103 So. 812 | Miss. | 1925
We deem it only necessary to say that both of the former cases as well as the present case involved the same cause, and each involved a public question. They were strictly public suits. It is true that the parties actually named as such were the board of supervisors on the one side and certain taxpayers on the other. Nevertheless all other taxpayers concerned were parties on one side or the other by representation according as their interest appeared to them. Actions of this character are governed by the principle that a taxpayer's suit against the governing board of a county or municipality involving questions of general interest to taxpayers prosecuted in good faith are binding upon all taxpayers as fully as if they had been made actual parties to the proceeding. Freeman on Judgments (4th Ed.) par. 178, 2 Van Fleet's Former Adjudication, pars. 569-570. There must be an end to litigation. A different set of taxpayers in a cause of this character will not be permitted to successively, by new and different actions, attack former adjudications of the same questions on the ground that they were not parties thereto. All taxpayers are affected with notice of the pendency of public suits of this character. They are parties thereto whether they would be or not; provided, of course, always such suits are prosecuted without collusion and in good faith.
Affirmed. *87