State v. Purdy

• Decision Date: 02 April 1896
• Citation: 14 Wash. 343,44 P. 857
• Parties: STATE EX REL. WHATCOM COUNTY v. PURDY, COUNTY TREASURER.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

44 P. 857

14 Wash. 343

STATE EX REL. WHATCOM COUNTY v. PURDY, COUNTY TREASURER.

Supreme Court of Washington

April 2, 1896

Appeal from superior court, Whatcom county; John R. Winn, Judge.

Mandamus on the relation of Whatcom county, to compel E. W. Purdy, as treasurer of said county, to furnish the delinquent tax list to the official paper of the county. From a judgment denying the writ, relator appeals. Affirmed.

G. V Alexander, for appellant.

H. A Fairchild and Black & Leaming, for respondent.

DUNBAR J.

This was a proceeding in mandamus to compel the respondent, as treasurer of Whatcom county, to furnish the delinquent tax list of said county, required by law to be published in the month of April, 1896, to the official paper of said county. The commissioners of Whatcom county had designated the Champion as the official paper of said county, and had entered into a contract with said paper to do the printing for the county. The treasurer answered the alternative writ denying that the county commissioners had authority to enter into the contract with the Champion for the publication of the delinquent tax list, and asserting that he, as such treasurer, had full power and authority, under the law, to cause said list to be published in any paper published in said county which he might select, and that he had entered into a contract with the Reveille, in February, 1896, for the publication of said delinquent tax lists. The answer also set up a contract entered into by the board of county commissioners with the Reveille in June, 1894, which said contract provided for the doing of the county printing by the said Reveille, including the delinquent tax lists. Upon the hearing the writ was denied.

With our view of the law governing the other phase of the question presented, it will not be necessary to enter into a discussion of the force of the contract entered into between the commissioners and the Reveille. Section 2936 of the General Statutes provides that it shall be the duty of the county commissioners to let the advertising and official publication of all notices to the publisher of a newspaper where two or more weekly newspapers are published in the county, who is the best and lowest responsible bidder, etc. It is conceded that, under the provisions of this section and of the subsequent sections 2937 and 2938, the paper designated by the county commissioners would be the paper which should publish the delinquent tax lists. But respondent relies upon section 96 of the revenue law of 1893, which provides for the selection of a paper by the treasurer for the doing of this work. The contention of the appellant is that section 2936 of the Code, being an enactment by the legislature in 1885-86, was a special law, and that its provisions are not repealed by the provisions of the general law of 1893, and that there is no direct repeal of the law providing for the selection of the paper to do the printing by the county commissioners, and no direct authorization to the treasurer to enter into a contract for the printing of the delinquent tax lists, in the act of 1893; and that, therefore, if the law of 1886, which is section 2936 of the General Statutes, is repealed, it must be repealed by implication, and the old familiar doctrine that the repeal of statutes by implication is not favored is urged at great length. In the first place, it does not appear to us that section 2936 of the General Statutes is a special provision of the law. This section, together with section 2937, was offered as an amendment to the Code of 1881, and, as such amendment, was passed by the legislature of 1885-86. About the only difference between the law as it stood before and after the amendment of 1885-86 is as to the time when a paper could bid for the county printing; the old law providing that, where two or more newspapers are published, it shall be the duty of the county commissioners to let the public printing to the lowest bidder, and the law of 1885-86 providing that no newspaper shall be eligible as a competitor unless the same shall have been published for at least six months prior to the letting of the contract; also providing that, where no paper was published in the county, the commissioners should cause the printing of the county to be done in some newspaper in the state of general circulation in the county having no resident newspaper. These are about the only new provisions which were ingrafted on the general law by the act of February 3, 1886. The act of 1893 seems to be an act governing every step in the assessment and collection of taxes, which must necessarily include the printing of the delinquent tax lists. The title of the act is, "An act to provide for the assessment and collection of taxes in the state of...