Leflore County v. Board of Supervisors
Leflore County v. Board of Supervisors
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The act creating the County of Leflore contained the usual requirement that the new county should pay its pro rata share of the
An accounting based on this standard showed Leflore County indebted to Carroll in the sum of seven thousand five hundred and eighty-five dollars; and for this amount the bonds of the former were executed and delivered to the latter by virtue of a special law authorizing the execution of such bonds. Acts of 1872, p. 188.
In 1877 a portion of the territory which had been taken from Carroll County in the creation of Leflore was, by the legislature, ceded back to Carroll. Acts of 1877, p. 59.
Suit has now been brought by Carroll on two of the bonds issued at the time of the original accounting between the two counties, and Leflore pleads by way of recoupment or failure of consideration the diminution of her territory by the act of 1877; in the title of which act, but not in the body, it is styled, “ An act to correct a mistake in the boundary line between Carroll and Leflore Counties.” The claim of Leflore County is that, as the bonds sued on were issued upon an estimate of wealth and territory based upon the boundaries as originally created, she is now entitled to a reduction of the bonds corresponding to the diminution of her own area.
This claim cannot be sustained. No diminution in the amount to be paid was provided for by the act of 1877; and it is settled by the case of Supervisors of Chickasaw County v. Supervisors of Sumner County, 58 Miss. 619, that a change of boundary lines between counties imposes no pecuniary liability unless specially prescribed by the legislature.
The act under consideration, though it was said in the title to be “ to correct a mistake,” was nothing but a transfer of territory from Leflore to Carroll, six years after the creation of the former county. During this time Leflore had exercised entire jurisdiction over and enjoyed the revenues derived from the whole territory; and it was for the legislature alone to say what were-the pecuniary equities between the two counties with reference to it. That body having declined to impose any burdens upon Carroll County, on account of
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Leflore County v. Board of Supervisors of Carroll County
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. County. Bonds. Recoupment for excised territory. Bonds given by a county to tlxe county, out of the ten'itox-y of which it was formed, in payment of its share of the latter’s indebtedness, estimated oix the taxable value of the property taken, are not subject to recoupment for territory given back to the old county by subsequent legislation. 2. Same. Change of boundary. Public debt not transferred with territory. A statute which transfers territory from one county to another does not impose a corresponding debt upon the latter unless it so provides, and entitling tlxe legislation an act to “ correct a mistake ” does not affect the question.