102 P. 39 | Mont. | 1909
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court.
The plaintiff, a taxpayer and resident of the city of Helena, brought this action to test the validity of proposed issues of bonds by the city to the amount of $600,000, for the purpose of procuring a water supply and installing a system of pipes for its distribution, and $70,000 for the purpose of extending one of its sewers. From the complaint we gather the following facts:
On March 3, 1908, the mayor and' the city council of the city of Helena, having determined that it was for the best interests of the city to own and control its own water supply and water system, and that a supply could be obtained from McClellan creek and brought into the city by an expenditure of $600,000, and also that a needed extension of the sewer system of the city could be effected by the expenditure of $70,000, provided the necessary funds could be realized from the sale of bonds issued by the city for these purposes, the issuance of such bonds being made necessary by the fact that the city was already indebted in excess of the three per cent limit imposed by the Constitution (Constitution, sec. 6, Art. XIII), enacted an ordinance reciting these facts and providing for a submission to the tax•payers of the city of the question whether the limit of indebtedness should be extended to procure the funds for these purposes. This course was adopted in order to make available the permission granted by the legislature (Revised Codes, sec. 3259, subd. 64), in pursuance of the proviso contained in the section of the Constitution referred to. The ordinance, designated as “Ordinance No. 717,” provides:
“Section 1. That a special election be held in the city of Helena on the twenty-fifth day of April, 1908, for the purpose of ascertaining the will of the taxpayers, to be affected thereby, and that authority may be given and power conferred upon
It further prescribes the character of the proposed bonds as $600,000 of water bonds and $70,000 of sewer bonds, all to be payable in not to exceed twenty years, and redeemable “in such manner” as might be provided in the ordinance directing their issuance, to be in denominations of $100 or multiples thereof, and “to bear interest at not over five per cent per annum.” It also prescribed separate ballot's to be used at the election, so that the electors could vote for or against the issuance of bonds for either purpose. The election was held on the date named, notice thereof, containing all the provisions of the ordinance above quoted or stated in substance, having been published in the “Helena Daily Record,” a newspaper published in the city, for the three weeks beginning on April 4 and ending on April. 25, and posted for a like period in three public places in the city. The result of the election showed a large majority in favor of both bond issues. Thereupon, and in pursuance of the authority thus given by the electors, an ordinance, designated as “Ordinance No. 747, ’ ’ was passed by the council and approved by the mayor on March 1, 1909, which, after reciting the proceedings had under Ordinance 717, authorized and directed the issuance of coupon bonds, signed by the mayor and the clerk, to the full amount of $600,000, dated January 1, 1909. It is therein prescribed that the bonds shall be for $1,000 each, numbered
It is alleged that the city is now indebted in outstanding bonds to the amount of $488,800; that the assessed valuation of the property in the city in 1907 was $10,799,000, and in the year 1908 $11,629,833; that the amount of the bonds now proposed, together with the interest to be paid thereon from date until maturity, will far exceed ten per cent of the assessed valuation of the property in the city, for either the year 1907 or 1908, without including the present amount of its indebtedness; and that, if they are permitted to be sold and to pass into the hands of bona fide purchasers, containing, as they do, recitals that the city is not indebted beyond the constitutional limit, and that all the requirements of the Constitution and laws of the state of Montana prior to their issuance have been observed, the city of Helena will be estopped to question their validity upon any ground whatever. It is also further alleged that there flows in McClellan creek, referred to in Ordinance 717, at the point at which the city proposes to make its diversion, three hundred and fifty inches of water, all of which has been appropriated by private individuals and is .being used by them for the irrigation of farm lands lying adjacent to and along the stream; that the city has commenced an action in the district court of Jefferson county against one Dima S. A. Turner, and others, for the purpose of acquiring, by the exercise of the right of eminent domain, the right to the use of one hundred and fifty inches of the water of McClellan creek, which has heretofore been used for mining and irrigating purposes on lands lying entirely outside of the watershed of McClellan creek, and which has never returned thereto or to any stream of which McClellan is a tributary; that the city has also commenced an action in the district court of Lewis and Clark county against one Burgess and others, for the purpose of acquiring by the same means the right to the use of three hundred and fifty inches of water of McClellan creek, owned and used as aforesaid; that both of these rights
The district court having overruled a general demurrer, and the defendant having declined to plead further, judgment was entered for the plaintiff. The appeal is from the judgment. A motion to dismiss the appeal, made by members of the bar as amici curiae, on the ground that the action was collusive, was overruled (38 Mont. 581, 101 Pac. 163), but the movants were allowed to appear and assist counsel for respondent upon the argument. This they did, besides filing elaborate briefs. Many of the contentions made at the hearing arise upon alleged irregularities in the proceedings anterior to the election, such as the giving of notice of the registration of electors, the sufficiency of the publication of the notice of election, and similar matters. These proceedings we have not deemed it necessary to set forth in detail, since, upon an examination of them, we have concluded that it is not necessary to determine the contentions made with reference to them. We can most conveniently notice the other contentions by taking up the objections made by counsel for respondent to the validity of the bonds somewhat in the order pursued in their briefs.
1. The Constitution, Article XIII, section 6, declares: “No city, town, township or school district shall be allowed to become indebted in any manner or for any purpose to an amount, in-
Section 3259, Revised Codes, after declaring that a city or town has power to contract indebtedness for the erection of public buildings, construction of sewers, waterworks, etc., to an amount not in excess of three per cent of the taxable property therein, as ascertained by the last assessment for state and county purposes, adds the following provisos: “Provided, that no money must be borrowed on bonds issued for the construction, purchase or securing of a water plant, water system, water supr ply or sewerage system, until the proposition has been submitted to the vote of the taxpayers affected thereby of the city or town and the majority vote cast in favor thereof; and further provided, that an additional indebtedness shall be incurred, when necessary, to construct a sewerage system or procure a water supply for the said city or town which shall own or control said water supply and devote the revenue derived therefrom to the payment of the debt. The additional indebtedness authorized, including all indebtedness heretofore contracted, which is unpaid or outstanding, for the construction of a sewerage system, shall not exceed ten per centum over and above the three per cent heretofore referred to of the total assessed valuation of the taxable property of the city or town as ascertained by the last assessment for state and county taxes; and, provided further, that the above limit of three per centum shall not be extended, unless
It is gathered from the complaint that the present indebtedness of the city, to the amount of $188,800, was contracted for the construction of the sewer system which it is now proposed to extend, and for other purposes, prior to the year 1893, when the assessed valuation of the property subject to taxation was much greater than during the year 1907 or 1908, and that it is an indebtedness not in excess of the constitutional limit of three per cent, as the assessed valuation stood at the time it was contracted. It may therefore be eliminated from this discussion.
The first contention made grows out of the different views of counsel as to the construction which should be given to the pro
2. Contention is made that the fourth proviso of the statute makes it incumbent upon a city or town, whenever it desires to procure a water supply, and there has been installed and maintained therein a system of water supply by any person or corporation under a franchise granted or contract made by the city, to first acquire such system of water supply, and that indebtedness may not lawfully be incurred by the issuance of bonds for the purpose of securing any other supply. It must follow, therefore, it is said, that, since the proposed issue of water bonds is expressly declared to be for the purpose of procuring a supply other than the one now maintained by a corporation under a franchise granted by the defendant, the issue would be without authority of law. There is no merit in this contention. The statute does not limit the power of choice of the city in this regard. The course pointed out in this proviso to be pursued is obligatory only when the person or corporation owns a supply desired by the city for its own use. If it does not desire the particular supply, it may procure any
3. Much contention is made over the question whether the interest, as well as the principal, of the proposed issue of bonds should be taken into account in determining whether an indebtedness will be created thereby in excess of the ten per cent limit authorized by the statute. If the interest should be taken into account and the amount of it be added to the $670,000, of principal, as counsel contend, the sum would exceed ten per cent of the assessed valuation for 1907—the basis upon which it must be estimated—by several thousand dollars. The whole of the issue would then be void. This contention proceeds upon the theory that, when interest is expressly reserved in the contract, it becomes a part of the debt, and hence, in determining the amount of indebtedness which a city may contract by the issuance of bonds, the interest up to the date of maturity must be added to the principal. It is true that the reservation of interest is as much a part of the contract as the main promise (State ex rel. State Savings Bank v. Barrett, 25 Mont. 112, 63 Pac. 1030), yet no authority has been called to our attention which furnishes support for the rule contended for. Interest is merely an incident to the debt, to be paid from time to time or at the date when the principal falls due, in consideration of the forbearance extended to the debtor, and becomes a part of the debt, or a debt at all, only when it has been earned. If this is not the correct rule, then, as observed by the supreme court of Wisconsin in Herman v. City of Oconto, 110 Wis. 660, 86
Counsel contend, however, that this court foreclosed the question under consideration by the decision in State ex rel. Helena Waterworks Co. v. City of Helena et al., 24 Mont. 521, 81 Am. St. Rep. 453, 63 Pac. 99, 55 L. R. A. 336. It is true there are many statements in the opinion indicating that this court entertained the conviction that the term “obligation,” as used in the Constitution, applies to any sort of a contract which will certainly result in a debt in futuro, as well as to one creating a debt in praesenti. But we may not overlook the question actually presented and decided. The contract involved was for a water supply for the city for a term of five years. The city was in default in its monthly payments. It was, at the time the contract was made and at the time the action was brought, indebted much beyond the constitutional limit. The purpose
Counsel for respondent also cite and rely with confidence upon the case of Coulson v. City of Portland, Fed. Cas. No. 3275, 6 Fed. Cas. 629. It is not directly in point either in fact or principle, but, were it so, in view of the foregoing considerations, we are not inclined to accept and follow it as authoritative.
4. Counsel submit the question whether the authority conferred upon the city council by the election of April, 1908, lapsed^ at the time of the completion of the assessment-roll for 1908. It is contended that since the Constitution provides that the question whether the debt shall be incurred must be submitted to the taxpayers “to be affected thereby,” and property is transferred from time to time, the body of the taxpayers changes from year to year, and hence that the persons whose names appear upon the roll completed for the year 1908, and who are to be affected by the indebtedness, were entitled to be consulted. The provision of the Constitution must be given a reasonable construction. The necessities of a particular city or town may require it to incur an indebtedness at any time. So it requires time in which to hold the election. It requires time for the council, in pursuance of the authority conferred by the election, to advertise and put the bonds upon the market. The limit of time fixed by law during which the annual roll must be completed is the first Monday in October. (Revised Codes, sec. 2609.) If after the beginning of any year it should be necessary to issue bonds, and from any unforeseen delay, resulting from litigation or mistake, or any other like cause, they should not actually be sold and the money received for them before the first Monday in October, then, under the construction contended for, all the proceedings already had would be nugatory. A more reasonable view is that, after the election has been held and the indebtedness authorized,
5. It is said that the authority of the city to incur an indebtedness does not include an authority to issue bonds, and therefore that two elections were necessary to authorize the proposed issue, (1) To extend the limit and incur the indebtedness, and (2) to issue bonds. It is not necessary to inquire whether the power conferred upon a municipality to incur indebtedness does not imply the additional power to issue evidences thereof, in the form of negotiable securities. Here the authority is expressly given. The Constitution does not prescribe the mode by which the legislature may authorize submission to the taxpayers of the question whether an indebtedness shall be incurred. The legislature, therefore, was free to prescribe such method as it chose. The method of procedure and the form of the question to be submitted by the council are prescribed in sections 3454 et seq., Revised Codes. The form of the submission requires the electors to vote “Yes” or “No” upon the question whether bonds shall be issued; so that, in voting upon this question, they authorize the debt to be incurred by the issuance of bonds. The contention must be overruled.
If the council should have first ascertained that the particular supply could be acquired, and that the cost of it, together with the cost of installment, is within the compass of the sum which the city can'lawfully expend for that purpose, then there could be no possible objection to allowing the voters to speak as to the propriety of securing the particular supply. The council would then have exercised the discretion which is vested in it by law. If, however, all these matters have not already been determined, the vote becomes nugatory, because the assent given by the voters for the acquisition of the particular supply limits the discretion of the council, with the result that if it is thereafter found that the contemplated supply cannot be secured, or that the cost of installment is beyond the financial capacity of the city or not within the compass of the sum secured by the sale of the bonds under the extension already voted, the debt incurred can serve no purpose. It appears from the complaint that the council has authorized condemnation proceedings to acquire the right to the use of the water of McClellan creek, but that these proceedings have not yet been determined. It thus appears, and it is admitted by counsel for appellant, that the cost' of acquiring the right has not been ascertained. If the intention to acquire it should be abandoned for any cause hereafter—and it cannot now be surmised what difficulties may be encountered—the city would have in its treasury the money derived from the sale of the bonds, without any use to which the council could devote it. The orderly course of procedure would be to submit the question generally whether the indebtedness, not' in excess of a definite amount within the limit, should be incurred; then the council would be left free, in case the indebtedness should be authorized, to use its discretion in securing one supply or another, according as its judgment would dictate. The discretion
It might, perhaps, be said that the vote upon the submission in its restricted form could not be held binding upon the council in case it should turn out that the right to the use of the water in McClellan creek could not be acquired. This may with equal propriety be answered by the statement that the voters were not asked to extend the limit generally for water supply purposes, and it cannot be said that assent to incur the indebtedness would have been given if the question had been submitted generally, as the statute contemplates. (Skinner v. City of Santa Rosa, 107 Cal. 464, 40 Pac. 742, 29 L. R. A. 512.)
7. It is said that the city cannot resort to taxation to pay the principal and interest of the water bonds, but payment must, under the provision of the Constitution, be made exclusively from revenues to be derived from the water plant acquired by it. The question involved does not properly arise in this ease. The validity of any bonds issued under authority of the statute applicable cannot be affected by the fact that in providing for their payment the council may have imposed an illegal tax upon the people in the municipality. The power to impose the tax has nothing whatever to do with the power to increase the debt. If the council has in any ease exceeded its power in imposing a tax, the legality of the tax must be tested in proceedings brought for that purpose. But it may not be out of place to venture the remark that the requirement that the revenues derived from the water plant is not to be regarded as the only provision permissible for the payment of the bonds. In so far
8. Counsel insist that,Ordinance No. 717 is void, in that it contains two subjects, and is obnoxious to the prohibition contained in section 3265 of the Revised Codes, which declares: ‘ ‘ * * * No ordinance shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title, except ordinances for the codification and revision of ordinances.” This provision imposes the same restriction upon the city council as is imposed by the Constitution upon the legislature (Constitution, Art. IV, sec. 23), and the purpose is the same. This purpose is pointed out in State v. McKinney, 29 Mont. 375, 74 Pac. 1095, and the cases on the subject are there collated. The observance of the limitation is mandatory, and renders void any ordinance which violates it. But whatever is germane, incidental or necessary to the main or general subject of an ordinance may bé included in it and is not a separate subject. (State v. McKinney, supra.) The general subject of ordinance 717 is the incurring of the indebtedness by the city. The different purposes named as making this necessary are matters of detail for the information of the taxpayers. The ordinance is not objectionable for the reason urged.
9. Is it incumbent upon the city council, in providing for the issuance of bonds for the purposes for which these bonds are proposed, to make them redeemable at the option of the city
Whenever a power is conferred upon a municipality, and the mode of its exercise is pointed out, this mode must be pursued. So the power to issue bonds redeemable and payable within a limit fixed by law must be pursued. (Supervisors v. United States, 4 Wall. 435, 18 L. Ed. 419; City of Brenham v. German-American Bank, 144 U. S. 173, 12 Sup. Ct. 559, 36 L. Ed. 390; Barnum v. Okolona, 148 U. S. 393, 13 Sup. Ct. 638, 37 L. Ed. 495.) The statute supra is mandatory in its provisions, both as to the term during which the bonds may run and as to the requirement that the council must reserve the option to redeem prior to maturity. The requirement in both these respects is a limitation upon the power to issue the bonds, and disregard of it in either would render them void. The purpose of the limitation as to the option to redeem is made manifest by the provision of the preceding section of the statute (3459) for the accumulation of a sinking fund, as well as by the mandatory provision in the latter part of the section itself, where it is made the duty of the treasurer, after such bonds have become redeemable, to
But it is said that the statute leaves it to the council to say in its discretion, in order to increase the salability of the bonds, when they shall be redeemable, and hence whether they shall be redeemable at all. If this be so, why may it not with equal propriety be said that the council may in its discretion, in order to make the bonds more salable, enlarge the time for which they may run before maturity? No one would say that the council has any discretion in this particular, and yet the language that imposes this limitation is of exactly the same import in enjoining the duty to make the reservation. If the whole matter is lodged in the discretion of the council, then the addition by the legislature of the mandatory requirements touching the provision for a sinking fund and the calling of the bonds is without significance. It is clear that the legislature intended that the council should use a reasonable discretion in fixing the time after, which payment of the debt must begin, so that within reasonable limits it might be the exclusive judge as to the marketable quality of the bonds; but it most clearly was not the intention that the wise precaution against the accumulation of the sinking fund and the attendant danger of its loss from dishonest diversion or bad investment of it should be wholly disregarded. Ordinance 717, providing for the election, and the election notice given in pursuance of it, notified the taxpayers that the bonds voted would be redeemable as the statute provides. The bonds proposed to be issued in the form exhibited in Ordinance 747 show a distinct departure, both from the statute and from the ordinance, in the omission of the reserved option. Issued in that form, they would therefore be void.
10. It is said that the notice of election did not authorize the issuance of bonds to bear interest at five per cent payable semi
11. It is argued that the council has no authority to issue bonds payable in “gold coin of the United States of America, of the present standard of weight and fineness.” The people, it is said, by their vote authorized the issuance of bonds to a certain amount, in dollars; that dollars, cents and mills are the only monetary denominations known in this state, and that the amount named in dollars means lawful money of the United States. While this is true, it does not follow that, in the absence of legislation declaring otherwise, the city has no power to make
12. Finally, it is said that Ordinances 747 and 748, passed and approved on March 1, 1909, providing for the issuance of the bends, could not, under the provisions of the initiative and referendum law applicable to cities, become effective until April 1, 1909, and hence that the notice of sale, the publication of which began on March 2, 1909, could not be deemed sufficient to render the sale valid. The initiative and referendum provisions referred to are found in the Revised Codes (sections 3266 to 3276). In order that the referendum provision may be made available, section 3268 declares: “No ordinance or resolution passed by the council of any city or town shall become effective until thirty days after its passage, except general appropriation ordinances providing for the ordinary and current expenses of the city or town, excepting also emergency measures, and in the ease of emergency measures the emergency must be expressed in the preamble or in' the body of the measure, and the measure must receive a two-thirds vote of all the members elected.” The argument is that since the ordinances could not be effective until April 1, the notice must be deemed to have been published without authority and to be abortive to give the officers of the city jurisdiction to sell the bonds at the date fixed in the notice. That this would be the result if the referendum provisions of the statute were applicable, we have no doubt; but upon a careful reading of them, we find that they have no application. They in terms apply, and were evidently intended to apply only, to matters of general legislation in which all electors without distinction may take an active interest. The question whether the council should have authority to issue bonds could be submitted to the taxpayers only. They had already exercised their prerogative reserved by the Constitution, under the provisions of the statute (Revised Codes, sec. 3259, and sections 3454 et seq.) and Ordinance 717. There is no provision for the submission to them of any other action taken by the council in pursuance of
Several other questions submitted in the briefs we have not deemed of sufficient merit to require special notice. Many of those which we have deemed it necessary to notice were urged by counsel representing the respondent, and others by counsel who were allowed to appear for other taxpayers. We have referred to them generally, as urged by counsel for respondent.
The cause was submitted to the court on April 24,1909. Since the time fixed for the notice of sale was May 1, and the time intervening between the date of submission and that date was too brief to permit us to put our views in writing, we deemed it advisable to announce our conclusion that the judgment of the district court should be affirmed, and defer the delivery of a formal opinion to a later date. This we did, and now give the foregoing statement of our reasons therefor.
Affirmed.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the result reached in this case and in all that is said by the Chief Justice, with this exception relative to paragraph 6 of the opinion, videlicet: I think the only legal method of procedure is to first obtain from the taxpayers a general consent to the project of raising the limit of indebtedness, and that the council should thereafter select the particular water supply. Any other construction of the law