Pugh v. Police Jury of Livingston Parish

• Decision Date: 03 February 1941
• Docket Number: 35879,35878
• Citation: 200 So. 450,196 La. 1025
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: PUGH et al. v. POLICE JURY OF LIVINGSTON PARISH. BROWN et al. v. SAME

200 So. 450

196 La. 1025

PUGH et al. v. POLICE JURY OF LIVINGSTON PARISH.

BROWN et al. v. SAME

Nos. 35878, 35879

Supreme Court of Louisiana

February 3, 1941

Appeals from Twenty-First Judicial District Court, Parish of Livingston; Hypolite Mixon, Judge.

Consolidated suits by Nicholls Pugh and another, and by Eric E. Brown and others, against the Police Jury of Livingston Parish, La., to annul and set aside ordinances, resolutions and proceedings relating to removal of parish seat and bond issue, and to restrain police jury from accepting bids for bonds. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiffs appeal.

Affirmed.

M. C Rownd, of Springfield, Erlo J. Durbin, of Denham Springs, and Rownd & Tycer, of Hammond, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Bolivar E. Kemp, Jr., Dist. Atty., of Amite, Joseph M. Blache, Jr. Asst. Dist. Atty., and Reid & Reid, all of Hammond, and J. M. Barnett, Wade O. Martin, Jr., and George M. Wallace, all of Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellee.

ODOM Justice. O'NIELL, C. J., and LAND, J., takes no part.

OPINION

ODOM, Justice.

Act 230 of 1926 authorized and prescribed the procedure for the removal of the parish seat of Livingston Parish from its present location at Springville to "some central point on the Hammond-Covington branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad". Section 1 of the act provided for an election to be held at a time to be fixed by the police jury for the purpose of determining whether or not the parish seat should be removed from its present location, the new site for the location to be selected by a majority of the votes cast at an election held later for that purpose.

Section 2 of the act provided that the police jury might order an election at such time as it saw fit for the purpose of taking the sense of the voters of the parish as to whether the location of the parish seat should be removed; and Section 3 prescribed the form of the ballot to be used and the manner of voting, and provided further that, in the event two-thirds or more of the votes cast at such election were cast in favor of the removal, then the police jury should order a second election to select a new site for the courthouse, and that, in the event no proposed location received a majority of the votes cast in the first election called for the purpose of selecting a site, then a second election should be ordered, at which second election the two locations receiving the highest vote in the first election should be voted on, and that the location receiving a majority of the votes cast at said election should be declared by the police jury to be the new site or location for the courthouse.

Section 4 of the act provided that the elections should be held under the general election laws of the state in so far as they are not in conflict with the act, and Section 5 provided that, if the election held for the purpose of taking the sense of the voters on the question as to whether the parish seat should be removed from its present location was carried by two-thirds or more of the votes cast, the parish officers should continue to hold their offices and discharge their duties at Springville, the present location of the courthouse, until suitable and safe public buildings for the use of the parish should be erected "on grounds owned by said Parish of Livingston".

Section 5 further provided that, if the election was carried changing the parish seat, the police jury should provide according to law the means with which to obtain a suitable location and to erect the necessary suitable and safe buildings for courthouse, jail, offices for the sheriff, clerk of court, assessor, police jury, and such other officers as are required by law to have their offices at the courthouse.

Section 6 of the act provided that, in case less than two-thirds of the qualified electors voting at said election to remove the parish seat voted in favor of its removal, then the act should be of no force and effect.

This act was adopted pursuant to the authority granted in Section 2, Article XIV, of the Constitution of 1921, which reads as follows: "§ 2. All laws changing parish lines, or removing parish seats, shall, before taking effect, be submitted to the electors of the parish or parishes to be affected thereby, at a special election held for that purpose, and the lines, or the parish seat, shall remain unchanged unless two-thirds of the total vote cast at such election in each parish affected thereby, shall be in favor thereof."

Acting under the authority conferred by the above-cited act of the Legislature, the Police Jury of Livingston Parish on March 11, 1936, adopted a resolution calling an election to be held throughout the parish to takethe sense of the qualified electors on the question whether or not the parish seat should be changed from its present location. The election was held, and, according to the returns made, more than two-thirds of the electors voting at said election voted in favor of its removal. The police jury adopted an ordinance or resolution declaring the results of the election.

Thereafter, on May 5, 1936, the police jury adopted a resolution calling an election to be held throughout the parish for the purpose of selecting a new location for the parish seat, and designated the towns of Doyle and Livingston "to be the two points centrally located on the Hammond-Covington branch of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad, and which are hereby recognized by the Police Jury of Livingston Parish as being suitable sites or locations for the parish seat". The election was held, and a majority of those voting at the election were in favor of the Town of Livingston. In due course the police jury adopted a resolution promulgating the results of said election.

A short time thereafter, the police jury accepted a donation of Square No. 5 of the Town of Livingston as a site for the proposed new courthouse and other buildings. In the act of donation the donors reserved one-half of all the oil, gas, and other mineral rights in and to said square of ground. However, the donors, by a subsequent act placed of record, specifically abrogated that clause or provision in the original act of donation whereby they retained the mineral rights, and declared that Square No. 5 of the Town of Livingston was donated to the parish without any reservation except the right to annul the act of donation in case the property was not used for public purposes.

More than two-thirds of the qualified electors having voted in favor of the removal of the parish seat and more than a majority having voted in favor of the Town of Livingston as the new location therefor, the police jury on November 27, 1936, called an election to take the sense of the qualified taxpayers on a proposition to incur debt and issue bonds in the amount of $ 100,000 for the purpose of raising funds for constructing a courthouse, jail, and other necessary buildings at the new parish seat in the Town of Livingston, "the title to which shall be and remain in the public". This election was called and held pursuant to the authority granted under Paragraphs (a) and (b), Section 14, Article XIV, of the Constitution of 1921, in which it is specifically provided that parishes may issue bonds for the erection of courthouses and other public buildings when authorized to do so by a majority of the qualified tax-paying voters at an election held for that purpose.

The election for the bond issue was carried by a majority of those voting, both in numbers and in amount of property, and the police jury adopted a resolution promulgating the results of the election and declaring that the election had been carried in favor of the bond issue.

The resolution promulgating the results of the election was adopted on January 8, 1937. More than two years thereafter, the present suits, which were consolidated, were brought by certain taxpayers of the Parish of Livingston to have annulled and set aside each and every ordinance, resolution, and other proceeding adopted and taken by the Police Jury of the Parish of Livingston pursuant to, and under the provisions of, Act 230 of 1926 relating to the removal of the parish seat, and to have annulled and set aside all ordinances, resolutions, and proceedings relating to the bond issue. They ask that the police jury be restrained from accepting bids for the bonds.

Plaintiffs alleged that all the proceedings of the police jury were null and void because Act 230 of 1926, under which the proceedings were had, was unconstitutional, and, since that act was adopted in violation of the Constitution, it followed necessarily that all such proceedings as were had thereunder were likewise null and void.

Plaintiffs' attack on the constitutionality of the act of the Legislature was met by an exception of no cause of action filed by the...