Poyner v. Whiddon

• Citation: 234 Ala. 168,174 So. 507
• Decision Date: 13 May 1937
• Docket Number: 4 Div. 941
• Parties: POYNER et al. v. WHIDDON et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

174 So. 507

234 Ala. 168

POYNER et al. v. WHIDDON et al.

4 Div. 941

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 13, 1937

Appeal from Circuit Court, Houston County; D.C. Halstead, Judge.

Bill for injunction by A.D. Whiddon and another against S.P Poyner, Judge of Probate, and others composing the Court of County Commissioners of Houston County, and others. From a decree for complainants, respondents appeal.

Reversed and remanded.

T.E Buntin, of Dothan, for appellants.

Topmkins & Ramsey, of Dothan, for appellees.

BROWN Justice.

This bill was filed by the appellees, resident citizens and taxpayers, against appellants, the County of Houston, its Court of County Commissioners, the individual members thereof, the judge of probate, and the Austin Western Road Machinery Company, a corporation, to enjoin the performance by the parties of an alleged contract between the county and said Austin Western Road Machinery Company, for the sale and delivery to the county of certain road machinery for a consideration of $6,405.51; which the bill alleges was $1,820.13, in excess of the lowest responsible bid submitted in response to the advertisements for bids in a competitive bidding.

The bill seeks to have the alleged contract declared void on the ground that it was procured by the fraud of the contractee the Austin Western Road Machinery Company, and was entered into and approved by the Court of County Commissioners in violation of the statute creating said court and limiting its power to contract in the purchase of such machinery.

The summons directed to the defendant Austin Western Road Machinery Company was served on one George Moulton, as agent of said defendant, and said defendant appeared specially and filed a motion to quash the service, alleging in said motion that said Moulton was not an agent of said respondent, that Rushton, Crenshaw & Rushton, a law firm of Montgomery, Ala., "was the designated agent of the named respondent in the office of the Secretary of State, upon whom due process could be served, and said summons was not served on said Rushton, Crenshaw & Rushton."

No steps were taken to have said motion disposed of, and nothing further was done to perfect service on said defendant or compel it to appear generally, and it made no further appearance, but before submission on the pleadings and proof for final decree, the complainants amended the bill by striking Austin Western Road Machinery Company as a party defendant.

The remaining defendants other than J.J. Whiddon, filed a demurrer to the bill and motion to dissolve the temporary injunction for want of equity. The demurrer also raised the constitutionality of certain local acts, including the act of June 27, 1935, Local Acts 1935, pp. 71-76, creating the defendant the Court of County Commissioners for Houston County.

These constitutional questions were settled adversely to appellants in State ex rel. McIntyre v. McEachern, 231 Ala. 609, 166 So. 36.

On submission on the demurrer and motion to dissolve the temporary injunction, the court entered a decree overruling both, but modified the injunction so as only to restrain the appellants from paying in excess of $4,599.66, the bid made by Young & Vann Supply Company of Birmingham, Ala., alleged in the bill to be the lowest responsible bidder for supplying said road machinery, and which the bill alleges was approved and recommended by the county road foreman.

On the final submission on pleadings and proof, the court entered a final decree declaring the alleged contract between the County of Houston and the Austin Western Road Machinery Company void, and made perpetual the temporary injunction as issued on the filing of the bill.

The appeal is from the final decree, but errors are assigned on the interlocutory decree overruling the demurrer and the motion to dissolve the injunction, and on the final decree making perpetual the injunction.

The appellants' first contention is that the Court of County Commissioners created by the Act of June 27, 1935, is a court record, and whether its acts are in the exercise of judicial power or of mere ministerial authority and duty, its records are the only evidence thereof, and they are not subject to impeachment on collateral attack.

It is the settled law that such court acts as a body, and that its acts are shown by its records, whether it is exercising legislative, judicial, or ministerial power and authority. Mobile County v. Maddox, 195 Ala. 336, 70 So. 259; Browning v. St. Clair County, 195 Ala. 121, 71 So. 108.

When such court is in the exercise of its statutory and limited jurisdiction, its judgment and decrees are subject to collateral attack, unless the record recites all the facts upon which such jurisdiction depends. Commissioners' Court of Lowndes County v. Hearne, 59 Ala. 371; Gantt et al. v. Court of Commissioners of Covington County, 210 Ala. 125, 97 So. 129; Commissioners Court v. Holland, 177 Ala. 60, 58 So. 270; Commissioner's Court of Blount County v. Johnson, 145 Ala. 553, 39 So. 910. When it exercises mere ministerial power, its records are only prima facie evidence of the facts recited, and are subject to impeachment by competent countervailing evidence. Jeffersonian Publishing Co. v. Hilliard, 105 Ala. 576, 17 So. 112.

The local act of June 27, 1935, creating the Court of County Commissioners for Houston County, made said court one of limited jurisdiction as to subjects specified in section 13 of said act; and requires that contracts, such as the one attacked by the bill, be let at competitive bidding, "to the lowest responsible bidder," and declares that: "Any and all contracts made and entered into, or purchases made by the Court of County Commissioners, or County Road Foreman of Houston County, in violation of the terms of this section shall be null and void and it shall be unlawful for the Probate Judge to issue a warrant in payment of same." (Italics supplied.) Local Acts 1935, pages 71, 75; State ex rel. McIntyre v. McEachern, 231 Ala. 609, 166 So. 36.

The averments of the bill show that the contract in question was made in violation of said section 13; that the contract was let to the highest, not the lowest responsible bidder; that the bid accepted and approved was upward of $1,800, more than the bid of said lowest bidder.

If this is true, and on demurrer and motion to dissolve for want of equity in the bill the averments are taken as true, said contract is void, and the county authorities were not warranted in paying public funds on the basis thereof, or issuing negotiable warrants pursuant thereto.

It was the right and duty of the county to submit in its published bids the specifications for the article which it desired to purchase, and the bidder to qualify must meet said specifications. The county was under no obligation, and under the statute the county authorities had no authority, to modify the specifications to suit a single...