Johnson v. Rice, 8 Div. 438.

• Decision Date: 18 May 1933
• Docket Number: 8 Div. 438.
• Parties: JOHNSON et al. v. RICE, Tax Collector, et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

148 So. 802

227 Ala. 119

JOHNSON et al. v. RICE, Tax Collector, et al.

8 Div. 438.

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 18, 1933

Rehearing Denied June 22, 1933.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Marshall County; A. E. Hawkins, Judge.

Bill by W. J. Johnson and others, as taxpayers of Meltonville School District No. 4, Marshall County, against Charles H. Rice, as Tax Collector, and others, as County Superintendent of Education and members of the County Board of Education of Marshall County, to invalidate a special school tax levied in said school district. From a decree dismissing the bill complainants appeal.

Affirmed.

Street & Bradford, of Guntersville, for appellants.

Joe Starnes, of Guntersville, for appellees.

ANDERSON Chief Justice.

The bill was filed to contest the validity of the three-mill school tax on account of certain defects or irregularities growing out of the ordering and holding of an election as provided by the Alabama School Code (section 261 et seq.). The questions here involved, or some of them, were settled by this court in the case of McCormick et al. v. County Board of Revenue of Marshall County, 223 Ala. 453, 137 So. 171, wherein it was held that the proceedings were not invalid or subject to be quashed under the common-law writ of certiorari.

We think that the act of 1931 (Gen. Acts 1931, p. 97) has cured all the defects complained of in the bill of complaint, and whether said bill contained equity when filed, the said act of 1931 was effective when the decree dismissing the bill was rendered, and, if not justified for other reasons, said act made it a moot case, and the dismissal of the bill can be well justified upon this ground. The said act is broad enough to cover all charges made in the bill, except that the tax was not adopted by a majority of the votes. It says, when said election resulted in a majority of the votes cast being in favor of the special county or district tax for school purposes: "And which said elections were irregular by reason of failure prior to the actual holding of the elections to give notice thereof in a newspaper, or by reason of any other irregularity, be and the same are hereby ratified and confirmed and given effect in all respects as if all the conditions, preliminary and prior to the actual holding of such elections as required by the aforesaid Act had been duly and legally complied with." Therefore, the only condition precedent for the application of the act is that a majority of...