Garland County v. Hot Spring County

• Decision Date: 07 April 1900
• Citation: 56 S.W. 636
• Parties: GARLAND COUNTY v. HOT SPRING COUNTY.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

56 S.W. 636

GARLAND COUNTY v. HOT SPRING COUNTY.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

April 7, 1900.

Appeal from circuit court, Garland county; John Fletcher, Special Judge.

Action by Hot Spring county against Garland county. From a judgment in favor of plaintiff, both parties appeal. Affirmed.

This is a suit by Hot Spring county against Garland county for that part of the indebtedness of Hot Spring county for which that part of Garland county taken from Hot Spring county was liable. The findings and judgment of the court were as follows: "This cause coming on to be heard de novo upon the appeal being taken by Hot Spring county from the order and judgment of the Garland county court dismissing her claim filed under the provisions of the act of the general assembly approved March 1, 1897, when Hot Spring county appeared by her attorney, James P. Clarke, Esq., and Garland county by her attorneys, Greaves & Martin and Wood & Henderson, and the court, having heard the evidence and the argument of parties, as well as the argument of counsel for the respective parties, doth find as follows: (1) That Garland county was formed under authority of an act of the general assembly approved April 5, 1873, and of territory taken in part from Hot Spring county. That the part so taken constituted, on said 5th day of April, 1873, 38.5 per cent. of the assessed value of all the property, real and personal, liable to taxation in Hot Spring county. That the said act of April 5, 1873, made no provision for the assumption by Garland county of the existing indebtedness of any of the counties from which territory and inhabitants were taken in the formation of said county. (2) That on March 1, 1897, the general assembly passed an act making Garland county liable for such part of the indebtedness of Hot Spring county existing on the 5th day of April, 1873, as would be a fair apportionment to the citizens of the territory detached from Hot Spring county and attached to Garland county. (3) That on said 5th day of April, 1873, Hot Spring county was indebted on account of ordinary warrants in the sum of $4,957.26. That on the 12th day of February, 1873, the county court of that county entered into a contract with one E. A. Nickels for the erection of a court house at Rockport, in said county, under the terms of which contract the contractor was to receive, on the execution by him of said contract, and a bond for the proper compliance on his part, $22,000 in the bonds of said county, and when said court house had progressed to completion to the extent of two-thirds he was to receive $10,000 of said bonds additional, and upon its completion he was to receive $11,000 more, being the entire price named in said contract. About the date of the execution of the contract and the filing of his bond in the middle of February, 1873, the said Nickels received from the designated depository $22,000 in the bonds of the county, the said bonds being for $100 each, and numbered 1 to 220, both inclusive, and bearing interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum, payable annually, from the date thereof on the delivery of the interest coupons attached. That the court house never reached a stage of completion to the extent of two-thirds. That $10,000 of said bonds, in addition to said $22,000 thereof, were, notwithstanding said failure to so partially complete said court house, issued, so that the same became and were enforced as liability against said Hot Spring county; these last-named bonds being in denomination of $100 each, and numbered from 221 to 320, both inclusive. (4) That said last-mentioned bonds, so numbered from 221 to 320, both inclusive, were not issued and delivered so as to constitute a part of the indebtedness of Hot Spring county on April 5, 1873. (5) That the validity of all of said bonds was disputed by Hot Spring county, and after litigation between said county and the holders of a part thereof as to the liability of said county on said bonds, the same, by the judgment of the United States circuit court for the Eastern district of Arkansas, were declared to be a valid liability of the county at the date of its said several judgments, these said judgments being entered subsequent to January 1, 1876, against said county on account of the principal and interest of said bonds, numbered from 1 to 220, for the aggregate sum of $45,191.37, and the county, from time to time, raised taxes under mandamus proceedings in the court in which said judgments were rendered, and paid on account of said judgments and the interest thereon the aggregate sum of $45,191.37, and, in addition thereto, paid the sum of $450 as costs that accrued in defense of said actions; and in the recovery of said judgments on the debt mentioned as bonds from 1 to 220 the county also paid in said actions on said bonds and the coupons thereof, as costs in the mandamus proceedings taken by the plaintiffs in said judgments to compel the levy and collection of taxes with which to satisfy said judgments and the interest thereon, the sum of $450; and also to the county collector for collecting the taxes to pay said judgments the sum of $1,335.75 as commissions allowed to him under the law, and to the county treasurer for receiving and disbursing said taxes to the custodian entitled to receive same $903.82, and to the clerk of the United States circuit court as poundage for receiving said fund to the several plaintiffs entitled thereto the sum of $451.90. (6) That judgments were also recovered in said court against Hot Spring county upon the $10,000 in bonds numbered from 221 to 320 for the aggregate sum, on account of principal and interest thereof, of $20,148.63. That the costs of recovering said judgments were $450, the costs of mandamus proceedings therein were $450, the collector's commission $604.44, the county treasurer's commission $402.96, the poundage of the clerk of the United States court $201.48. That all of the judgments rendered against Hot Spring county on account of said bonds and interest on said judgments and all costs have been fully paid off by said county. (7) That on the 5th day of April, 1873, Hot Spring county was also indebted on account of obligations known as `jail bonds' to the extent, principal and interest, of $1,400, which has been fully paid off. (8) That on said 5th day of April, 1873, there was in that part of the territory not taken to form Garland county a jail building of the value of $3,600. That there were no other buildings or property belonging to said county, which remained in said county after said date, of value to said Hot Spring county. (9) Of the ordinary county warrants outstanding on the 5th day of April, 1873, there were recovered against Hot Spring county, on account thereof, judgments for $827.26 for principal, and $243.42 for interest thereof, on account of which said judgments...