125 N.W. 1063 | N.D. | 1910
The plaintiff commenced this action September 5, 1907, to recover a judgment against the county of Kidder, adjudging that said county is indebted to it for a just and equitable proportion of the bonded indebtedness of Burleigh county existing-on the 10th
The facts necessary to a decision of this case are as follows: In the year 1873 plaintiff was organized as a county. In the year 1880 defendant was organized as a county. Prior to the 10th day of March, 1885, the county of Burleigh included within its boundaries townships 137-144, inclusive, north of range 74. That on the 10th day of March, 1885, the legislature of the territory- of Dakota, by an act entitled “An Act to Define the Boundaries of Kidder County,” being chapter 23 of the Special Laws of 1885, segregated such townships from the county of Burleigh, and included them within the county of Kidder, and that since that time they have continued to be, and now are, a part of the county of Kidder. That on the 10th day of March, 1885, the legislature passed an act entitled “An Act to Amend an Act Entitled ‘An Act Defining the Boundaries of Kidder County,’ ” being chapter 24 of the Special Laws of 1885, which act, as far as material here, is as follows:
“Section 1. That the portion of Kidder county segregated from the said Burleigh county, lying in range 74 west, shall not be released from its just and equitable proportion of the bonded indebtedness of said Burleigh county, at the date of the passage of this bill, and that said county of Kidder shall assume and pay said indebtedness.
“Sec. 2. That within sixty days after the passage and approval of this act, the county commissioners of said Kidder county shall meet the county commissioners of Burleigh county, in the city of Bismarck,, and the said commissioners of the two counties shall constitute a joint board of commissioners whose duties it shall be to ascertain the amount of the bonded indebtedness to be assumed by the county of Kidder, . . . the assessment of Burleigh county for the year eighteen hundred eighty-four being taken as the basis of valuation,, and when so ascertained the commissioners of said county of Kidder shall, and are hereby authorized, to execute and deliver to the board of
That the total valuation of all property in Burleigh county for the year 1884, as shown by the assessment for that year, was the sum of $3,079,253, and that the total valuation of all property in said townships 137-144, both inclusive, for the year 1884, as shown by the assessment in said Burleigh county for such year, was the sum of $48,250, and that the to.tal of the bonded indebtedness of Burleigh county on the 10th day of March, 1885, was the sum of $114,867.50. That all of said bonded indebtedness was paid by respondent on and prior to July 1, 1894. That no part of said bonded indebtedness was ever paid or assumed by said Kidder county, nor were any bonds for such share of the bonded indebtedness issued by said Kidder county, nor has Kidder county ever levied or collected any tax to pay its proportion of such bonded indebtedness, nor any part thereof. That on the assessed valuation of Burleigh county for the year 1884 the proportion of the bonded indebtedness of said Burleigh county to be assumed by Kidder county was $1,803.15, on the 10th day of March, 1885, and the interest thereon to November 1, 1908, was $2,269.89, making a total sum of $4,073.04, for which sum the respondent had judgment. That no joint meeting of the county commissioners of the said two counties of Kidder and Burleigh has ever been held for the purpose designated in said chapter 24, or at ail, except that pursuant to a notice by the county auditor of Burleigh county the boards of county commissioners of Kidder county and Burleigh county met at the courthouse in the city of Bismarck on the 2d day of September, 1895, in the matter of the transfer of range 74 fz’oni Burleigh county to Kidder county, but no agreement was arrived at, and nothing was done. The minutes only show that the matter was discussed at length, after which the boards adjourned until September 3, 1895. In the fall of 1895 the respondent was claiming from appellant the sum of $2,655.57 on account of the segregation of the territory hereinbefore described from Bzzrleigh county and the annexation of said territory to Kidder county.
At the close of respondent’s case, appellant made a motion to dismiss the action for the following, among other, reasons: “That it affirmatively appears, and there is no evidence tending to show to the contrary, that the cause of action set out, or purported to be set out, in plaintiff’s complaint accrued more than ten years prior to the commencement of this action.” At the close of the testimony appellant made the following motion: “Both parties having rested, the defendant moves the court that this action be now dismissed, upon the ground that it is admitted by both parties hereto of record that all of the outstanding indebtedness of Burleigh county, existing on March 10, 1885,
The following are the ultimate facts claimed by the appellant to be established by the evidence, and upon which it relies for reversal: (1) That the cause of action set forth in the respondent’s complaint did not accrue within ten years prior to the commencement of this action. (2) That the total valuation of Burleigh county in the year 1884, as shown by the assessment of said county for that year, was the sum of $1,890,204, and that the total valuation of all property in said townships 137 — 144, both inclusive, in said range 74, in the year 1884, as shown by the assessment of said Burleigh county for said year, was the sum of $1,900. (3) That the valuation of the property in said townships so set off to said Kidder county, in the assessment of said Burleigh county for the year 1884, is (by computation) 0.1006 per cent of the valuation of all the prop-, erty in said Burleigh county, in the assessment of said county for said year. (4) That the sum of $115.55 is (by computation) the just and equitable portion of the bonded indebtedness of Burleigh county at the date of the passage of said acts, viz., March 10, 1885; that the sum of $186.50 is the interest thereon, at the rate of 7 per cent per annum from said date to November 1, 1908, and that the gross amount of said sums is $301.05, and that the said county of Kidder was'justly indebted to the said county of Burleigh, if in any amount whatever, on November 1, 1908, in the said sum of $301.05, and no more.
But three questions are to be determined on this appeal: (1) Whether the statutes of limitations ran against the county of Burleigh; (2) whether the odd-numbered sections of land in the county of Burleigh, and in that portion segregated from the county of Burleigh and annexed to the county of Kidder, should be considered in fixing the assessed valuation of Burleigh county in the year 1884; (3) laches on the part of respondent.
Chapter 28, Rev. Codes 1877, which were in force on March 10, 1S85, provides: “For county sinking fund such rate as in the estimation of the board of county commissioners will pay one year’s interest on all the outstanding debt on the county, with fifteen per cent on
In the case at bar the.county commissioners of appellant were, within sixty days after March 10, 1885, required to meet the county commissioners of respondent in the city of Bismarck and ascertain the amount of the bonded indebtedness to be assumed by appellant, and executed and delivered to the board of county commissioners of respondent bonds of appellant county of Kidder, with interest coupons attached, bearing the same rate of interest, due and payable at the same time as the bonds of Burleigh county, against which they are to be issued. To provide a fund for the payment of such bonds and interest when due, the board of county commissioners of appellant county were required to create a county sinking fund, and levy a sufficient tax on the taxable property in the county to pay one year’s interest on the bonds, with 15 per cent on the principal, and make such levy each year until the bonds and interest were paid. It is undisputed that appellant neither executed nor delivered the bonds, and never made any provision for the payment of the amount of the bonded indebtedness to be assumed by it or the interest thereon.
The respondent in this action contends that chapter 24, Laws 1885, contains special, provisions that take this claim out of the bar provided by the general statute of limitations. It is by virtue of the provisions of this act that respondent seeks to maintain this action against appellant. No action could be maintained against appellant upon the
The courts are practically unanimous in holding that the statute of limitations does not begin to run against a warrant issued by a municipal, or quasi municipal, corporation, and payable out of the fund, until the corporation has provided a fund from which it may be paid. Wetmore v. Monona County, 73 Iowa, 88, 34 N. W. 751; Gasquet v. Directors of City Schools, 45 La. Ann. 342, 12 So. 506; Fernandez v. New Orleans, 46 La. Ann. 1130, 15 So. 378; Apache County v. Barth, 6 Ariz. 13, 53 Pac. 187; Potter v. New Whatcom, 20 Wash. 589, 72 Am. St. Rep. 135, 56 Pac. 394; Brannon v. White Lake Twp. 17 S. D. 83, 95 N. W. 284; Lincoln County v. Luning, 133 U. S. 529, 33 L. ed. 766, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 363; Freehill v. Chamberlain, 65 Cal. 603, 4 Pac. 646; State ex rel. Davis v. Lincoln County, 23 Nev. 262, 45 Pac. 982; Sawyer v. Colgan, 102 Cal. 283, 36 Pac. 580, 834; Meyer v. San Francisco, 150 Cal. 131, 10 L.R.A. (N.S.) 110, 88 Pac. 722; Greer County v. Clarke & Courts, 12 Okla. 197, 70 Pac. 206; Spaulding v. Arnold, 125 N. Y. 194, 26 N. E. 295; King Iron Bridge & Mfg. Co. v. Otoe County, 124 U. S. 459, 31 L. ed. 514, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 582; Stewart v. Custer County, 14 S. D. 155, 84 N. W. 764; Atchison v. Leu, 48 Kan. 138, 29 Pac. 467; School Dist. No. 5 v. First Nat. Bank, 63 Kan. 668, 66 Pac. 630; Hubbell v. South Hutchinson, 64 Kan. 645, 68 Pa. 52.
Cork & B. R. Co. v. Goode, supra, as an action of debt by a railway company against one of its members, for cause, under the authority of an act of Parliament, and the' plea was that such cause of action did not accrue within six years, and this plea was confronted by a demurrer. Chief Justice Jervis said: “I think it is an action upon statute. . . . But for the act of Parliament, no action could be brought by the company against one of its own members. This, therefore, is an action brought in respect of a liability created by statute, and therefore is an action founded upon the statute, and the plea which relies upon the six years’ limitation is no answer to it.” In Lane v. Morris, supra, a stockholder pleaded the statute of limitations in an action brought against him upon' his liability for the debts of a corporation.
In Mt. Desert v. Tremont, 75 Me. 252, by an act of the Maine legislature passed in 1848, the township of Mt. Desert was divided, and the defendant formed a separate township. By the terms of the act
Appellant cites 19 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 2d ed. p. 191, and notes. One of the cases cited in note in 19 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 2d ed. p. 191, was where an action was brought by the city to determine adverse claims to real estate; the court held, that the statute of limitations ran against the city. In another case cited in said note (Harrison County v. Dunn, 84 Iowa, 328, 51 N. W. 155), the court held that an •action against the estate of an insane person to recover the cost of sup
Appellant contends that there was an error in the assessment of Burleigh county for the year 1884, on account of the odd-numbered sections within the land grant to the Northern Pacific Eailroad Company having been assessed, the title to which land had not yet passed from the United States. It is a matter of history that until the decision of the Supreme Court, in the case of the Northern P. R. Co. v. Traill County (Northern P. R. Co. v. Rockne) 115 U. S. 600, 29 L. ed. 477, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 201, which was decided December 7, 1885, it was generally believed throughout the territory that the railroad land grant was subject to taxation, and the taxing officials acted on such understanding. However, it is immaterial in this case. The assessment for the year 1884 was a public record at the time the special acts in question were approved, and became laws on March 10, 1885. The power of the legislature over a county is absolute except as restrained by the Constitution. State ex rel. Slipp v. McFadden, 23 Minn. 40; Richland County v. Lawrence County, 12 Ill. 1; State ex rel. Atty. Gen. v. Pawnee County, 12 Kan. 426. Where a county is divided, the rule for the division and apportionment of the debts and property between such county and the detached territory belongs exclusively to the legislature, and not to the courts; and, when the legislature has determined how the debts and property shall be divided and apportioned, the courts cannot interfere. Sedgwick County v. Bunker, 16 Kan. 498; Putnam County v. Allen County, 1 Ohio St. 322; Lee County v. Phillips County, 46 Ark. 156; Morgan v. Beloit, 7 Wall. 613, 19 L. ed. 203; Laramie County v. Albany County, 92 U. S. 307, 23 L. ed. 552.
In Laramie County v. Albany County, supra, the legislature of the territory of Dakota passed two acts creating the counties of Albany and Carbon out of a portion of the territory of the complainant county, reducing the area of that county more than two thirds; and fully two thirds of the wealth and taxable property previously existing in the old county were withdrawn from its jurisdiction, and its
In Putnam County v. Allen County, supra, a portion of Putnam county was added to the county of Allen; and, in order to enable Putnam county to retain her capacity to pay off her debt, and to do justice in the premises, the legislature provided as follows: “That the commissioners of the counties of Allen and Putnam shall meet on or before the first Monday of April next, or within sixty days thereafter, and ascertain and determine the amount of the public debt of Putnam county, exclusive of that for the surplus revenue loaned to said county, and the proportion which the value of the taxable lands set off by this act to the county of Allen from the county of Putnam bears to the value of the taxable lands by this act remaining in Putnam county; and hereafter each year, until the public debt aforesaid shall be paid off and discharged, there shall be paid out of the treasury of Allen county, upon the order of the auditor thereof, to the treasurer of Putnam county, a sum which shall bear the same proportion to the amount raised-in that year by Putnam county for the payment of the debt aforesaid, as the value of the taxable lands so set off as aforesaid; bears to that of those so as aforesaid remaining in Putnam county; and the same shall be applied to the extinguishment of said debt, and to no other purpose; and it shall be the duty of the commissioners of Allen
The contention of appellant that the assessed valuation of the railroad lands for the year 1884 should be deducted from the assessed valuation of all property in Burleigh county, and in that portion segregated from Burleigh county and annexed to Kidder county, must be overruled.
We do not think that respondent has been guilty of such laches in the premises that a court of equity will not enforce the respondent’s claim. In the case of the United States v. Alexandria, 4 Hughes, 545, 19 Fed. 609, the court says: “But where the obligation is clear, and its essential character has not been affected by the lapse of time, equity will enforce a claim of long standing as readily as one of recent origin;
The amount found by the trial court to be due from appellant to respondent county November 1, 1908, is the sum of $4,073.04 gross, and such finding is in no way challenged by appellant.
The judgment is clearly right, and must be affirmed.