Hull v. Commissioners of Kearney County
Hull v. Commissioners of Kearney County
Opinion of the Court
This is an original action, and was brought to restrain the payment of certain county warrants, and also the collection of a tax levied for that purpose. The ground upon which the supposed right to this relief is based is that -the warrants were issued without lawful authority, and are void. No fraud on the part of any one in the issue or proposed payment of said warrants is charged, but eveiy
These warrants appear to have been issued in due form by the commissioners of said county, on the fourth day of June, 1873, and in payment to Henry T. Clark of the balance found to be due him on settlement for building a bridge across the Platte river, between the towns of Gibbon and Lowell. The grounds of their alleged invalidity are, first, that there was then no existing fund against which to draw them; second, that the contract with Clark for the building of the bridge was unauthorized; and, third, that the bonds were in excess of the amount actually due for the work under the contract.
The want of a fund is claimed chiefly on the ground that, for the year 1872, there was no levy of a road tax by the commissioners of Kearney county. It appears from the petition that, instead of taking upon themselves the making of a formal levy, the commissioners simply ordered the county clerk to transfer to his own books a formal levy which had been made by the commissioners of Adams county, to which Kearney county had been attached for election, revenue, and judicial purposes. From the averments of the petition, it appears quite clear that Kearney county was completely organized when the commissioners of Adams county assumed to make a levy for it.. This was done probably under the supposition that the organization of Kearney had not yet been fully perfected, and that it was their duty under the law to do it. At any rate there is nothing to show that it was not done in the utmost good faith. Under these circumstances we are of opinion that the action of the commissioners of Kearney, in the adoption of the work of the commissioners of Adams, made it their own, and that, although the desired result was reached somewhat informally, it was not at all different, at least when equitably considered, from what it would have been if made by the commissioners of Kearney independently, and after the
Judgment accordingly.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Joel Hull v. The Commissioners of Kearney County
- Status
- Published