Village of Gandsi v. Town of Seminary

• Decision Date: 05 April 1909
• Docket Number: 13,631
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: VILLAGE OF GANDSI v. TOWN OF SEMINARY

48 So. 908

95 Miss. 315

VILLAGE OF GANDSI v. TOWN OF SEMINARY

No. 13,631

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 5, 1909

FROM the circuit court of Covington county, HON. ROBERT L BULLARD, Judge.

Proceedings were begun, under the statutes, Code 1906, §§ 3301, 3312, as amended Laws 1908, chs. 186, 187, p. 196, by the town of Seminary to enlarge its boundaries so as to embrace the village of Gandsi, the northern boundary of the one municipality being the southern boundary of the other. The village and some of its freeholders appealed from the ordinance of the town to the circuit court. An issue of law was there presented as to whether the town could extend its limits so as to embrace the incorporated village. From a judgment of the circuit court in favor of the town the village appealed to the supreme court.

Code 1906, § 3312, as amended Laws 1908, ch. 187, p. 196 provides that "all municipalities that have been chartered by proclamation of the governor since January 1 1891, whose nearest boundary line was within one mile of any corporate line of an existing city or town of over five hundred inhabitants shall be abolished when the said existing city or town shall extend their limits to take in said territory, and when so taken in all legal debts and liabilities shall be assumed by the city or town and they shall be legally responsible for same as if they had been contracted by the said city or town: Provided that any municipality affected by the foregoing provisions of this act shall have the privilege and right within sixty days from the passage and approval of this act of consolidating with its adjacent municipality as provided by sections 3301 and 3305 of chapter 99 of the Code of 1906."

Reversed and dismissed.

Napier & Bilbo and Devours & Shands, for appellant.

The ordinance of the town of Seminary looking to the extension of its boundaries, under the facts of this case, is absolutely void.

The town could, under Code 1906, § 3301, and the act amending the section, Laws 1908, ch. 186, p. 196, extend its municipal limits only to include unincorporated territory, and the act of 1908, ch. 187, p. 196, does not enlarge its powers.

W. L. Cranford and McIntosh Bros., for appellee.

The ordinance of the town of Seminary extending its boundaries was authorized by Code 1906, § 3301, amended Laws 1908, ch. 186, p. 196, and Code 1906, § 3312, amended Laws 1908, ch. 187, p. 196. The latter act, Laws 1908, ch. 187, p. 196, extended the power of the town so as to enable it to include corporated as well as unincorporated territory, else the act is meaningless. Of course any construction of a statute, which renders it an abortion is not the true construction.

OPINION

WHITFIELD, C. J.

The Legislature undoubtedly intended, by § 3321 of the Code of 1906, as amended in 1908 (Laws 1908, p. 196, c. 187), to give to an existing municipality with five hundred inhabitants, whose boundary line was within one mile...