Freeman v. Board Supervisors Life County

• Decision Date: 14 January 1889
• Citation: 66 Miss. 1,5 So. 516
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: T. H. FREEMAN ET AL. v. BOARD SUPERVISORS LEE COUNTY

5 So. 516

66 Miss. 1

T. H. FREEMAN ET AL. v. BOARD SUPERVISORS LEE COUNTY

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 14, 1889

APPEAL from the chancery court of Lee county, HON. BAXTER MCFARLAND Chancellor.

This was an injunction suit brought by the board of supervisors of Lee county against the fence commissioners appointed under the act approved March 5, 1878 (see Acts 1878, p. 305). The object of the injunction was to prevent the commissioners from wrongly locating and constructing a fence, which they were causing to be constructed outside of the township line.

Upon final hearing the court dissolved the injunction, holding that the matter was not one in which the county was interested, and that the board of supervisors had no power to institute the suit. But the court disallowed the claim of the commissioners for damages, their attorney's fee, against the complainant on its injunction bond, and from this action the commissioners appealed, and the board of supervisors prosecute a cross-appeal.

Decree is reversed and affirmed.

Clayton & Anderson, for appellants and cross-appellee.

Boards of supervisors can sue only in reference to matters in which the whole county is interested. Code, § 2175. The acts of the commissioners concerned only one township a portion of the county.

The county is liable for the actual damages upon the injunction bond. The board has power to sue, and in exercising this right it assumes, just as an individual does, the risk of costs and damages. State v. Fortinberry, 54 Miss 316; Dooley v. Kansas City, 6 Am. & Eng. Corp. Cas. 76.

J. L Finley, for appellee and cross-appellants.

The acts of 1878 certainly confers upon the board of supervisors jurisdiction over the commissioners. The act of 1888 amending the original act, requires the commissioners to report to the board. They were created by the board, and can be restrained by it. There is no pretence that their act was not illegal, and contrary to the order of the board.

The acts of the commissioners concerned the whole county, as much so as the building of a bridge in one corner of the county, both being chiefly for the benefit of a locality, but concerning the whole county.

OPINION

ARNOLD, C. J.

It is only in regard to matters in which the county is interested that boards of supervisors may sue. Code, § 2175. The county was not interested in the subject-matter of this litigation. It concerned only that part...