State of Louisiana Nelson v. Police Jury of the Parish of St Martin

• Decision Date: 05 May 1884
• Citation: 28 L.Ed. 574,4 S.Ct. 648,111 U.S. 716
• Parties: STATE OF LOUISIANA ex rel. NELSON 1 v. POLICE JURY OF THE PARISH OF ST. MARTIN, in the State of Lousiana
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

111 U.S. 716

4 S.Ct. 648

28 L.Ed. 574

STATE OF LOUISIANA ex rel. NELSON¹ v. POLICE JURY OF THE PARISH OF ST. MARTIN, in the

State of Lousiana.

May 5, 1884.

On the twenty-ninth of November, 1873, the relator, Nelson, recovered in the Third judicial district court for the parish of St. Martin, in Louisiana, a judgment against the parish for $4,500, with interest at 8 per cent. per annum from October 5, 1868. At that time the law of Louisiana provided that whenever a judgment for money was rendered by any court of competent jurisdiction, against a parish of the state, the judge rendering it should, 'in the same decree, order the board of assessors or parish officers, whose duty it is to assess taxes, forth with to assess a parish tax at a sufficient rate per centum upon the assessment roll of the current year to pay and satisfy said judgment, with interest and costs.' Rev. St. La. § 2628. The law also declared that in such decree or judgment the judge should provide that the state or tax collector should 'proceed forthwith to collect the tax' in the same manner that parish taxes were collected, and that the proceeds should constitute a special fund out of which said judgment, interest, and costs should be paid, and should not be diverted to any other purpose, provided sufficient proof was furnished to him that there were no funds in the parish treasury to satisfy the judgment. Id. § 2630. In pursuance of these provisions, the judge of the Third judicial district court entered, ith the judgement rendered on the twenty-ninth of November, 1873, a decree for the assessment and collection of a parish tax to pay it, and directed the collector to proceed at once to collect the tax. That judgment and decree are as follows:

'In the above-entitled case, the law and evidence being in favor of plaintiff and against the defendant, it is ordered, adjudged, and decreed that said plaintiff, Thos. W. Nelson, have judgment against and recover from the defendant, parish of St. Martin, the sum of forty-five hundred dollars, with eight per cent. interest per annum, from October 5, 1868, and that the board of assessors or officers, whose duty it is to assess taxes, forthwith proceed to assess a parish tax, at a sufficient rate per cent. upon the assessment roll of the current year, to pay said judgment, and that the tax collector proceed forthwith to collect said tax in the same manner that parish taxes are now collected, and the amount collected to be a specific fund to pay said judgment.

'Done, read, and signed in open court, this twenty-ninth November, 1873.'

From the entry of this judgment and decree to the presentation of the application for a mandamus to be issued to the officers designated, the relator in vain endeavored to have the decree executed. He made repeated applications to them to assess and collect the tax ordered, but they refused to do so; and at the extra session of the legislature of 1877, by the act known as No. 56, passed on the tenth of April of that year, the provisions of law to which we have referred were repealed. Subsequently the officers, in excuse of their conduct, alleged a want of authority by reason of the repeal. He therefore applied to the court for a mandamus to compel them to proceed in such assessment and collection pursuant to the decree of the court, setting forth in his petition the judgment recovered, with the accompanying decree, the refusal of those officers to carry out the directions of the decree on account of the repeal- ing act of 1877, and averring that that act, if constitutional, left him absolutely without any remedy, as the parish was without property liable to seizure in an amount sufficient to pay it; and that the act was null and void as to him, and his rights under the decree, because in conflict with the constitution of Louisiana and that of the United States prohibiting legislation impairing the obligation of contracts; and that unless aided by the writ of mandamus he would lose the rights established by his judgment. The writ was duly served, and, upon its return, the president of the police jury of the parish appeared, representing the assessing officers. The parish of St. Martin also appeared, and set up that the remedies invoked for the enforcement of the judgment were repealed; that the parish was largely involved in debt; that its tax was then 10 mills on the dollar; and that the levying of an additional tax to pay the judgment in one installment would not only exceed the rate of taxation fixed by article 209 of the new constitution of the state, but would absorb, or nearly so, its entire revenues. Upon these pleadings the district court ordered a peremptory mandamus directing the levy and collection of the tax. An appeal was then taken to the supreme court of the state, where the judgment was reversed, the court holding that the right to the mandate depended upon the question whether the judgment against the parish was founded upon a contract protected against impairment by state legislation under the federal constitution; observing that the repealing act of 1877 should be no bar to the exercise of the remedy accorded by law to the relator in force at the time that he obtained his judgment, which 'not only theoretically but practically formed part of that judgment, provided that judgment be founded on a contract;' and also that unless it was thus founded the court would be powerless to enforce its payment in the manner proposed, under the inhibition of the constitution of 1879 limiting taxation to...