Lawrence County v. Meade County
Lawrence County v. Meade County
Opinion of the Court
This action was brought to recover the proportion of the so-called floating indebtedness of the plaintiff, which it is alleged the county of Meade was under obligation to assume and pay by virtue of the provisions of the act creating the defendant county. What are now the counties of Meade and Lawrence constituted one county prior to the act of the territorial legislature which took effect in February, 1889. The action was tried by the court. No objection is raised to its findings of fact, and the only question presented by this appeal is whether its conclusions of law and judgment conform to the facts found.
The court finds that it was mutually agreed between plaintiff and defendant that when defendant was created the portion of the floating indebtedness of Lawrence county, to be assumed and paid by defendant, was $24,200.10; that no. part of this sum has been paid by it; that by a mutual mistake of law the contracting parties agreed upon the sum stated, supposing that' all the floating indebtedness of Lawrence county was legal, whereas a large portion of it was illegal, having been incurred in violation of the act of congress approved July 30, 1886; and that defendant’s proportion of the legal floating indebtedness was $1,729.87, instead of $24,200.10, as agreed upon by the parties, for which amount plaintiff has judgment. The act of congress approved July 30, 1886, provides as follows: “No political or municipal corporation, county, or other subdivision in any of the territories of the United States shall ever become indebted in any manner or for any purpose to any amount in the aggregate, including existing indebtedness, exceeding four per centum on the value of the taxable property within such corporation, county, or subdivision, to be ascertained by
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Act Cong., approved July 80, 1886, relating to the aggregate indebtedness of territorial counties, did not affect indebtedness contracted prior to its enactment; nor did it prevent a county, whose indebtedness exceeded the 4 per cent limit when such act was approved, from levying such taxes as it was authorized by law to levy, and issuing its warrants within the limits of such levy in anticipation of their collection. If the warrants issued were within the amounts lawfully levied, they did not increase the municipal indebtedness, within the meaning of such act. Unless it affirmatively appears that the warrants issued in any year exceeded in amount the levy for such year, they must be regarded as lawful claims against the county.