made return that they had levied the tax as required and accompanied their return with a copy of the order entered to that effect. Nothing more was done in the suit until May 23, 1881, when, on motion of Dix & Co., the return to the peremptory writ was quashed, and a rule entered on the court of county commissioners, 'as wella § the members thereof, to wit, P. M. Rowland, judge of probate and ex-officio judge of the said court of county commissioners, and to J. H. Forman, R. C. Germany, W. J. Grady, and D. C. Shultze, who were members of and together constituted said court of county commissioners' when the peremptory writ of mandamus was served, to appear forthwith and show cause why an attachment shoul not issue against them and each of them for not obeying the command of the writ. This rule was served on Rowland, Shultze, and Germany on the 29th of May. Forman and Grady had died before the rule was entered. The surviving members of the court of county commissioners made return to the rule on the 16th of July, as follows:——
'In this case a rule nisi having, on the twenty-fifth day of May, 1881, issued out of said court, commanding P. M. Rowland, as probate judge of Chambers Co., Ala., and ex officio a member of the court of county commissioners in and for said county, and J. N. Forman, R. C. Germany, W. J. Grady, and D. C. Shultze, members of said court of county commissioners, to appear instanter, or as soon as duly served with said rule nisi, show cause why an attachment should not issue against them and each of them for violating and disregarding the peremptory writ of mandamus heretofore issued and served upon them at the suit of said Dix & Co., the said P. M. Rowland, judge of probate and ex officio a member of said court as aforesaid, begs leave to make the following return, and to show cause under oath as follows why he should not be attached for contempt of the said Circuit Court of the United States:
'He respectfully states that he was at the service of said peremptory writ of mandamus, has ever since been, and is now, judge of the court of probate in and for said county of Chambers, and as such ex officio a member of the court of county commissioners in and for said county, and that on the twenty-fourth day of April, 1876, the court of county commissioners of said county of Chambers, at a regular term of said court, levied a tax of one-fourth of one per cent on the assessed value of the real and personal property of the taxpayers of said county of Chambers, to pay off and discharge the judgment mentioned in the peremptory writ of mandamus issued and served on him and the members of said court, as aforesaid, which said levy is sufficient to pay off and discharge said judgment, together with all interest and costs of suit—the assessed value of the taxable property of said county for said year 1876 being one million six hundred and thirty-one thousand five hundred and sixty-six dollars, and the levy of one-fourth of one per cent thereon is more than sufficient to pay off and discharge the judgment, together with all interest and costs. A copy of said levy is hereto attached, marked 'Exhibit A,' and made part of this return. Affiant, said P. M. Rowland, gave notice of J. G. Weaver, the then tax-collector of said county, and requested him to collect the said one-fourth of one per cent, levied as aforesaid for the purpose aforesaid. Said J. G....
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