State ex rel. King v. Harvey

• Decision Date: 21 October 1968
• Docket Number: No. 45015,45015
• Citation: 214 So.2d 817
• Parties: STATE of Mississippi ex rel. Hampton KING, State Auditor and Joe T. Patterson, Attorney General v. Hobson HARVEY et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 817

214 So.2d 817

STATE of Mississippi ex rel. Hampton KING, State Auditor and Joe T. Patterson, Attorney General v. Hobson HARVEY et al.

No. 45015.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Oct. 21, 1968.

Joe T. Patterson, Atty. Gen., by Martin R. McLendon, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellants.

O. B. Triplett, Jr., W. A. Huff, O. G. Idom, Forest, for appellees.

ETHRIDGE, Chief Justice:

This is the second appearance of this case. Taxpayers brought suit in the Chancery Court of Scott County against Hobson Harvey, a member of the Board of Supervisors of Scott County, and his surety company, for an accounting, judgment and injunction because of the alleged unlawful use of county machinery, materials and labor for the benefit of private citizens on unauthorized projects. The chancery court dismissed the bill, but on appeal this Court reversed in part, and held that the evidence established misuse of county machinery, materials and employees on certain private properties. Saxon v. Harvey, 190 So.2d 901 (Miss.1966). It was said that 'an accounting should be had to determine the cost to the county of the above designated projects * * *' The opinion concluded:

The cause is remanded for an accounting as to the remaining charges of misuse of public equipment, materials, and employees, and for an injunction to issue from the trial court enjoining the defendant from similar unauthorized activities, and finally, for a judgment, in accord with the accounting, against Harvey and his surety, payable to the county, * * * (Saxon v. Harvey, 190 So.2d at 908 (Miss.1966).

On remand, the chancellor permanently enjoined Harvey from using public equipment, materials and employees to construct or otherwise improve private driveways and roads. This injunction is not now an issue.

The State Auditor and Attorney General intervened and moved the court to require defendant Harvey or his sureties to file a written accounting with the court, showing the costs to Scott County of the use of public equipment, materials and employees, as found by this Court to have been misused by Harvey. The motion averred that the State Auditor had caused an audit to be made of the ten projects upon which the Court had adjudicated liability and upon the one project which the court left open as to liability and accounting; and that the audit included actual measurements of culverts and materials used on the projects, with comparisons of comparable, estimated costs. The motion had attached to it an exhibit consisting of a summary of that audit.

The chancery court overruled this motion for a written accounting, holding that our opinion did not require one to be filed, but merely directed an accounting on the retrial and a judgment in accord with it.

Accordingly, the case proceeded to trial with the defendant supervisor assuming the burden of going forward with testimony by various witnesses. This was the only accounting defendant made. He and other witnesses testified about the various projects, and the State offered rebuttal, oral and documentary evidence. The final decree gave the State, for the use and benefit of District 2 of Scott County, a judgment against Harvey for $715.42.

The chancery court erred in overruling the State's motion for a sworn written accounting by Harvey as to the projects involved. This Court remanded the case to the trial court for an accounting. Equity jurisdiction for an accounting in a complicated matter is well established. Griffith, Mississippi Chancery Practice § 24 (2d ed. 1950). An accounting is by definition a detailed statement of the debits and credits between parties arising out of a contract or a fiduciary relation. It is a statement in writing of debts and credits or of receipts and payments. Thus an accounting is an act or a system of making up or settling accounts, consisting of a statement of the account with debits and credits arising from the relationship of the parties. Black's Law Dictionary 34-36 (4th ed. 1957). An accounting...