Mercer County Fiscal Court v. Slaughter
| Decision Date | 06 June 1930 |
| Citation | 234 Ky. 686 |
| Parties | Mercer County Fiscal Court et al. v. Slaughter. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
At the time of the election, there was but a small mileage of the roads in the county which had been designated by the Legislature. Later the Legislature enacted that a certain turnpike should be one of the state road projects, and this suit was brought to enjoin the county fiscal court from ordering a sale of bonds to defray part of expense of reconstruction of this project. The verb "are," as used in the petition for calling the election and the orders of the court and in question submitted to voters, was not limited to the time of the election, but referred to the time when the fiscal court should propose to expend the money as a part of the voted indebtedness.
Appeal from Mercer Circuit Court.
C.E. RANKIN for appellants.
ROY E. GRAVES for appellee.
Reversing.
On March 5, 1927, at an election duly called and held throughout Mercer county, it was voted by a majority of 755 ballots to issue the bonds of the county to the amount of $250,000 "for the purpose of building, constructing and reconstructing the roads and bridges in said Mercer county, Kentucky, which are designated as State Primary Highway Projects." (Our emphasis.) That statement was literally, or substantially, incorporated in the petition to the county court asking for an order calling the election, in the order of court calling it, and was also printed on the ballot voted by the electors at the election. At that time there was but a small mileage of the roads in the county that had theretofore been so designated by the Legislature, and in due time, with the aid of the state highway commission paying three-fourths the cost and the county one-fourth, the larger portion if not all the roads in the county as were so designated at the time, were constructed, leaving a large balance of the voted bonded indebtedness untouched, and the amount of which represented unsold bonds, since the fiscal court sold them for only such amount of the voted indebtedness from time to time as was necessary to defray its one-fourth part in constructing the highway projects in the county that had been so declared at the time the election was ordered and held.
The Legislature at its 1930 session enacted that the turnpike in Mercer county theretofore known as the "Perryville Turnpike" should be one of the road projects in the commonwealth, and annexed it to a theretofore declared one, and which included that portion of the turnpike extending from the line between Mercer and Boyle counties to Danville, and which later was created at the 1928 session of the Legislature. Both of such latter acts, so declaring the Perryville turnpike a part of the road projects of the commonwealth, are now conceded to be in full force and effect. The fiscal court of Mercer county was arranging, preparing, and threatening to order a sale of a part of the voted bonded indebtedness, supra, sufficient to defray its one-fourth part in reconstructing, in conjunction with the state highway commission, that portion of the Perryville turnpike within the county when this action was brought against it and its members, to enjoin them from doing so upon the ground that the voted indebtedness at the election held on March 5, 1927, could be used and appropriated only to the construction and reconstruction of "roads and bridges in said Mercer county, Kentucky, which are (were at the time of the election), designated as State Primary Highway Projects," and that to devote part of such voted indebtedness, or proceeds of bonds authorized to be issued as contemplated and threatened by defendants, would be a diversion of the funds to a purpose other than that for which the indebtedness and the authorized issual of the bonds were expressly voted and ordered. The cases of Scott v. Forrest, 174 Ky. 672, 192 S.W. 691; Campbell v. Clinton County, 176 Ky. 396, 195 S.W. 787, and others following them are relied on in support of that contention.
Defendants demurred to the petition, but without waiving it, and before it was acted on by the court they filed their answer to which a demurrer was filed by plaintiff, which the court sustained over defendants' objections and exceptions, and the court overruled their demurrer to the petition, and they declining to plead further, judgment was rendered granting the relief prayed for in the petition, and defendants were enjoined from selling bonds representing any portion of the voted indebtedness to be devoted to the purpose of constructing or reconstructing any part or portion of Perryville turnpike in Mercer county that between the time of the election and the filing of this action had been made a part of the state highway projects in the commonwealth. From the judgment so rendered defendants prosecute this appeal.
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