Louis-S. F. Ry. Co. v. Comanche Cnty. (In re Street)

• Decision Date: 21 May 1929
• Docket Number: Case Number: 20145
• Citation: 136 Okla. 265,277 P. 932,1929 OK 208
• Parties: In re Protest of ST. LOUIS-S. F. RY. CO. ST. LOUIS-S. F. RY. CO. v. COMANCHE COUNTY.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1929 OK 208

277 P. 932

136 Okla. 265

In re Protest of ST. LOUIS-S. F. RY. CO.

Case Number: 20145

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: May 21, 1929

Syllabus

¶0 1. Schools and School Districts--Legislative Authority to Fix Limits of District and Annex Territory and Provide for Payment of Prior Indebtedness.

The Legislature may originally fix the limits of an independent or other school district and may, unless specially restrained in the Constitution, subsequently annex or authorize the annexation of contiguous territory to such school district, and provide for the payment of the prior indebtedness existing against said district as well as the maintenance thereof.

2. Same--Property in Territory Annexed to Independent District Subject to Taxation to Pay Bonded Indebtedness of District as Well as Expense of Maintenance.

All property subject to taxation, in territory legally annexed to an Independent school district, in the manner authorized and provided for by law, is subject to taxation to pay its full proportion of all legal bonded indebtedness existing against said district at the time such territory is annexed, unless the Legislature shall otherwise provide, and also its proportionate part of the expense of maintaining said district after said territory is annexed.

Appeal from the Court of Tax Review.

In the matter of the protest of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, a corporation, against illegal and excessive tax levies for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1928, and ending June 30, 1929, by the County Excise Board of Comanche County. From the judgment of the Court of Tax Review, protestant appeals. Affirmed.

Cruce & Franklin and E. T. Miller, for protestant.

Edwin Dabney, Atty. Gen., V. P. Crowe, Asst. Atty. Gen., John W. Tyree, Co. Atty., W. T. Dixon, Asst. Co. Atty., and Ray & Thomas, for protestee.

SWINDALL, J.

¶1 This action comes to this court on appeal from the judgment and decision of the Court of Tax Review of the state of Oklahoma upon the third cause of action stated in the protest of the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, a corporation, involving the 1928 tax levies for Comanche county, state of Oklahoma, and the subdivisions thereof. The decision sustains the levy, and the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway Company, a corporation, protestant, appeals, and will be referred to in this opinion as the railway company.

¶2 There are several grounds of protest stated by the railway company, but the only one brought here for consideration is the third cause of action, in which the railway company alleges that 4.94 mills of said levy of 19.94 mills against the property of the railway company for the year 1928, for the benefit of the Lawton school district, is wholly illegal and void, for the reason that it was made for the purpose of creating a sinking fund for the payment of principal and interest on bonded indebtedness of said Lawton school district contracted prior to the annexation of the Fort Sill Military Reservation; that this petitioner had no property of any character subject to taxation or assessment located within the limits which existed prior to the annexation of the said Fort Sill Military Reservation; that by reason thereof, the rate of levy as made and provided by the county excise board is contrary to the provision of section 10469. Compiled Oklahoma Statutes, 1921, and contrary to the laws and the Constitution of the state of Oklahoma. in that it seeks to tax property of this petitioner in a taxing jurisdiction wherein no such property of this petitioner was situated.

¶3 This cause was submitted to the Court of Tax Review upon an agreed statement of facts, which, in so far as it relates to the third cause of action, states:

"That it is agreed that Lawton school district levied a total rate of 19.94 mills, 15 mills of which being for general fund and 4.94 mills being for a sinking fund. It is further agreed that on October 20, 1924, territory comprising the Ft. Sill Military Reservation, within Comanche county, Okla., was annexed to the Lawton school district, and that prior to said annexation the Lawton school district issued bonds in the total amount of $ 383,074.13, and that same were outstanding at the time of the annexation of the Ft. Sill Military Reservation, and that no bonds have been issued by said Lawton school district subsequent to the annexation of the Ft. Sill Military Reservation; that the 4.94 mills heretofore referred to, as levied for sinking fund purposes, were made for the purpose of paying annual interest coupons and creating annual accruals to meet bonds at maturity. It is further stipulated and agreed that Lawton school district, as heretofore referred to, is an independent district, organized under the laws of the state of Oklahoma."

¶4 To sustain its contention, the railway company cites Cheek v. Eye, 96 Okla. 44, 219 P. 883; Mitsler v. Eye, 107 Okla. 289, 231 P. 1045; Consolidated School District No. 97 v. Sloan, 135 Okla. 29, 273 P. 271, and Crawford, Treas., v. Brisley, 131 Okla. 230, 268 P. 713.

¶5 We have carefully examined these authorities, and cannot agree with counsel for the railway company that they are in point in this case. They all have to do with section 10469, relating to consolidated school districts, and the statutes relating to consolidated school districts specifically provide that the assets of a disorganized district shall be applied to the payment of the floating indebtedness of the district, if any, then to the bonded indebtedness, and any residue to become the property of the consolidated district; and where several districts are consolidated, any one of which disorganized districts had a bonded indebtedness prior to its consolidation, then the territory formerly included in each disorganized district shall be taxed to pay the bonded indebtedness as it existed in the respective disorganized districts prior to the disorganization of the districts, where the assets of the disorganized districts are not sufficient to pay the floating indebtedness and the bonded indebtedness.

¶6 However, there is no such provision in the statutes, relative to independent school districts, and the authorities seem to be unanimous in holding that it is for the Legislature to determine in regard to such bonded indebtedness.

¶7 In the case of Powers v. the County...