8 S.D. 452 | S.D. | 1896
The only question presented by this appeal is whether it was the duty of the board of county commissioners to award the contract for printing the notice of sale of real property for taxes of 1894 to. the lowest responsible bidder. Plaintiffs were such bidders, and brought this action to compel the board to accept their bid and award them the contract. The learned circuit judge decided that the publication of the
Prior to 1889 the board had authority to provide for the erection and repairing of court houses, jails, and other necessary buildings within and for the county, and to make contracts on behalf of the county for the building and repairing of the same. It was required to advertise for bids for the erection of such buildings, and to accept the lowest responsible bids offered. Comp. Laws, §§ 607-609. In 1889, Sec. 609 was amended by adding thereto the following: ‘ ‘The provisions of this section shall apply to all contracts for fuel, stationery and all other articles for the use of said county, or labor to be performed therefor when the amount to be paid for the same during any year exceeds the sum of one hundred dollars; provided, that in all such cases advertisement for bids therefor need not be for more than three consecutive weeks in some weekly newspaper published in said county and provided also that all contracts for the furnishing of stationery, blank books and supplies generally for all county officers shall be made at the first session of the regular meeting in April to run for the period of one year. That all acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith be and the same are hereby repealed. ” Laws 1889, Chap. 49, § 104. Laws 1891, Chap. 14, provides: “The treasurer shall give notice of the sale of real property by publication thereof once a week for three consecutive weeks, commencing the first week in October preceding the sale, in a newspaper in his county, if there be one; and if there be no newspaper published in his county he shall give notice by written or printed notice, posted at the door of the court house or building in which courts are commonly held, or the usual place of meeting of the county commissioners, for three weeks previous to the sale. Such notice shall contain a notification that all lands on which the taxes of the preceding year or years remain unpaid will be sold and the time and place of the sale; and said notice must con
We discover no difficulty in construing these legislative enactments so that effect may be given to each. In the first place the printing of the tax list is not included in the act of 1889. The original section required contracts for building and repairing certain county buildings to be let to the lowest bidder. By the amendment there was added to this class of contracts all contracts for fuel, stationery, and all articles for the use of the county, or labor to be performed therefor, when the amount to be paid for same during any one year exceeds the sum of $100. Certainly printing legal notices cannot be covered by the terms ‘‘fuel, stationery or other articles for the use of the county,” nor by the words ‘ ‘blank books and supplies for all county officers.” The word ‘‘supplies,” as here used, clearly signifies pencils, paper, rubber bands, blanks, ink, and articles of that description required and constantly used by county officers. Its meaning must be measured and controlled by the connection in which the word is employed, the evident purpose of the act, and the subject to which it relates, namely, “stationery and other articles for the use of the county;” it being required that contracts for such articles shall be made at the regular meeting in April, to run for one year. Then the printing of the tax list is not embraced by the section as amended, unless included in the term “labor to be performed for the county.” Labor is ‘‘manual exertion of a toilsome nature.” This is its meaning in statutes, unless plainly used in another sense. And. Law Diet. 591. When the section was originally adopted, and when it was amended, new counties were being organized; court