Pickens County v. Greene County

• Decision Date: 04 April 1911
• Citation: 54 So. 998,171 Ala. 377
• Parties: PICKENS COUNTY v. GREENE COUNTY.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

54 So. 998

171 Ala. 377

PICKENS COUNTY v. GREENE COUNTY.

Supreme Court of Alabama

April 4, 1911

Appeal from Circuit Court, Greene County; S. H. Sprott, Judge.

Action by Pickens County against Greene County. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Patton & Patton, for appellant.

McKinley McQueen & Hawkins and Oliver, Verner & Rice, for appellee.

SAYRE J.

Section 3025 of the Code provides that: "Whenever a bridge ferry, or causeway is necessary on the line between two counties, and the work is too great to be done by the overseers, and is not established as hereinafter provided the same must be built at the joint expense of such counties, in proportion to the amount of taxable property in each." The phrase "and is not established as hereinafter provided," occurring in this section, refers to ferries, bridges, and causeways established for toll by private persons under the authority of the court of county commissioners, and may be laid out of view, since the record presents no such case. The facts are that, a public bridge which spanned the Sipsey river between the counties of Greene and Pickens having fallen into decay, the court of county commissioners of Greene determined that its rebuilding was unnecessary, refused to join the commissioners of Pickens county in rebuilding, and, after the last-named commissioners, proceeding upon their own judgment of the necessities of the case had rebuilt the bridge, refused to pay any part of the expense thereby incurred. The predicate of the complaint is that on these facts the county of Greene is responsible for its pro rata share of the cost of the bridge under the section quoted.

The judge of the circuit court held with the county of Greene, and our opinion is that his ruling was correct. This is the result of our statutes and of decisions heretofore made. The court of county commissioners exercises authority as an auxiliary of the state for the administration of civil government. It is invested with a general superintendence of the public roads within the county, and may establish new, and change and discontinue old, roads. It is their duty to improve and maintain the public roads, bridges, and ferries of the county, so as to render travel over the same as safe and convenient as practicable. To these ends, it is given legislative, judicial, and executive powers. Code, § 5765.

A public bridge is nothing but a part of a public road. The court of county commissioners "have the same powers and shall perform the same duties, when necessary or requisite as to establishing and maintaining bridges, causeways, and ferries, or improving the same, as they have or perform with reference to the public roads." Code, § 3024. Our decisions leave no room to doubt that the court of county commissioners in respect to the establishment, change, or discontinuance of roads, bridges, causeways, and ferries within its county exercises for the people of the county a legislative, and hence a discretionary, power in which it is not to be guided alone by evidence produced according to legal rules, but as well by its own knowledge of the geography of the county, the convenience and necessities of the people, and their ability to meet the expenditures involved. "No other tribunal can intervene to revise or control its action." Commissioners' Court v. Bowie, 34 Ala. 461; Commissioners' Court...