Yazoo Co v. Board of Levee Commissioners

• Decision Date: 18 November 1889
• Parties: YAZOO & M. V. R. CO. v. BOARD OF LEVEE COMMISSIONERS et al. 1
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

132 U.S. 190

10 S.Ct. 74

33 L.Ed. 308

YAZOO & M. V. R. CO. v. BOARD OF LEVEE COMMISSIONERS et al.¹

November 18, 1889.

James Fentress and W. P. Harris, for appellant.

Marcellus Green, for appellees.

FULLER, C. J.

This is an appeal by plaintiff in the suit from the decree of the circuit court for the southern district of Mississippi, dismissing its bill of complaint filed in that court against the appellees, the Board of Levee Commissioners and certain sheriffs and tax collectors, to enjoin the collection of taxes levied under an act of the legislature creating such board of commissioners, for the purpose of providing for the payment of the principal and interest of bonds authorized to be issued by the board, the proceeds of which were to be applied to the construction and repair of levees on the Mississippi river. The bill set up the same exemption relied on in Railroad Co. v. Thomas, ante, 68, and it was insisted that the taxes sought to be collected where unauthorized and illegal by reason of such exemption, and that the law imposing the taxes impaired the obligation of the alleged contract of exemption, and thus violated the constitution of the United States; the litigation therefore, making a controversy arising under that constitution. Without considering whether any other ground for affirming the decree exists, it is sufficient to say that this case is disposed of by the decision which has just been announced in that referred to. Decree affirmed.

1 Affirming 37 Fed. Rep. 24.