Independence County v. Thompson
| Decision Date | 04 December 1944 |
| Docket Number | 4-7462 |
| Citation | 184 S.W.2d 63,207 Ark. 1031 |
| Parties | Independence County v. Thompson |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Appeal from Independence Chancery Court; J. Paul Ward, Chancellor.
Affirmed in Part and Reversed in Part.
S M. Casey, for appellant.
W M. Thompson, for appellee.
This appeal involves the Initiated County Salary Act of Independence county adopted in 1936 and effective January 1, 1937. The Act, in essentials here under consideration, is similar to the Clay County Salary Act considered in Terry v. Thornton, No. 7531, ante, p. 1019, 183 S.W.2d 787, this day decided. From a decree enjoining further diversion and rendering judgment against the County General Fund of Independence county for sums diverted in 1940, 1941 and 1942, and fixing a lien for the recovery thereof, the appellants (defendants below) have appealed.
All of the questions decided in case No. 7531 are presented in this case No. 7462, so the decision in case No. 7531 disposes of all issues here except the contentions herein discussed.
I. Jurisdiction of Equity. The appellants urge that the appellees here were seeking only a money judgment; and therefore the chancery court was without jurisdiction. It is clear that something more than a mere money judgment must be sought in a case like this before equitable jurisdiction can be sustained in the face of a timely objection, as was made here. But the answer to the appellants is found in the pleadings filed and relief prayed at the time the contention was made. At such time appellees (plaintiffs below) had pending: (1) the amended complaint, and (2) amendment thereto. In the amended complaint the plaintiffs alleged that there was a diversion, and prayed in part as follows:
"Third: That if upon a final hearing of this cause, it be determined that § 16, of Initiated Act Number One of Independence county is unconstitutional and void, that the court make such further orders as may be necessary to insure the common school fund of Independence county and the several school districts of said county against any further illegal, unlawful and fraudulent appropriation of the school funds aforesaid to the County General Fund of Independence county, or to any other fund, that he have his costs, and all other proper and equitable relief."
The amendment did not waive this prayer, because the prayer in the amendment concluded with this language: ". . . and in all other things he prays as in his amended complaint previously filed herein." It is therefore clear that the plaintiffs below prayed for an order against the diversion of school funds, and that part of the relief that the court granted was a lien for the recovery thereof. So the appellants' contention in this regard must be...
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...funds, and in such cases chancery has the power to grant affirmative, as well as injunctive, relief." In Independence County et al. v. Thompson et al., 207 Ark. 1031, 184 S.W.2d 63 (opinion delivered December 4, 1944), we sustained the chancery jurisdiction in a suit by a taxpayer to preven......
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McLellan v. Pledger
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Terry v. Thornton
...to recovery. The execellent briefs and earnestness of counsel for appellants in this case (and also in the case of Independence County v. Thompson, Ark., 184 S.W.2d 63, presenting the same questions) have caused us to incorporate in this opinion a thorough review of the Austin case in respo......