Police Jury v. Britton

• Decision Date: 01 December 1872
• Citation: 82 U.S. 566,21 L.Ed. 251,15 Wall. 566
• Parties: POLICE JURY v. BRITTON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

82 U.S. 566

21 L.Ed. 251

15 Wall. 566

POLICE JURY v. BRITTON.

December Term, 1872

ERROR to the Circuit Court for the District of Louisiana.

Messrs. E. T. Merrick and G. W. Race, for the plaintiff in error; Messrs. T. J. Semmes and W. A. Meloy, contra.

Mr. Justice BRADLEY stated the case, and delivered the opinion of the court.

Britton and Koontz brought an action in the court below against the Police Jury of the parish of Tensas, Louisiana, to recover the amount of four hundred and sixty coupons, for $6 each, due on the 1st of July, 1870, for one year's interest on four hundred and sixty bonds of $100 each. The following is a copy of one of the bonds, and they were all of the same date and form, differing only in number:

$100. STATE OF LOUISIANA, No. 423.

ST. JOSEPH, July 1, 1869.

The Parish of Tensas will pay to bearer, six years after date or sooner, at the pleasure of the Parish, one hundred dollars, with six per cent. interest thereon, payable annually at the office of the Parish Treasurer, as per coupons attached. This obligation is issued to fund the debt of the Parish in accordance with an ordinance passed by the Police Jury on the 18th day of January, 1869.

ELI TULLIS, President Police Jury

REEVE LAWIS, Clerk Police Jury.

The defendants put in an answer denying the validity of the bonds, of the ordinance under which they were issued, and of the drafts or orders for which they were substituted.

The cause was tried by a jury, and a verdict found for the plaintiffs. The case came here upon a number of exceptions taken at the trial, which, under the view we have taken of the case, it is not necessary to examine in detail.

The substantial facts of the case were, that in December, 1860, and January, 1861, the levee inspector of the parish of Tensas issued to certain persons by the name of Kennedy and Maxwell five 'levee warrants' (as they are called) for work done on the levees in ward No. 3 of said parish, amounting in the aggregate to over fifteen thousand dollars. They were all sight drafts drawn by Charles B. Tenney, as levee inspector of the parish, on one Snyder, treasurer of the levee fund of the parish, in favor of Kennedy and Maxwell, or order, and expressed as 'being for amount due them for and on account of work done on levees in ward No. 3 this day.'

These warrants seem to have been issued in regular course, according to the laws then in force on the subject. Originally the levees were made by the riparian owners, who received their lands upon this condition; and, if they neglected their duty, the police juries of the several parishes (who are the local boards representing them) were required to have the work done, and to collect the expense from the delinquent landowner. Modifications of this system have from time to time been made by various acts of the legislature. The law under which the levee warrants above referred to were issued was passed in 1848; with amendments, passed in 1850 and 1852. It related to the parish of Tensas alone; and the substance of it, so far as is necessary for our purpose, was, that the police jury of that parish should appoint a levee inspector, whose duty was to direct and superintend the construction and repairs of all levees in the parish in accordance with the requisition of the police jury; to survey the levees, and where work was required to let it out to the lowest bid der and, after the work was finished on any particular section, the statute directed as follows:

'Then the inspector shall issue a warrant, payable to the contractor, which shall be a legal order upon the treasurer of the levee fund for the amount therein specified.'

The statute then provided for the levee fund as follows:

'The police jury are authorized to levy and collect, in the same manner that the State and parish taxes are now collected, an annual tax upon the assessed value of real estate, as returned by the assessors of the State taxes. Said tax, when collected, shall form a special fund for levee purposes alone.'

We have quoted these specific directions for the purpose of showing how carefully the legislature has prescribed the duties of all parties in relation to this matter. Not a word is anywhere said authorizing the parish jury to issue any bonds, or create any other evidences of debt, for work on the levees.

The general powers of the police juries of the State are carefully and particularly laid down in a statute on that subject passed in 1813, with some amendments in subsequent years. They are enumerated under eighteen distinct heads.^* The section conferring powers commences as follows:

'The police juries shall have power to make all such regulations as they may deem expedient:

'1st. For the police of slaves in their respective parishes, and the pursuit of runaways, &c.

'2d. As to the proportion and direction, the making and repairing of the roads, bridges, causeways, dikes, levees, and other highways.

'3d. To lay such taxes as they may judge necessary to defray the expenses of their several parishes.'

Other heads relate to clearing the Mississippi and other streams from obstruction, to the height of fences, the marking of cattle, the regulating of taverns, the establishment of ferries and toll bridges, &c., &c.

In restraint of the power of police juries and all other municipal bodies of the State to incur expenditures, the legislature in 1853 passed the following act:

'The police juries of the several parishes, and the constituted authorities of incorporated towns and cities in this State, shall not hereafter have power to contract any debt or pecuniary liability without fully providing in the ordinance creating the debt the means of paying the principal and interest of the debt so contracted.'

And it is declared that such ordinance shall remain in force until the debt and interest are paid.^**...