Territory ex rel. Higgins v. Steele
| Decision Date | 21 March 1885 |
| Citation | 4 Dak. 78,23 N.W. 91 |
| Parties | Territory ex rel. Higgins v. Steele and others. |
| Court | South Dakota Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from district court of Stutsma county.Alexander Hughes, Atty. Gen., Wilson & Ball, and Alfred Wallin, for respondent. W. E. Dodge, Horace Austin, A. D. Thomas, and Bartlett Tripp, for appellants.
A special act of the legislature of Dakota, approved February 21, 1883, authorizes the county commissioners of Kidder county to erect and construct suitable buildings for a court-house and jail at Steele, in said county,-the cost of the purchase of the site thereof, and of the construction of the court-house and jail, and the complete furnishing of the same, not to exceed the sum of $20,000; and for the purpose of providing funds to pay the cost of the same, the county commissioners of said county were authorized to issue the bonds of said county of Kidder, running for a period of 15 years.
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Then follows a provision for a second submission of the same question in case a majority of all the votes cast shall be against said proposition, and closes as follows: “And all voting and canvassing of the votes on said questions shall be the same as provided by law for canvassing votes for county officers, and as hereinbefore provided; and if a majority of all the votes cast at such election be found to be for building said court-house and jail, and issuing bonds, such court-house and jail shall be built, and bonds may be issued as herein provided.” The records of the board of county commissioners of Kidder county, showing their action under this special act, is as follows:
“Exhibit C-Special Notice.
Notice is hereby given that the board of county commissioners will meet February 28th, at 10 o'clock a. m. for the purpose of acting on applications for liquor licenses and other important business.
By order of board, this twenty-third day of February, 1883.
“D. F. Allison, County Clerk.”
“Exhibit A.
“Steele, D. T., February 28, 1883.
“D. F. Allison, County Clerk.”
“D. F. Allison, County Clerk.”
“Exhibit B-Notice.
To the Electors of Kidder County, Territory of Dakota: Notice is hereby given that on the second Tuesday, the thirteenth day, of March next, at the court-house at the town of Steele, in said county of Kidder, a special election will be held, under the provision of section 13 of an act of the territorial legislature, for the purpose of submitting to the electors of said county the proposition of bonding said county in the sum of twenty thousand dollars, and building a court-house and jail at the county seat of said county, as provided by said act, and voting upon the same as provided by law. And said electors are hereby notified to designate upon their ballots the following words and figures, to-wit: ‘For building court-house and jail, and issuing bonds-Yes;’ ‘For building court-house and jail, and issuing bonds-No;’-which election will be open at nine o'clock in the morning, and will continue open until four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day.
[Seal.]
“D. F. Allison, County Clerk.
“ Dated this first day of March, 1883.”
It appears that the judges of election so appointed assembled at Steele on the thirteenth day of March, 1883, opened the polls, received votes, and kept the polls of said election open from 9 o'clock in the morning until 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when they proceeded to count the votes, and afterwards made a return to the commissioners, who canvassed the same, and declared and determined that the proposition to issue the bonds, and build a court-house and jail, had been carried by a majority of the votes cast upon that question.
The complaint alleges, in substance, that the defendants intend and threaten to issue the bonds of said county under color of said act, and intend and threaten to negotiate and sell the same to good-faith purchasers, and thereby create a debt to be paid by the tax-payers of said county; that it is a corrupt and unlawful attempt to effect the erection and construction, in advance of the needs and demands of the county, of expensive county buildings at the village of Steele, where the county seat is temporarily located, with the corrupt design and purpose of advancing the interests of said village, and especially advancing the price of real estate therein, at the expense of the tax-payers of said county. And further alleges that said commissioners of said county have not, at any time, submitted to the voters of said county the proposition of issuing the bonds of said county, as required by said act, but have corruptly and unlawfully made a pretended submission thereof under color of said act. That commissioners on the twenty-eighth day of February, 1883, pretended to pass a certain resolution which ordered and directed that a special election be held at said county of Kidder on the thirteenth day of March, 1883, for the purpose of submitting to the electors of said county the question of building a court-house and jail; but did not at said session, or at any other time, manner, or form, submit to the voters of said county the question of issuing bonds of said county under said act of the legislature or otherwise. The said resolution is annexed and marked “Exhibit A,” and is the only submission or attempted submission of the proposition contained in said section 13 of said act ever made to the voters of said county of Kidder. That D. F. Allison, acting as clerk of said board and county clerk, posted and published in said county notices of said election, to be held at Steele and nowhere else in said county, a copy of which is annexed to the complaint and marked “B,” which notices are the only notices of said pretended election ever given or published by said clerk or by any official of said county, and which notices were not published the length of time required by law. That prior to the general election of 1882 the board of county commissioners of said county of Kidder duly set forth and established three election precincts or districts in the county of Kidder, and said election precincts or districts have never at any time been changed or abolished, but have ever since remained established as aforesaid, and said election precincts were severally named and designated as “Steele,” “Dawson,” and “Tappan.” That said defendants, nor the board of county commissioners, nor any officer of said county, ever gave notice of any election to be held in the precinct of Tappan or Dawson on the thirteenth of March, 1883, or at any other date, for the purpose of submitting the proposition to issue bonds or build a court-house and jail for said county; and that the electors of said county residing in the precincts of Tappan and Dawson have never had any opportunity whatever to vote upon the question of issuing the...
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Kerlin v. City of Devils Lake
...will of the majority; the will of the majority is to be respected, even when irregularly expressed.” Nor do we regard Territory ex rel. v. Steele, 4 Dak. 78, 23 N. W. 91, as authority for plaintiff. There it was sought to sustain the action of the commissioners of Kidder county in an attemp......
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Kerlin v. City of Devils Lake
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