Roper v. Hall

• Decision Date: 24 December 1925
• Docket Number: (No. 298.)
• Citation: 280 S.W. 289
• Parties: ROPER, County Judge, et al. v. HALL et al.
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

Page 289

280 S.W. 289

ROPER, County Judge, et al. v. HALL et al.

(No. 298.)

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas. Waco.

December 24, 1925.

Rehearing Denied February 4, 1926.

Appeal from District Court, Freestone County; J. R. Bell, Judge.

Suit by T. J. Hall and others against J. F. Roper, County Judge, and others. From an interlocutory order granting a temporary injunction, defendants appeal. Reversed, and temporary injunction refused.

Edwards & French, of Fairfield, Richard & A. P. Mays, of Corsicana, W. M. Harris, of Dallas, and Keys, Mason & Machen, of Mexia, for appellants.

Boyd & Smith, of Teague, and Williford & Geppert, of Fairfield, for appellees.

GALLAGHER, C. J.

This is an appeal from an interlocutory order of the district court of Freestone county, granting a temporary injunction restraining the carrying out of a certain contract between the commissioners' court of said county and one Thos. Y. Pickett, doing business under the name of Thos. Y. Pickett & Co. The said commissioners' court, on December 22, 1924, entered into a written contract with the said Pickett, by the terms of which he was employed to perform and agreed to perform the following services:

(a) Compile a complete list of the record owners of all producing oil and gas properties located in Freestone county as of January 1, 1923, showing the particular interest or interests therein owned.

(b) Secure for the commissioners' court all information available for its use while sitting as a board of equalization in determining the proper valuations to be fixed upon such properties for taxation.

(c) Meet with the commissioners' court sitting as a board of equalization and furnish it all information secured by such investigation for the purpose of equalizing assessments on said properties.

(d) Make a valuation of all pipe lines, refineries, tank forms and tankage, and all other properties of value used in connection with said oil and gas development, including transportation facilities, etc.

According to the terms of said contract his compensation was to be an amount equal to 10 cents on each $100 increase in valuation covering oil properties only, over and above the valuation shown by the 1924 tax rolls of said county. Such compensation was to be paid in part by county warrants issued monthly during the progress of the work and by a final warrant for the remainder due under the contract when the work was completed and the correct amount ascertained. All said warrants were by express stipulation to be paid out of the general fund of said county and out of the anticipated receipts from taxes levied for general purposes for the year 1925 and receipts from other sources coming to said fund for said year. So much of said fund as was necessary to pay the warrants issued under said contract was by the terms of the contract set aside and appropriated to such purpose. On June 18, 1925, appellees, T. J. Hall and eight others, in the capacity of resident property taxpayers in said county, instituted this suit to enjoin the commissioners' court, the county clerk, and county auditor from issuing any further county warrants under said contract, and to enjoin the county treasurer and county depository from paying any warrants already issued and from paying any warrants that might be thereafter issued under said contract. Thos. Y. Pickett was made a party to said suit. In addition to the prayer for a temporary injunction, appellees asked that on final hearing said contract be declared void and canceled. Appellees' petition was presented to the judge of the Eighty-Seventh district court, and he set the application for temporary injunction for hearing at the county seat on the 7th day of July, 1925, which was during a regular term of said court in said county. A hearing was had on said petition and on July 10, 1925, the court granted the temporary injunction in terms as prayed for by appellees. All the parties defendant in said suit except the county depository have joined in this appeal.

The question involved in this suit is the validity of said contract. Its validity was attacked by appellees in their said petition in the trial court on various grounds. The order of the court granting said temporary injunction was general. No conclusions of fact nor of law were filed. Appellees have filed no brief in this court.

The principal grounds on which the validity of said contract was attacked were that the commissioners' court was without lawful authority to make the same, and that said Pickett was engaged to perform duties imposed by law on the tax collector and on the commissioners' court, respectively. The statement of facts in this case discloses that there was at that time an extensive oil field in and around the town of Wortham in said county; that the owners of the surface of the land had rendered the same generally, as other farming lands and as other city lots were rendered; that the county tax assessor had no accurate information with reference to the leases and royalty interests held in said territory, nor with reference to the value of the same; that he had no accurate information with reference to the amount of oil produced from said field during the year, nor whether same was marketed or held in storage; and that he had no accurate information as to the amount of equipment used in producing and transporting said oil, nor of the value of the same; that he accepted renditions of property as tendered to him; and that the total amount of oil property voluntarily rendered for 1925 was about $2,000,000. There was no contention that the members of the commissioners' court were acquainted with such properties in detail nor with the value of the same. The testimony showed that the work to be done by said Pickett under his contract was nearing completion; that he had prepared an accurate map of the entire oil field located in said county; that he had prepared accurate data showing the holders of all leases and royalties and the value of the same; that he had prepared data showing the production of oil to that date from each lease, and all other data necessary to enable the assessor to correctly assess such leases and royalties, the oil produced therefrom and all equipment used in producing and transporting the same; that he had prepared all data necessary to enable the commissioners' court to value such properties, and all the same; and that he was ready to attend and would attend the sessions of the commissioners' court while sitting as a board of equalization, and would assist them in their efforts to correctly determine the taxable values of all of said properties. The evidence further showed that said data prepared by said Pickett disclosed that a large amount of such property was unrendered, and that the taxable value of such property voluntarily rendered was greatly in excess of the amount for which the same was rendered.

Commissioners' courts are created by the Constitution, and are given by its express terms such powers and jurisdiction over all county business as are conferred by the provisions thereof or by the laws of the state. Const. art. 5, § 18. The Constitution further provides that taxation shall be equal and uniform, that all property in this state shall be taxed according to its value, that an assessor of taxes shall be elected in each county; that the Legislature shall provide for equalizing, as near as may be, the valuation of all property subject to or rendered for taxation, and that the commissioners' court of each county shall constitute the board of equalization. Const. art. 8, §§ 1, 14, and 18. Said courts are authorized by statutory law to levy taxes; to sit as a board of equalization, and while sitting as such to inspect the...