State v. Carbon County

• Decision Date: 17 September 1909
• Docket Number: 2078
• Citation: 104 P. 222,36 Utah 394
• Court: Utah Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE ex rel. WHITMORE v. CARBON COUNTY et al

104 P. 222

36 Utah 394

STATE ex rel. WHITMORE v. CARBON COUNTY et al

No. 2078

Supreme Court of Utah

September 17, 1909

Original application for a writ of prohibition by the State of Utah, on the relation of J. M. Whitmore, against Carbon County and others to restrain the officers of the county from issuing and negotiating bonds.

WRIT DENIED.

G. A Iverson for plaintiff.

A. R Barnes, Attorney-General, for defendants.

STRAUP C. J. FRICK and McCARTY, JJ., concur.

OPINION

STRAUP, C. J.

The board of county commissioners of Carbon County passed a resolution providing for a special election for the purpose of submitting to the qualified electors of such county the question of incurring a bonded indebtedness in the sum of forty thousand dollars to build a county courthouse. In pursuance of the notice which was given, such an election was held. A majority of the votes cast was in favor of incurring the indebtedness. The petitioner has here applied for a writ of prohibition to restrain the commissioners and other officers of the county from issuing and negotiating the bonds. The first alleged irregularity in the proceedings relates to the sufficiency of the published notice required by section 518, Comp. Laws 1907. It is alleged that the notice was insufficient because it did not designate the polling places at which the election was to be held. In the case of the State v. Salt Lake City, 35 Utah 25, 99 P. 255, it was decided that it was not essential to designate the various polling places in the published notice. We are content with that ruling.

The statute (section 518) further provides that "the board shall by order specify the particular purpose for which the indebtedness is to be created, and the amount of bonds which it is proposed to issue; and shall further provide for submitting the question of the issue of said bonds to the qualified electors of the county, at the next general election, or at a special election to be called by the board for that purpose, and none but such qualified voters as shall have paid a property tax in the county in which the election is being held in the year next preceding such election shall be permitted to vote upon the question of bonds." The resolution or order of the board providing for the election among other things specified the particular purpose for which the indebtedness was to be created, the amount of bonds proposed, and provided "that the question of the issue of such bonds be submitted to the qualified electors of said ...