258 P.2d 1172 | Okla. | 1953
Plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as plaintiff, was the lessee and owner of improvements on 132.74 acres of State school land in Oklahoma County when the Commissioners of the Land Office decided to offer it for sale at public auction. In accordance with the statutes governing such matters the tract, together with its improvements, was duly appraised at $201,-460 and notice was given that said property would be sold for cash immediately after the final bid and subject to the preference right of plaintiff to purchase the land at the highest and best bid therefor. In contemplation of the right given said Commissioners by Title 64 O.S.1941, § 82(a), the notice specified that “The State”reserved the right to reject any and all bids and that no bid would be considered as finally accepted “until approved by the Commissioners of the Land Office * * *.” At the sale, the bid of Fred D. Newman, in the amount of $203,000 was the only one received,
The Commissioners of the Land Office will hereinafter be referred to as defendants. . • ■ .
The question involved herein as set forth in plaintiff’s brief is:
“Do the Commissioners of .the Land. Office have the power to rej ect, the highest bid made at the sale of public land where the bid is in excess 'of the appraised value and all other statutory requirements of the sale have been met ?”
In urging a negative answer to this question, plaintiff contends that the portion of Title 64, Sec. 82(a), supra, authorizing the Commissioners of the Land Office to reject bids, as1 was done here, is unconstitutional. He first contends that it is an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power contrary to Art. 4, Sec. 1, of the Oklahoma Constitution providing for the separation of the State’s powers into three separate departments: Legislative, Executive and Judicial. He argues that this is brought about by the cited statute’s bestowal on the Commissioners of the authority and- discretion to reject “any and all bids” without establishing any standards or criteria for their guidance. In another argument he concludes that the legislature in thereby authorizing such bid rejection by the Commissioners intended their authority to extend only to cases in which the statutory requirements concerning such sales had not been met. It is said that any other interpretation would leave the Commissioners with .uncontrolled power over the sale' of such lands and they could rej e.ct bid after bid in sale after sale, thus defeating the purpose for which such sales were provided. He relies on the rule that: “A statute which in effect reposes an absolute, unregulated, and undefined discretion in an administrative body bestows arbitrary powers and is an unlawful delegation of legislative powers,” citing 42 Am.Jur. 342, § 45; Annotations:- 12 A.L.R. 1435, 54 A.L.R. 1104, and 92 A.L.R.-400. Defendants contend that their' right to reject bids is an administrative rather than a legislative function and'is simply ¿'necessary part of their discretion to determine whether or ,not any school lands should be sold. Neither of these arguments, in our 'opinion, reaches the crux of the matter. The reason for this is that the power of the Commissioners of the Land Office over the sale of school lands was not vested in' them by statute, but as pointed out in Magnolia Petroleum Co. v. Price, 86 Okl. 105, 206 P. 1033, it was originally given to them by Sec. 32, Art. 6 of-the Oklahoma Constitution. Thus it will be seen that Title 64, Sec. 82(a), supra, is not a delegation of any power which the Commissioners did not already have. Therefore, assuming without deciding, that the Commissioners’ right, power, or discretion to reject “any and all bids” is a legislative, as distinguished from an administrative or judicial function, the constitutional inhibition contained in Art. 4, Sec. 1, of that, same. constitution does
As plaintiff’s second proposition is made dependent upon our sustaining his first one, which we have been unable to do, we find, it unnecessary to discuss the arguments set forth thereunder.
Judgment of the trial court is hereby affirmed.