Sigman v. Brunswick Port Authority

• Decision Date: 11 July 1958
• Docket Number: No. 20119,20119
• Citation: 104 S.E.2d 467,214 Ga. 332
• Parties: W. H. SIGMAN et al. v. The BRUNSWICK PORT AUTHORITY et al.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

Page 467

104 S.E.2d 467

214 Ga. 332

W. H. SIGMAN et al. v. The BRUNSWICK PORT AUTHORITY et al.

No. 20119.

Supreme Court of Georgia.

July 11, 1958.

P. S. Ringel, William R. Killian, Brunswick, for plaintiff in error.

Gowen, Conyers, Fendig & Dickey, Chas. L. Gowen, Brunswick, Troutman, Sams, Schroder & Lockerman, Henry B. Troutman, T. M. Smith, Jr., Tench C. Coxe, III, Atlanta, for defendant in error.

Wm. G. Grant, Atlanta, John W. Sognier, Kennedy & Sognier, Savannah, Griffin B. Bell, Pope B. McIntire, Spalding, Sibley, Troutman, Meadow & Smith, Atlanta, and J. W. Smith, Albany, for parties at interest, not parties to record.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

HAWKINS, Justice.

The exception here is to a judgment sustaining a general demurrer to a petition brought by W. H. Sigman and Freeman Darby, as citizens and taxpayers, against The Brunswick Port Authority and the individual members thereof, to restrain and enjoin them from proceeding with the issuance and sale of revenue bonds, from incurring any further expense in connection therewith, and from demolishing certain buildings owned by the Authority in order that the Authority might construct certain described buildings and other described facilities upon this property as a part of its port facilities; which building and facilities it proposes to lease to Bestwall Gypsum Company for a period of 25 years, the lessee to pay an annual rental sufficient to amortize the cost of said buildings and facilities, to pay the interest and incidental expenses accruing in the operation of the lease, and all expenses of maintaining and operating the buildings and facilities, including insurance and taxes, plus $12,000 per year, no expenditures to be made by the Authority on account of such buildings and facilities during the term of the lease. The Authority proposes to issue revenue bonds not to exceed $3,500,000 to pay for such facilities, which bonds will be payable solely from the aforesaid rentals. Under the terms of the lease the lessee is to install such machinery and equipment as may be necessary in the handling, storing, and processing of some 300,000 tons of gypsum bearing ore per annum, to be shipped to the Port of Brunswick from Nova Scotia, thus more than doubling the annual tonnage passing through the facilities of the port. The validity of the act creating The Brunswick Port Authority (Ga.L.1945, p. 1023, as amended by Ga.L.1958, p. 82), and the proposed issuance of the revenue certificates or bonds, and the execution of the lease by the Authority are attacked as being unconstitutional upon the grounds: 1. The issuance of the revenue bonds pledges the credit of the State to the Authority and thence to the lessee of the proposed facilities in violation of artice 7, section 3, paragraph 4 violation of article 7, section 3, paragraph 4 'The credit of the State shall not be pledged or loaned to any individual, company, corporation or association.' 2. The act exempts from taxation property not specifically authorized by the Constitution, and is violative of article 7, section 1, paragraph 4 (Code, Ann., § 2-5404), which provides that 'The General Assembly may, by law, exempt from taxation all public property; * * * all institutions of purely public charity'; and that 'All laws exempting property from taxation, other than the property herein enumerated, shall be void.' 3. Such exemption from taxation grants a donation or gratuity to the proposed lessee and is violative of article 7, section 1, paragraph 2 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-5402), which provides that 'The General Assembly shall not be vote, resolution or order, grant any donation or gratuity in favor of any person, corporation or association.' 4. That the said act as amended, and particularly section 5 thereof, is violative of article 7, section 7, paragraph 5 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-6005), which limits the purposes for which revenue certificates may be issued by any county, municipal corporation, or political subdivision of the State to those specifically authorized by the 'Revenue Certificate Laws of 1937' as amended by the act approved March 14, 1939, Code, § 87-801 et seq. 5. That the foregoing Revenue Certificate Law of 1937 as amended by the act of 1939, is a general law, and The Brunswick Port Authority Act, and particularly section 3 thereof, is a special law and violative of article 1, section 4, paragraph 1 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-401), which provides that 'Laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation throughout the State, and no special law shall be enacted in any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law.' 6. That the act approved February 21, 1958 (Ga.L.1958, p. 82), is unconstitutional, null and void, because violative of article 3, section 7, paragraph 15 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-1915), for the reason that it is a local act and the notice of intention to apply for such legislation attached to and made a part of the bill is not sufficient to give notice of the contents thereof as required by the aforesaid constitutional provision. Held:

1. Section 6 of the act creating The Brunswick Port Authority and authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds and the resolution by the Authority authorizing the issuance thereof provide: 'Credit of State and Its Subdivisions Not Pledged. Revenue bonds issued under the provisions of this Act shall not be deemed to constitute a debt of the State of Georgia or a pledge of the faith and credit of the State or of the City of Brunswick or of the County of Glynn. Such bonds may have the property, real or personal, which may from time to time be owned by the Authority pledged as security for their payment but shall not directly or indirectly or contingently obligate the State or the City of Brunswick or the County of Glynn to levy or to pledge any form of taxation whatever therefor. All such revenue bonds shall contain recitals on their face covering the foregoing provisions of this section.' That revenue bonds or certificates issued by a State Authority or instrumentality of the State under such provisions are not obligations or debts of the State, nor a pledge of the credit of the State, but are a corporate debt of the Authority is conclusively settled by the decisions of this court in Sheffield v. State School Building Authority, 208 Ga. 575, 68 S.E.2d 590; McLucas v. State Bridge Building Authority, 210 Ga. 1, 77 S.E.2d 531; State v. State Toll Bridge Authority, 210 Ga. 690, 82 S.E.2d 626, and State v. Georgia Rural Roads Authority, 211 Ga. 808, 89 S.E.2d 204.

2. The act of the General Assembly as amended creating The Brunswick Port Authority and exempting its property and revenue bonds from taxation is not violative of article 7, section 1, paragraph 4 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-5404), and such exemption does not grant a donation or gratuity in violation of article 7, section 1, paragraph 2 of the Constitution (Code, Ann., § 2-5402). No private interest exists in the property of the Authority. The members thereof may not use it for private gain or income. The Authority holds title only for the benefit of the State and the public and the Authority is an instrumentality of the State or a subordinate public authority or corporation of the State. In Williamson v. Housing Authority of Augusta, 186 Ga. 673, 691, 199 S.E. 43, 54, it is said: 'If the project under attack is for public purposes, and the property about to be acquired by it is for public purposes, then the property may be exempted from taxation, and its bonds, being instrumentalities of government, are nontaxable. Property may be public property so as to come within the exemption from taxation although the legal title is not in the State, the county, or a municipality. Compare Trustees of 20 L.R.A. 151. See, also, Walden v. Whigham, Council of Augusta, 90 Ga. 634, 17 S.E. 61, 20 L.R.A. 151. Seel, also, Walden v. Whigham, 120 ga. 646, 48 S.E. 159. Public property, within the meaning of that clause of the Constitution which authorizes the General Assembly to exempt from taxation all public property, embraces only such property as is owned by the...