Veal v. Chariton Cnty. Court

• Decision Date: 31 January 1852
• Citation: 15 Mo. 412
• Parties: VEAL v. CHARITON COUNTY COURT.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

15 Mo. 412

VEAL

v.CHARITON COUNTY COURT.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

January Term, 1852.

APPEAL FROM CHARITON CIRCUIT COURT.

TURNER, for Appellant.

SCOTT, J.

Veal, who was school commissioner of township 55, in range 19, in the county of Chariton, filed his petition in the Circuit Court of said county, praying for a conditional mandamus to the County Court of that county requiring that body to collect the annual interest due on a bond executed by James Dempsey and others to the said county for the use and benefit of the inhabitants, of said township, or to show cause to the contrary. It appears that the bond bore ten per cent. interest, and that Veal, the commissioner for the said township, which was duly organized for school purposes, had applied to the County Court to enforce the payment of the interest on the bond, which was by its terms made payable annually, and that the court had refused to grant the application.

The County Court, in answering the mandamus, stated, that at the February term, 1849, James Dempsey presented a petition to said court, signed by a majority of the householders of said township, praying said court to reduce the rate of interest on said bond from ten to six per cent. Whereupon it was ordered, that James Dempsey, from and after the 1st January, 1849, pay to the county treasurer, six instead of ten per cent. interest on his bond until further ordered, and that the county treasurer be notified of this order. At the February term of the court, 1851, a petition, signed by a portion of the inhabitants of said township, was presented, praying a rescission of the former order, against which there was a remonstrance of some of the inhabitants. The court, upon a hearing of the petition and remonstrance, ordered that for the future, Dempsey pay ten per cent. interest on his debt. This, in effect, remitted to Dempsey four per cent. of the interest on his debt for upwards of two years. Upon the filing of the answer, it was demurred to by Veal, and his demurrer was overruled and a judgment for costs rendered against him, from which he appealed to this court.

Section numbered sixteen in every township was granted by the Congress of the United States to this State for the use of the inhabitants of such township, for the use of schools. This grant was solemnly accepted by the people of this State, in convention assembled, who at the same time declared, that it should be the duty of the General Assembly to apply the funds which may arise from...