75 Miss. 873 | Miss. | 1898
delivered the opinion of the court.
Responding to the request of counsel to dbtermine the questions which are vital, we proceed at once to the merits. The scheme propounded by the act of February 1, 1850 (Laws, p. 214), as amended by the act of November 19, 1857 (Laws, p. 87), was this: A board of levee inspectors for Issaquena county was created by the'act, called in section 8 “commissioners.” That board had a president, and levee treasurer, and its duties were “to examine and designate the lands where levees were necessary to be erected, for the generál good; to lay out the line of said levee or levees, and to determine their extent; to contract for the building of the same, as herein provided for'; to superintend the construction of the same; to see that the work was properly executed, and to prescribe the manner of doing it, the line at which it should be commenced and completed; and, generally, to do whatever else they may deem necessary, in order to have the same completed in the best manner and at the least expense to the public.” Section 1 of said act. Said board was to examine and lay out the best route for a levee from the upper line of said county to the lower line of the same; to employ, by contract or otherwise, a competent engineer to make the survey and location; to estimate the probable cost of said levee, and report the same to the president of the board of police. The board of police was then to levy a tax of not exceeding ten cents per acre on all lands in said county subject to taxation, and annually thereafter, at such time as they might deem expedient, a
The two orders in this case were manifestly drawn ünder the clause just quoted, as their face shows, and the board of inspectors clearly have the right to draw them, though there were no funds in the hands of the levee treasurer when drawn, against money to be in his hands, when due, which money the board of police was to raise by the tax, and out of this money, when raised, the orders, when due, were to be paid. This
The board of levee inspectors created by this act was as much a county agency within the sphere of its powers, as was the board of police within the sphere of its powers. The board of police issued warrants for all proper claims touching ordinary county matters, and the board of levee inspectors made contracts and issued orders, and it alone, “for work done on levees ” — an item of extraordinary county expense. These orders thus issued by this special county agency for this extraordinary expense, were as truly county obligations, under this particular act, as were ordinary county warrants under the general law. The taxes to pay them were levied on all the lands in the county, and were a lien on all the lands in the county. The collection of these taxes was to be made through the board of police and the ordinary fiscal agents of the county, but they were to be paid out only on the order of the board of inspectors, 'who alone had the power to do all else, save the designation of parts of levees first to be built, that in any way related to the construction of the levees, and the making payment of contracts relating thereto. It, and it alone, was the county agency touching the contracts and their payment; the orders were therefore a county debt, and to be paid by these taxes, and were a lien on all the lands in the county.
Being, in their essential nature, county warrants, though not of the ordinary kind, we do not think they bear interest. The county, a local subdivision of the sovereignty, cannot have the burden of interest imposed on it, except by statute either expressly authorizing such burdens, or by clear and necessary implication warranting it. Section 9 does not expressly authorize interest. Nor does it clearly and necessarily, by implication, authorize it. The holder of these orders, accepting them, to be paid six, twelve, and eighteen months from date, may well have taken them, expecting only to receive the principal amount named at these defined dates, because only then was it contemplated that there would be money raised by taxation to pay them. He may well be treated as having contemplated that he could only be paid at the end of the periods named, for the reason that no funds were then on hand, and that the sum required to pay could only be raised, and that sum precisely as named, without interest, by the accrual of the periods named. And we think this was the meaning of the statute, and the contemplation of the parties to the contract culminating in the warrants. Board v. Klein,, 51 Miss., 816. Warrants issued upon the allowance of a claim, whether by the board of supervisors in the ordinary way, for current demands, or by a special county tribunal on extraordinary demands committed by the legisla
The judgment is reversed, the demurrer overruled and the cause remanded.