313 Ky. 557 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1950
Reversing.
This is a controversy as to the right of the City of Bowling G-reen to enter into a compromise agreement settling a claim which had been reduced to judgment in the Warren Circuit Court but from which judgment an appeal to this court was pending. We briefly summarize the facts leading up to the compromise:
Previous to October, 1945, the General Council of the City of Bowling Green enacted an ordinance placing all employees of the City under civil service, Subsequently a suit was filed against the Mayor in his official
' “The General Assembly shall have no.power to release, extinguish or authorize the releasing or extinguishing, in whole or in part, the indebtedness or liability of any corporation or individual to this Commonwealth, or to any county or municipality thereof.”
The question is, Was the claim of the City against Messrs. Webb and Cole at the time the settlement was made a liquidated one within the meaning of Section 52 Of the Constitution? One of the chief purposes of Section 52 of the Constitution is to prevent a city council or the fiscal court of a county from compromising a claim for taxes after assessment has been regularly made and the claim has come into the hands of the collecting officer, and most of the cases construing this section involve attempts on the part- of city councils and fiscal courts to compromise tax claims after the amounts of the taxes had been finally determined and fixed. The constitutional provision relied upon by appellees does not prevent municipalities from compromising unliquidated or disputed claims. City of Louisville v. Louisville Railway Co., 111 Ky. 1, 63 S.W. 14, 98 Am.St.Rep.
Judgment is reversed.