29 Fla. 1 | Fla. | 1892
I. This is a suit for an injunction to restrain the appellees, who are the County Commissioners of Duval county, from issuing bonds under the provisions of an act approved June 11th, 1891, and entitled “An act to authorize Duval county to improve the navigation of St. Johns river, and to issue bonds in aid thereof,”
The first objection urged against the issue of the bonds is, that the purpose for which their proceeds are applicable under the statute, is not a ‘‘ county purpose,” within the meaning- of our Constitution, and hence that the act is unconstitutional. Counties are, according to our Constitution, the recognized legal political divisions of the State ; sections 1 and 2, Article YIII; and the same fundamental law, Section 5, Article IX, provides that “the Legislature shall authorize the several counties and incorporated cities or towns in the State to assess and impose taxes for county and municipal purposes, and for no other purpose.
If “improving- the navigation of the St. Johns river, and removing obstructions therefrom, within the county of Duval,” is not a county purpose in so far as Duval county is concerned, the act-is contrary to the last stated provision of the Constitution, and void, and the bonds are of no validity ; and equity has jurisdiction to enjoin their issue. High on Injunctions, sec. 1282, et seq.; Chestnutwood vs. Hood, 68 Ill., 132; List vs. City of Wheeling, 7 W. Va., 501 ; State vs. Salina
The bill informs us that the river named is a navigable stream and public highway running not less than two hundred miles, beyond the limits of the county and through several other designated counties, and that commerce, travel and transportation are carried on as an entirety upon the stream from its mouth In Duval county, where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean, towards its source, and from its source to its mouth, at least the distance stated, and through each and all of such counties ; and that a large portion of this commerce is to or from other States and foreign countries, and that the commerce and business on the river confined within the limits of Duval county is very small and of no importance. The other averments of the bill are numerous and will be noticed, but these give us an understanding of the character of the stream intended to be improved. It is not exclusively local either in its being or its use ; but runs through Duval, and through or between several counties, and is the highway of their local as well as their other commerce, including interstate and foreign commerce.
The authorities have formulated no generally accepted definition of a “ county purpose,” but leave each case involving the question to be decided as it may arise. In the case of Cotten et al. vs. County Commissioners of Leon County, 6 Fla., 610, where the 4th sec
If it be that locality within the county is essential to render an improvement a “county purpose,” it is clear that the work contemplated by this statute furnishes a compliance with this requirement, for under the act
It is not denied that an improvement must, to fall within the pale of “county purposes,” be one for a public purpose, as taxation cannot be resorted to for private purposes, or for the benefit, aid and promotion of private enterprises. This principle has never been questioned, but there has been and always will be more or less difficulty and conflict of opinion as to whether particular projects were or are for a public or a private purpose. In many cases the aid authorized to be given by counties in the construction of railroads was in the .shape of subscription for capital stock of, or of donations to the companies proposing to build the roads, and such subscriptions and donations were upheld almost invariably; Cotten vs. County Commissioners, supra; King vs. Commissioners of Columbia County, 12 Fla., 451; but with us it is assumed that this form -of promoting the construction of highways has been inhibited by a constitutional provision, ordaining that ■“no tax shall be levied for the benefit .of any chartered ■company of the State, nor for paying interest on any
It was said in Cotten vs. County Commissioners, supra, that to obtain a correct interpretation of the term “ county purposes,” as used in the Constitution then in force, which Constitution was framed in 1838-9, we must look to cotemporaneous legislation on that subject and the uniform action of the County Courts under the, Territorial Government, and that by making this reference it will be abundantly demonstrated that at that day county purposes were taken to embrace principally the erection and repair of court houses and jails, the opening and maintaining public thoroughfares within the limits of their respective counties, by opening roads, building bridges and causeways, and keeping the same in repair, licensing and regulating-
Still we are not without more direet adjudication upon the part of this improvement being a county purpose. The effect of the decision in Hasbrouck vs. City of Milwaukee, 13 Wis., 37, is, that a Legislature ■ may authorize a city to issue bonds for the construction of a harbor, but that the construction of railroads, canals, harbors and the like internal improvements can not be done by a municipality without a specific grant of the power by the Legislature. In Taylor vs. Commissioners of Newberne, 2 Jones (Eq.), 141, an act authorizing the- commissioners of an incorporated town to subscribe to the stock of a company incorporated f.or the purpose of improving the navigation of’a river contiguous to the town, was held constitutional, although the improvement contemplated by the act was to begin several miles above the town and to pass through several other counties than the one in which the town was situated. Goddin vs. Crump, 8 Leigh, 120, is a case in which legislation authorizing the city of Richmond
We fail to find in the authorities cited by appellant’s counsel anything inconsistent with the above conclusions. They will be noticed in the succeeding paragraph.
County of Mobile vs. Kimball, 102 U. S., 691. is a case in which a statute of Alabama authorized the issue of bonds of the county of Mobile by its proper authorities, to be used by a designated board under authority granted them, in the improvement, cleaning out, deepening and widening of the river, harbor and bay of Mobile or any part thereof, or the making an artificial harbor. This bóard entered into a contract with Kimball and another for dredging a channel through Dog river bar in Mobile bay, and the work was completed in March, 1873. Two of the contentions of appellant were, 1st, that the statute was invalid as
No comment on these cases seems to us necessary to show that they do not conflict with our conclusion that the improvement proposed by the act under consideration is a “county purpose,” and the statute valid against the objection we have been considering.
II. It is also alleged in the bill that the general control of the river for purposes of navigation and commerce is under the general government of the United States, which has had the same surveyed, and lights and light-houses, buoys and channel marks placed in
This part of the bill might be treated as abandoned by the appellants, as it is not- legimately within any discussion to be found in their brief. We, however, are not satisfied to permit the point to pass unnoticed, for if the statute constitutes, in view of these allegations, or for other apparent cause, an interference with the works or jurisdiction and policy of the general government, we ought to- arrest promptly any attempt at its enforcement, and not leave this to be done in the courts of the United States, as it might be, at the instance of proper suitors in that forum. The obligation rests no less upon us than it would on a national tribunal having jurisdiction in the premises.
In County of Mobile vs. Kimball, 102 U. S., 691, cited supra, while it is held that the power conferred on Congress by the commercial clause of the Constitution' — that giving power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several States — is exclusive so far as it relates to matters within its purview which are national in their character, and admit or require uniformity in any legislation affecting all the States, and that commerce with foreign countries and among the States, strictly considered, consists in inter
Answering the suggestion that appropriations by Congress had been expended in improving the Chicago river, it is said in Escanaba Co. vs. Chicago, supra, that no money had been expended above the bridge objected to in that suit, which bridge was erected and regulated by the city under State legislation, and that consequently no bridge interfered with the navigation of any portion of the river which had thus been improved, but that if it were otherwise it was not perceived how the improvement could affect the ordinary means of crossing it by ferries and bridges; that “to render the action of the State invalid(in constructing or authorizing the construction of bridges over one of its navigable streams the general government must directly interfere so as to supersede its authority and annul what it has done in the matter.” In Willamette Iron Bridge Co. vs. Hatch, supra, another case of a .bridge authorized by State legislation,"it is held that
Viewed in the light of these authorities, we fail to see in the allegations of the bill anything fatal to the statute. The statute does not attempt to regulate any matter which is national in its character, or affects all the States, and admits of or requires uniformity of regulation; or to interfere with the control of the river for any such purposes by the general government; but, on the contrary, it provides for an improvement purely local in its character. The fact that such government has surveyed the river, and established lights and light-houses, buoys and channel marks in and along it, does not necessarily — if at all — oust a State of its jurisdiction to improve the navigation of the river and remove obstructions from it, or to authorize the same to be done. The improvement to be effected under the act may not, and in so far as the record before us and
The allegations of the bill as to the jetties and other improvements of navigation of the river by the United States, are answered by the observations just made and those quoted, in the next preceding paragraph, from the cases of Escanaba Co. vs. Chicago, and Willamette Iron Bridge Co. vs. Hatch. The fact that the general government may have made or may be making improvements at one or more places on a navigable river, lying, as does the St. Johns, entirely within a State, does not of itself preclude the right of the State to make improvements at different places. Neither the bill nor the statute shows any interference with the operations, constructions or improvements of the general government, or any violation of any law of the United States. ,
III. The validity of the statute is also assailed on the ground that it does not provide any means or method for creating a sinking fund or other fund to pay the principal and interest on the bonds. There is no express provision of this kind in the act. If it be, however, that this power is not otherwise given or is not implied by the" authority given to contract the stated debt, or, in other words, to issue not exceeding $300,000 of coupon bonds of the county, in denominations of $500 and $1000, the principal of which is to be payable at the end of not less than twenty, nor more than forty years, and to bear interest at not more than six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually, the bonds to be engfaved, signed and sealed as directed in
IY. Another objection to the act is the alleged noncompliance with the local legislation clause of the Constitution, Section 21, Article III, which is : In all cases enumerated in the preceding section all laws shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State, but in all cases not enumerated or excepted in that section the Legislature may pass special or local laws : Provided that no local or special bill shall be passed unless notice of the intention to apply therefor shall have been published in the locality where the matter or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall state the substance of the contemplated law, and shall be published at least sixty days prior to the introduction into the Legislature of such bill, and in the manner to be provided by law. The evidence that such notice has been published shall be established in the Legislature before such bill shall be passed.
An act of May 31, 1887, Chapter 3708, page 7 3, of the statutes of 1887, defines the method of publication and of the proof thereof under this provision of the organic law. It requires that it shall be published in a newspaper in the county or counties where the person, matter or thing to be affected resides or is situated, at least once a week for at least sixty days, or by post
The notice alleged to have been published in' this case, as shown by an exhibit to the bill, is as follows :
NOTICE.
Notice is hereby given that an application will be made to the Legislature of the State of Florida at its next session for the passage of an act enabling the county of Duval to issue bonds not exceeding two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, for the purpose of deepening and otherwise improving the channel of the St. Johns river, within the county of Duval, and for other purposes of public improvement.
February 21, 1891.
There is attached to this copy of the notice an affidavit made December 11,1891, by the business manager of a designated newspaper published in Duval county, and states that the notice, which is annexed, had been published in the paper once in each week ‘ ‘ for ninety-seven days, beginning on the 21st day of February, 1891, and ending May 28th, 1891.”
1st. That the-notice does not state the substance of the act, as it gives notice of application for an act enabling the county to issue not exceeding $250,000 of bonds, to be used for the purpose of deepening and otherwise improving the channel of the river, whereas the act as passed authorizes the issue of bonds to an amount not exceeding $300,000, and the application of the proceeds thereof to the work of improving the navigation of the river and removing obstncctions 'therefrom within the couuty of Duval.
2d. That the notice was published once a month, beginning February 21, 1891, and the act was introduced into the Legislature May 2d of the same year.
3d. That the record of the proceedings of the Legislature do not show that evidence that the notice had been published as required by law were established and proven in the Legislature before the act was passed, nor any evidence of such notice.
The obligation resting upon the legislative department of the government to conform to the requirements of this provision of the Constitution, and to the statute law enforcing the same, cannot be questioned. No local or special bill within the purview of the proviso of this section of the organic law should be passed except and until notice of the intention to apply for the passage of the same has been given in the manner contemplated by the Constitution and authorized legislation thereunder, nor is it ever to be presumed that any branch of the legislative department will give its
We are not without authority sustaining this conclusion. The Constitution of North Carolina, framed in 1868, provided, Sec. 14, Art. II, that: “The general assembly shall not have power to pass any private law unless it shall be made to appear that thirty days’ notice of application to pass such law shall have been given under such direction and! in such manner as shall
If there is any defect in the .notice or in its publication or in the proof thereof, we have no jurisdiction to consider it. That jurisdiction is in the Legislature, and has been exercised, and that department of the government has ,by the passage of the act under consideration, the validity or formality of which passage is not otherwise questioned, pronounced its judgment evidenced by the journals and the act, a record of the highest character, that the special or local legislation clause of the Constitution, and of the legislation thereunder, have been fully complied with; and we are concluded by that judgment. Charges in a bill in equity, and the admission of them by demurrer or otherwise, that these constitutional and statutory provisions have not been complied with, can not extend our jurisdiction. The Legislature, not the courts, are the guardians of the interests which the fundamental law has sought to protect by requiring notice of local or special legislation, and tliat department is responsible to the people for the due protection of these interests by seeing that the Constitution and the law are complied with.
V. There are also certain objections concerning the election held under the statute, the canvass of the votes and the resolution as to the issue of the bonds, which can be more satisfactorily dealt with after stating certain provisions of the statute and the averments of the bill as to such matters.
The act (sec. 1) authorizes and directs the Board of County Commissioners to call an election to be held by the registered voters of said county, at which the registered voters are authorized to vote for or against the issuing of the bonds provided for; such election (sec. 2) to be held at indicated places, provision being made for the appointment or selection of inspectors. It then (sec. 3) provides that ‘ ‘the election shall be conducted and returns made thereof in the manner prescribed by law for conducting elections and canvassing and making returns of votes cast,” and (sec. 4) that any person “whose name is not already enrolled as a registered voter in said county, and who is entitled to be registered as a voter,” shall be allowed to register at the office of the -supervisor of registration
The bill, including the records of the county commissioners made part thereof as an exhibit, shows that “the board met this 12th day of November, in special session, called by the chairman for the purpose of ordering an election” as to issuing bonds under the act in question, and that there were present three members, Powell, the chairman, Baer and DeCottes, but the other members, Kelly and Pickett, were absent, and the board, in consequence of their absence, adjourned
Notice of the election was given, and the election was held on the day appointed. The bill states that the total number of votes cast were 2,198, of which 1,455 were “for bonds,” and 714 “against bonds,” and 20 “not for bonds,” and 8 blank. That on December 2nd, 1891, the full board met in regular session, and adjourned to the 9th day of the same month, on which day they met in adjourned session for the purpose of canvassing the vote of such election, at which adjourned meeting only four Commissioners, Powell, De-Cottes, Kelly and Pickett, were present, and at such adjourned meeting proceeded to canvass the returns, which were presented by the clerk under seal, from every election district in the county, except one, at which no election had been held, and declared the result of the election as set forth above, and at the same meeting a resolution, reciting the law and the facts and the result of the election, and directing the preparation and issue of $300,000 of bonds in accordance with such act and election, was passed.
With the above statement we will present the objections made in the bill and brief, and our views of the same.
It is objected in the bill .that the minutes of the
In Douglass vs. County Commissioners of Baker County, 23 Fla., 419, it Avasheld that a special or called meeting of county commissioners in which all the mem
As to the meetings of November 14th and December 9th not being either “regular or special” meetings within the meaning of the statute, it is of course entirely clear that the former was an adjourned special meeting, and the latter an adjourned regular meeting, as is shown by copies of the minutes of the commissioners annexed to the bill. In Ex parte Mirande, supra, it was held that an ordinance passed at an adjourned meeting was not invalidated by the fact that the clerk of the board described the adjournment, in the record ©f the proceedings, as a “recess” so of course the use of the word “session,” instead of “meeting;” in the record of the proceedings does not invalidate meetings. Besides this, the canvass of the returns, and the adoption of the resolution on the ninth of December were at a regular or special meeting
The result of the election, as ascertained by the canvass, was that 2,198 were the whole number of votes cast, and that for bonds there were 1,435, and against bonds 714; not for bonds 21, and blank 8 votes. The third objection, as stated in the bill, is that 1,772 of the voters had not paid the capitation or poll tax for the year 1890, and only 426 voted who had paid it for that year ; and 2,132 voted who had not paid such tax
The question presented by this objection is whether or not the payment of the poll or capitation tax was a qualification for voting at the election.
The Constitution (sec. 8, Art. YI) provides that the Legislature shall have power to make the payment of the capitation tax a prerequisite for voting. The Legislature of 1889 passed a statute. (Chapter 3850, approved May 25th,) enacting that a capitation tax of one dollar shall be assessed against all male citizens of the State, of twenty-one years and upwards, and that thirty days prior to any general, special or municipal election to be held in this State, the collectors of revenue of each county shall furnisli to the supervisors of
Recurring to the act for the improvement of the St. Johns river, as it is set forth in the first part of this sub-division of the opinion, we find that it is a complete system of itself, and that there is in it no requirement that the payment of any poll taxes shall be a qualification or prerequisite to voting, nor any provision that the collectors of taxes shall furnish supervisors of registration with the names of persons who have paid their capitation taxes, or that the latter officers shall note on the registration lists, or paper books, furnished inspectors the names of such persons. There was no previous law providing for an election of this kind; neither the general election law of 1889, Chapter 3679, nor the county bond act of 1877, McClellan’s Digest, 129-32, do so. This election is not one within the meaning of that provision of the poll tax act which directs the supervisors of registration to note on the registration books ‘ "now required by law to be furnished to inspectors,”¿thenames of persons who have paid the tax. The notice of election prescribed by either of these acts, nor the time for regis tration provided by the act of 1889, or by the other if it makes any provision, nor the mode of making and canvassing returns of election under either, in so far as the officers to whom they are to be made, or by whom they are to be canvassed, or as to requiring duplicate returns, have not been adopted by the statute under
Another objection’ is, that certificates of the above election were returned to the county judge, supervisor of registration, and the Clerk of the Circuit Court, and the oaths of inspectors and poll lists of persons who voted, were returned to the supervisor of registration, together with the ballots in the ballot boxes used. That the canvass of the votes were made by the county commissioners from the returns made to the Clerk of the Circuit Court and county judge, and no canvass was made by the county judge and supervisor of registration, and a member of the Board of County Commissioners, or in any manner pointed out by the acts “to provide for elections generally, and for returns of elections,” Chapters 3079 and 4040, statutes of Florida, and that the canvass was therefore illegal.
It was unnecessary for the inspectors to send cer
VI. The only point to be noticed is that involved in a statement made in the bill to the effect that the statute provides that the bonds “shall bear the seal of the aforesaid county of Duval,” and that at the time the act was passed, the county had no seal, but that the defendants on their meeting of December 9th, attempted to adopt the seal of the Circuit Court for the county as the seal of the county, and intend to attach the impression of this seal to the bonds. The action
The Constitution of 1868 provided for Circuit Courts, dividing the State into seven circuits, and directing that at least two terms should be held every year in each county, and for a Clerk of the Circuit Court in each county; and for county courts in each county, and for a county judge, who was judge of the county court, and these county courts were given criminal jurisdiction, civil jurisdiction in certain cases at law, and surrogate or probate powers. The same organic law also made the Clerk of the Circuit Court in each county, “clerk of the county court, and of the Board of County Commissioners, recorder and ex-officio auditor of the county.” The Legislature of 1868, McClellan’s Digest, pp. 931, 932, made it the immediate duty of the Attorney-General to devise suitable seals for the use of the Circuit Courts and County Courts in each county, or to approve and adopt the seals then in use in any county where the same might be appropriate, and to deposit in the office of the Secretary of State, and that of the Clerk of the Supreme Court, immediately after he should devise or adopt the same, a true description of each of such seals, with an impression thereof in wax, wafer or other material. The act also authorized the Attorney-General, whenever it should be necessary .to devise a new seal for the Circuit Court of any county, to cause to be manu
In 1875 the Constitution was so amended as to take from the county courts their criminal jurisdiction, and civil jurisdiction except in probate matters, and county judges were retained and given a limited civil and criminal jurisdiction. In the revision made of the
Relying upon the act of 1868, counsel for appellant contend that the seal of the county judge of Duval county is the proper seal to be used, and that the resolution was unauthorized. There is no doubt that the Attorney-General devised and procured seals for
AYe have given to the questions raised by the bill the careful investigation and deliberate consideration merited by their character, and by the interests involved, and our judgment is, that the decree dismissing the bill should be affirmed. It will be decreed accordingly.