State Ex Rel. Georgia Bond & Mortgage Co. v. Cone

• Decision Date: 25 April 1939
• Parties: STATE ex rel. GEORGIA BOND & MORTGAGE COMPANY v. CONE et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

189 So. 47

137 Fla. 412

STATE ex rel. GEORGIA BOND & MORTGAGE COMPANY v. CONE et al.

Florida Supreme Court, Division A.

April 25, 1939

Rehearing Denied May 23, 1939.

Error to Circuit Court, Leon County; J. B. Johnson, Judge.

Mandamus proceeding by the State of Florida, on the relation of the Georgia Bond & Mortgage Company, against Fred P. Cone and others, as and constituting the Board of Administration of the state of Florida, and others, to require respondents to pay relator a certain sum due on original bonds of a special road and bridge district. To review a judgment denying a peremptory writ, the relator brings error.

Reversed.

COUNSEL

L'Engle & Shands, of Jacksonville, for plaintiff in error.

George Couper Gibbs, Atty. Gen., and H. E. Carter and J. Compton French, Asst. Attys. Gen., for defendants in error.

OPINION

TERRELL Chief Justice.

The record and the briefs in this case have been examined and the primary question raised found to be fully answered in the case of Cone et al. v. State of Florida ex rel. Richard W. Massey, Fla., 189 So. 44, decided this date.

We do not overlook the fact that there are some questions of pleading and the interpretation of previous opinions of this Court that are discussed in this case that were not discussed in the case last cited.

In view of the decision reached, we do not consider that a discussion of these questions would serve any useful purpose. It follows that the judgment below must be and is hereby reversed on authority of the last cited case.

Reversed.

BUFORD and THOMAS, JJ., concur.

BROWN J., concurs in opinion and judgment.

WHITFIELD and CHAPMAN, JJ., not participating as authorized by Section 4687, Compiled General Laws of 1927, and Rule 21-A of the Rules of this Court.

On Rehearing.

PER CURIAM.

Refunding bonds issued under the Refunding Acts of 1931 without the approving vote of the electorate required by amended section 6 of Article IX of the constitution of Florida carry no greater obligation of the taxing units respectively than did the refunded bonds. The refunding statutes provide for tax levies to pay the refunding bonds as the prior statutes provided for tax levies to pay original bonds. If tax levies are duly made under the Refunding Acts to pay the refunding bonds, no levies are required under the prior statutes; but where the statutes require tax levies to pay all the outstanding bonds, administrative officers have no authority to levy only taxes to pay the refunding bonds unless a valid statute so provides or a competent judicial writ orders special or particular levies to be made, the statutory duty to levy taxes to pay bond indebtedness extends to all the bonds for which statutory levies apply.

When gas tax or other excise tax funds are appropriated and allocated by statute to counties to pay for construction of roads taken over by the State, such funds can be budgeted or appropriated by counties or road districts only as provided by the Acts of 1929, Ex.Sess., Chapter 14486, and of Acts 1931, Ex.Sess., Chapter 15659, and valid amendments thereto. And the statutes contemplate that interest funds and sinking funds required by statute to be created from ad valorem and/or such excise taxes shall apply to all road bond indebtedness whether original or refunding bonds of counties and road districts respectively. Ad valorem tax levies and excise tax fund budgetings or appropriations made under the statutes for, or that are sufficient for, only a portion of the amounts required and authorized for such road bond indebtedness, constitute only a partial levy, and the statutory duty to make complete levies for such purposes may be enforced by mandamus. And if such partial statutory tax levies and budgetings are made so late in the current tax year that other interested parties would not have reasonable opportunities to enforce complete levies or budgetings as contemplated by the applicable statutes, such partial levies and budgetings cannot be reserved for any particular portion of the road bond indebtedness of the taxing units respectively, unless clearly so provided by valid statutory enactments.

Unless authorized by valid statutory enactments, administrative officials cannot legally levy, budget or apply funds to the...