26 Wash. 272 | Wash. | 1901
The opinion of the court was delivered by
These cases were consolidated, and tried together. The town of Cheney is a municipal corporation organized under an act of the territorial legislature approved Hovember 23, 1883, and amended December 23, 1885. The respondents are respectively the treasurer, mayor, and clerk of the municipality. Appellant Hull was the owner of a small warrant issued in August, 1892, which warrant was issued for services performed hy a police officer. Appellant Gladwin was the owner of three city warrants, — one issued for services performed by the treasurer, and two for services performed by the city marshal ; and he was also the owner of other warrants, amount
The material defense interposed by respondents is tlie invalidity of the warrants owned by appellants. The -above statement is based upon the findings of fact and admissions made in the record. The court found further that at the time of the issuance of the warrants owned by appellants the municipality was beyond the limit of its indebtedness authorized by its charter and under the con.aututional limitation of 1% per centum, and that no election had been held to validate any of the indebtedness; and, as a legal conclusion, found that at the time the warrants were issued the municipality had exceeded the limit of indebtedness which it was authorized to incur under its charter and the constitution of the state, that the ucc of its officers in incurring or contracting such indebtedness and issuing the warrants was void, and that re
“Any county, city, town or township may make and enforce within its limits all such local police, sanitary and other regulations as are not in conflict with general Jaws.”
“The legislature shall have no power to impose taxes upon counties, cities, towns or other municipal corporations . . . for county, city, town or other municipal purposes, hut may by general laws vest in the corporate authorities thereof the power to assess and collect taxes for such purposes.”
There would seem to be reasons for the existence and life of the municipal corporation as a part of the governmental agency. In the case of Rauch v. Chapman, 16 Wash. 568 (48 Pac. 253, 36 L. R. A. 407, 58 Am. St. Rep. 52), there was a full review of the effect of the constitutional debt limitation in reference to certain compulsory expenditures made by the county. A recurrence to that decision indicates that many of the authorities referred to therein were cases involving the necessary expenses in maintaining the life of municipalities, and no distinction in principle is suggested between the county and the municipality. In Duryee v. Friars, 18 Wash. 55 (50 Pac. 583), the decision in Rauch v. Chapman, supra, was mentioned as follows:
“What the court decided in that case was that where a county had reached the limit of its indebtedness it could thereafter issue its obligations for those expenses necessary to maintain its existence; . . . And with that holding we are well content, for that the maintenance of its government is of paramount importance needs no argument, and it cannot be done without money, or resorting to the county’s credit in some way.”
The essential powers reposed in municipal corporations by the constitution are necessary to the existence of the municipality. A number of warrants in suit owned by the appellants were found by the court to have been issued for that purpose. Those for services as policemen, mar
Fullerton, Anders, Dunbar, and Mount, JJ., concur.