Stewart v. City of Pascagoula, 44698

• Decision Date: 29 January 1968
• Docket Number: No. 44698,44698
• Citation: 206 So.2d 325
• Parties: David A. STEWART, Jr. and Joseph Brown v. CITY OF PASCAGOULA, Mississippi et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 325

206 So.2d 325

David A. STEWART, Jr. and Joseph Brown v. CITY OF PASCAGOULA, Mississippi et al.

No. 44698.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Jan. 29, 1968.

Suggestion of Error Overruled Feb. 26, 1968.

Ford, Moore, Jones, Colmer & Schroeder, Pascagoula, for appellants.

Edmund A. Wilson, Megehee & Brown, Wiesenburg, McLeod, Oswald & Lockard, Pascagoula, for appellees.

ROBERTSON, Justice:

Appellants, David A. Stewart, Jr., and Joseph Brown, appealed to the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, from the order of the City Council of the City of Pascagoula, Mississippi, adopting Ordinance No. 11-1966. The circuit court dismissed the appeal because the bill of exceptions was not deemed sufficient to confer jurisdiction on that court to hear the appeal. Appellants thereupon perfected their appeal to this Court.

The method of appeal from a judgment or decision of the municipal authorities of a city, town, or village is set forth in Section 1195, Mississippi Code 1942 Annotated (Supp.1966). Section 1195 is in part as follows:

'Any person aggrieved by a judgment or decision of the board of supervisors, or municipal authorities of a city, town, or village, may appeal within ten (10) days from the date of adjournment at which session the board of supervisors or municipal authorities rendered such judgment or decision, and may embody the facts, judgment and decision in a bill of exceptions which shall be signed by the person acting as president of the board of supervisors or of the municipal authorities; and the clerk thereof shall transmit the bill of exceptions to the circuit court at once, and the court shall either in term time or in vacation hear and determine the same on the case as presented by the bill of exceptions as an appellate court, * * *' (Emphasis added).

The authority and jurisdiction of the circuit court are thus limited and circumscribed by statute. As an appellate court, it considers the case as presented by the bill of exceptions. It can not go outside the record as made in the bill of exceptions.

The appellants have listed seven errors in their assignment of errors. We do not reach any of these because we have determined from a careful examination of the bill of exceptions that it does not meet the requirements of Section 1195, supra, and is, therefore, not sufficient to confer jurisdiction on the circuit court. The circuit court was correct in dismissing the appeal.

The City Council of the City of Pascagoula, on October 6, 1966, adopted Ordinance No. 11-1966, which set forth in detail the contract the City of Pascagoula was authorized to enter into with Jackson County, wherein the City would assume the $5,000,000 Combined Water and Sewer Revenue Bonds of Jackson County, dated November 1, 1963, and take over control and operation of the combined water and sewer system. The proceeds from this bond issue had been used to construct the combined water and sewer system in the Bayou Casotte and Escatawpa Suburban Utility District areas of Jackson County. Even though this ultimate action of the City of Pascagoula had a long history dating from June 19, 1962, a recitation of which history, supported by prior contracts, validation proceedings, and other explanatory documents, was absolutely necessary for a proper presentation and consideration of the appeal, these prior contracts, validation proceedings and explanatory documents were not included in the bill of exceptions.

It is true that the bill of exceptions referred to a contract between the Board of Supervisors of Jackson County and the City of Pascagoula, dated June 19, 1962, and attempted to make this contract a part of the bill of exceptions by reference, but this can not be done.

It has long been settled law in this State that the courts do not and can not take judicial knowledge of municipal contracts and ordinances. See the latest case thus holding, McDaniel v. City of Grenada, 252 Miss. 16, 172 So.2d 223 (1965).

The bill of exceptions refers to the validation proceedings of the $5,000,000 revenue bonds of Jackson County as Cause No. 17,383 on the docket of the Chancery Court of Jackson County, Mississippi, and again attempts to incorporate by reference these proceedings in the bill of exceptions. The bill of exceptions also refers to the validation proceedings of the $1,480,000 combined Water, Sewer and Gas Revenue Refunding and Extension Bonds of the City of Pascagoula, dated March 1, 1964, as Cause No. 17,698 on the docket of the said Chancery Court of Jackson County, and attempts to incorporate by reference, these proceedings in the bill of exceptions.

Neither the circuit court nor this Court can take judicial knowledge of the two validation proceedings in the Chancery Court of Jackson County, nor can same be incorporated in the bill of exceptions by reference. Martin v. McGraw, 249 Miss. 334, 160 So.2d 89, 161 So.2d 784, 163 So.2d 231 (1964), Interstate Co. v. Jolly, 156 Miss. 199, 125 So. 406, 838 (1930).

Ordinance No. 11-1966, and the contract of October 1, 1966, both of which are under attack by the appellants, refer to a contract between the City of Pascagoula and Jackson County, dated April 7, 1964. This contract is not made a part of the bill of exceptions, neither did the appellants attempt to include...