Porter v. Waterman

• Decision Date: 06 January 1906
• Citation: 91 S.W. 754
• Parties: PORTER v. WATERMAN et al. LEE v. SAME.
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

91 S.W. 754

PORTER v. WATERMAN et al.

LEE v. SAME.

Supreme Court of Arkansas.

January 6, 1906.

Appeal from Lincoln Chancery Court; Jno. M. Elliott, Chancellor.

Actions by D. O. Porter and C. E. Lee against Gus. Waterman and others. From a decree in favor of defendants, plaintiffs appeal. Affirmed.

Jack Bernhardt for appellants. Rose, Hemingway, Cantrell & Loughborough, for appellees.

BATTLE, J.

D. O. Porter, a resident and landowner in Desha county, and C. E. Lee, a resident and landowner in Lincoln county, filed their several complaints in the chancery court for the Varner district of Lincoln county against the board of inspectors of the Linwood and Auburn levee district and others, the purpose of which was to enjoin the officers of the district from issuing bonds under the act of the General Assembly of April 24, 1905 (Acts 1905, p. 480).

There was a general demurrer to each complaint, which was sustained by the court; and the plaintiff declining to plead further, their complaints were dismissed, and they appealed.

The Linwood and Auburn levee district was created by an act of the General Assembly of the state of Arkansas, which became a law on the 16th day of March, 1893, which authorized the district to build certain levees, and for that purpose vested it with the necessary powers.

On the 24th of April, 1905, the General Assembly, by an act entitled "An act to authorize the board of directors of the Linwood and Auburn levee district to issue bonds for the purpose of building, rebuilding, repairing, raising, and maintaining levees on the south bank of the Arkansas river, in Lincoln county, from the Jefferson county line to the Desha county line," after stating that said district was "composed of the following political townships, to wit: Auburn, Choctaw, Kimbrough and all that part of Bayou Bartholomew township lying north of Bayou Bartholomew and all of Wells Bayou township lying north of Wells Bayou, in Lincoln county, Arkansas, and Randolph and Walnut Lake townships in Desha county, Arkansas," authorized the board of directors of that district "to borrow money for the purpose of building, rebuilding, repairing, raising and maintaining the levees on the south bank of the Arkansas river in Lincoln county, from the Jefferson county line to the Desha county line," and for that purpose to issue bonds of said board to an amount not exceeding $100,000 and to sell and negotiate the same at any amount not less than par. Appellants say this act is void, because it seeks to amend the act of March 16, 1893 (Acts 1893, p. 102), in violation of section 22 of article 5 of the Constitution of this state, which provides that "no law shall be revived or amended or the provisions thereof extended or conferred by reference to its title only; but so much thereof as is revived, amended, extended or conferred shall be re-enacted and published at length." But this objection does not apply to the act of April 24, 1905. It does not attempt to revive, amend, extend or confer the provisions of any other act "by reference to its title only." It has been repeatedly held by this court, that a statute repeals, or operates as an amendment of, a prior law on the same subject, to the extent that they are in conflict, although the latter is not mentioned in the former. Scales v. State, 47 Ark. 481, 1 S. W. 769, 58 Am. Rep. 768; Churchill v. Hill, 59 Ark. 54, 64, 26 S. W....