Moses v. Olson
| Decision Date | 22 June 1934 |
| Docket Number | No. 30115.,30115. |
| Parties | MOSES v. OLSON, Governor, et al. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Appeal from District Court, Ramsey County; Hugo O. Hanft, Judge.
Action by Ben Moses against Floyd B. Olson, Governor, and others. From an order overruling demurrers to the complaint, the defendants appeal on a certificate by the trial judge that the question presented was important and doubtful.
Order reversed.
Harry H. Peterson, Atty. Gen., and Matthias N. Orfield, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellants.
Kellogg, Morgan, Chase, Carter & Headley, of St. Paul, for appellant First Nat. Bank of St. Paul.
Frank E. McAllister, of St. Paul, for respondent.
In an action by a taxpayer to restrain the state executive council from selling certificates under chapter 67 of the laws enacted at the extra session of 1933-1934, demurrers were overruled, and the question as to whether the complaint stated facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action was certified by the trial court as important and doubtful. The case comes here on appeal from the order overruling the demurrers.
It is alleged in the complaint that the executive council has entered into a contract with the defendant bank to sell to it $200,000 par value of the Minnesota public relief certificates which under the terms of chapter 67 are payable with interest out of the state taxes on intoxicating liquor and beer. Prior to the making of the contract, the executive council had adopted a resolution determining the necessity for the issuance of the certificates in the sum of $200,000, $50,000 of the proceeds of which were to be used for the general purposes of the act, $50,000 for drouth relief, $50,000 for veterans' relief to needy and destitute veterans, and $50,000 for direct relief to needy and destitute persons. The plaintiff seeks to restrain the issuance of these certificates and all others which the act assumes to authorize.
The constitutionality of chapter 67 is challenged on a variety of grounds. The respondent asserts that the title of the act includes a multiplicity of subjects; that the purposes to which the proceeds of the certificates are to be devoted are private and not public; that the act authorizes the state to carry on works of internal improvement; that it authorizes the creation of a public debt in contravention of sections 5, 6, of article 9 of the state Constitution, and that it involves extraordinary expenditures in excess of $250,000 as prohibited by section 5 of that article; that it extends state credit to individuals; and that, while the act provides for the issuance of $5,000,000 in certificates in the aggregate, it provides that those certificates plus the interest thereon must not exceed $5,000,000.
Chapter 67, after reciting the emergency with which we are confronted, appropriates to the state executive council all money which shall come into the state treasury from state taxes on intoxicating liquor and beer within two years after the going into effect of a law, then just enacted, taxing intoxicating liquor and beer, not exceeding, however, $2,500,000 for necessary direct relief, drouth relief, veteran relief, and work and re-employment to needy and destitute and disabled persons and an additional $2,500,000 to meet the requirements of the United States as a condition to the extending by the government of direct relief, work relief, and re-employment within the state.
The act provides that the state board of control, acting as the state welfare body, shall administer the direct relief and the work relief therein provided for in accordance with the provisions of chapter 89, L. 1933, and that the state executive council may appropriate to the board such sums as may be necessary to provide necessary direct relief, work relief, and employment to needy, destitute, and disabled persons within the state of Minnesota. In extending work relief, the act authorizes the council to undertake projects involving flood control, water supply, water diversion, control of erosion, reforestation and afforestation, and any other projects which will aid in the conservation and development of the natural resources of the state and in the promotion or conservation of the public health, public safety, and general welfare of the people of the state. The council is also authorized to enter into any appropriate agreement with the United States government necessary to carry out the purposes of the act. $750,000 of the appropriation for direct relief is allocated to the relief of veterans of all wars and their families, resident in Minnesota. Certificates of indebtedness to be known as Minnesota public relief certificates are authorized to be issued pending the collection of the taxes appropriated to the purposes of the act. (The act also provides that its various provisions shall be severable, and that, if any provisions be held invalid, the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect.) The authority given the council and board terminates July 1, 1935.
Chapter 89, L. 1933, designates the state board of control as the state welfare body responsible for administering such support or relief of the poor and such direct relief or work relief in aid to destitute families or poor persons as may be carried on in behalf of the state. That act defines "poor persons" as those for whose support or relief a legal liability is imposed under chapter 15, Mason's Minn. St. 1927, and defines "work relief" as support or relief in wages or other compensation paid for in cash or in kind and the words "direct relief" as relief to poor persons in the form of food, clothing, shelter, medical care and supplies, and other necessities of life. Section 3157, chapter 15, Mason's Minn. St. 1927, describes a "poor person" as one who for any reason is unable to earn a livelihood, and imposes upon the county or town, city or village, in which he has a settlement, a liability for his support or relief in case he has no relatives within designated degrees who have sufficient ability to support him. Chapter 89, L. 1933, remains in force only until June 30, 1935.
(a) We find no serious difficulty with the title to chapter 67. It is prolix, but all its provisions relate to the single object of appropriating the proceeds of certain taxes for relief under the direction of the state executive council and the administration of the state board of control.
(b) The first serious challenge to the constitutionality of the act is that it appropriates public money for private purposes. Section 2 of the act provides in part as follows:
"The Council is authorized to extend direct relief, veteran relief, work relief, and employment to the people of the state in such manner and to such an extent as to it may seem necessary and proper, subject to the limitations herein provided."
Section 2 then continues by describing the purposes to which work relief may be devoted. Section 3 provides the limitation referred to in the first sentence of section 2. It reads in part as follows: (Italics ours.)
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