Yazoo Delta Inv. Co. v. Suddoth

• Decision Date: 16 January 1893
• Citation: 70 Miss. 416,12 So. 246
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: YAZOO DELTA INVESTMENT CO. v. J. A. SUDDOTH, CLERK, ETC

12 So. 246

70 Miss. 416

YAZOO DELTA INVESTMENT CO. v. J. A. SUDDOTH, CLERK, ETC

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 16, 1893

FROM the circuit court of the second district of Coahoma county HON. R. W. WILLIAMSON, Judge.

The opinion states the case.

Affirmed.

Cook &amp Anderson and Cutrer & Cutrer, for appellant.

The sole purpose which actuated the legislature in passing the act dividing Coahoma county into two judicial districts was to afford the people residing in each of the subdivisions greater convenience and less expense in transacting public business. Keeping this purpose in view, there can be no difficulty in arriving at a proper construction of the act. Its purpose must be made effective, or the main thing which brought about the enactment of the law, especially this section relating to assessments, will be defeated. A statute cannot be abrogated by a strained construction of its plain language. Bonds v. Greer, 56 Miss. 710; Railroad Co. v. Gregory, 58 Am. Dec., 589, and note.

Aside from the proper construction of the act, which required that the rolls for the second district should be examined at Clarksdale, and not at Friar's Point, we submit that the order of the board made at the latter place was not broad enough to effect any change of the roll. The board cannot act except by the orders entered on its minutes. Code 1892 § 287; Clayton v. Mc Williams, 49 Miss. 311; Bridges v. Clay County, 58 Ib., 817. Every action taken on any subject must be evidenced by the entries on the minutes. Crump v. Supervisors, 52 Miss. 107.

The order must point out what changes are made in the roll, either specifically or by the employment of such language as will enable any person to ascertain from the minutes the action taken by the board. No other rule would be practicable. The clerk may understand the intended action of the board one way, and the members or individuals another.

It is manifest that the order at Friar's Point does not effect any change in the roll as filed by the assessor. It does not in any manner identify the alterations which it is claimed the board intended to make, nor the effect of the alleged changes.

The utmost effect of the board's action, both at Clarksdale and at Friar's Point, was the approval of the rolls as filed by the assessor. On this point, see Lacey v. Davis, 66 Am. Dec., 524. We insist that the proper place to take action on the roll for the second district was at Clarksdale, and, that being true, the order certainly approves the roll filed by the assessor.

All allegations of fact, and admissions of the board outside the record, are merely surplusage, and present no issue. See Phelan v. San Francisco, 6 Cal. 531. Section 3794, code 1892, positively requires an order of approval entered on the minutes, or the roll filed by the assessor will be approved by operation of law. The manifest purpose of the statute is to regard each roll as distinct, on which action is to be taken separately, just as if there were two counties. The demurrer should have been sustained.

But, if the legislative will, plainly expressed as to the two districts, must be defeated, still the demurrer of the appellants was well taken, for no authority is shown in the clerk to alter the assessment rolls filed by the assessor. The action of the board had no effect other than the approval of the roll without change.

Mayes & Harris, on the same side.

Yerger & Yerger, for appellee.

1. Even if we admit that the action taken by the board at Friar's Point on the roll for the second district was illegal, yet the subsequent action at Clarksdale operated as an approval of the corrected roll, and not of the roll as originally filed by the assessor. The board had before it the roll as corrected, and the action was taken on this roll.

2. It was not necessary that entries should be made on the minutes of the board to identify all the corrections. The statute requires the board to meet and hear objections and make corrections, and to approve the roll. It is contemplated that this should be done by a general order. Code 1892, §§ 3792, 3794. The case of Lacey v. Davis, 66 Am. Dec., 524, is not applicable, as the statute there construed was materially different from ours, in that it required the order to be entered on the journal.

The judgment should be affirmed.

Argued orally by E. Mayes, for appellant.

OPINION

COOPER, J.

By an act approved February 19, 1892 (Laws of 1892, page 362), the county of Coahoma was divided into two districts, the court-house for the first district being fixed at Friar's Point, and that for the second at Clarksdale. By the eleventh section of this act the board of supervisors was required to hold its meetings alternately at Friar's Point and Clarksdale, holding the first meeting at Friar's Point. The twelfth section of the act has relation to the making and return of the assessment-rolls by the assessor, and action thereon by the board of supervisors, and is as follows:

"It shall be the duty of the assessor of Coahoma county to file with the clerk of the chancery court of said county two copies each of the land and personal assessment-rolls of said county, filing one of each with the said clerk at his office at Friar's Point, and one of each at his office at Clarksdale; and said board of supervisors, in passing on said assessment-rolls, shall, at the proper meeting held by them at Friar's Point, approve so much of the same as shall relate to and embrace property included and being in the first district of the county; and, at the proper meeting held in Clarksdale, they shall act on and approve so much of said roll as shall embrace and include the property within the second district of said county, in all things acting upon said rolls, so far as the territory embraced in each of the respective districts is concerned, in the same manner as though the action on, or approval thereof, related to the approval of assessment-rolls of different counties; and the assessor and clerk shall provide suitable copies of said entire rolls, as finally approved, in all instances when required by law, as though said rolls related...