Horton v. Rockwall County
Horton v. Rockwall County
Opinion of the Court
This is an appeal from the action of the district court of Rockwall county in sustaining a general demurrer to the appellant’s petition and dismissing his suit. Appellant alleged that he was the duly elected and qualified treasurer of Rockwall county, and as such the custodian of all county and school funds of said county; that during his term of office the commissioners’ court of said county issued $25,000 of common school district bonds for common school district No. 2 of said county, and thereafter sold same for $25,631.01; that said commissioners also levied, and there was collected, certain taxes with which to pay the interest on said bonds, and provide a sinking fund therefor, and out of which, by direction of the commissioners, he paid certain sums of money *298 with which, to meet certain accrued interest on the bonds; thát he was entitled to receive a commission of 2% per cent, for receiving and disbursing the money realized from the sale of said bonds as well as the money paid for interest thereon; that he presented to the commissioners’ court his report showing the issuance and sale of said bonds, the levy and collection of said tax, and the payment of said interest, but that the commissioners’ court refused to approve said report or to allow him his commissions. He sought judgment requiring the commissioners to approve his report and establishing his claim for fees and commissions and directing said court to pay same.
Appellant complains of the action of the court in holding that he had no right to collect his statutory fees from this fund, and urges that the general law providing for a complete system of public free schools passed at the regular session of the Twenty-Ninth Legislature (Acts 1905, c. 124), as amended by an act of the regular session of the Thirtieth Legislature (Acts 1907, c. 106), is void and unconstitutional because said amended act attempts to confer upon school trustees the authority to disburse school moneys, and because, if such authority existed in the Legislature, the captions of the original and amended acts do not confer or embrace such power, and, because common school funds are a county fund, the treasurer is the only officer entitled to receive same, and, having received (presumably) and disbursed same, he is entitled to his statutory fees. Appellees contend that the proceeds’of the sale of the bonds of a common school district being a school fund, and the county depository being the legal custodian thereof, appellant is not ■entitled to fees for receiving and disbursing same, and that the county commissioners are without authority to allow same. The law enacted by the Twenty-Ninth Legislature •creating a system for state, county, and city depositories (chapter 164, p. 387) provides, among other things, that after a county depository has been selected in the manner directed, and the bond demanded of such depository has been given, “thereupon it shall be the duty of the county treasurer » * * immediately to transfer to said depository all the funds belonging to said county.” By said act it is also the duty and right of the treasurer to draw' all checks against the county funds so deposited upon the presentation to him of warrants drawn by proper authority. For his protection it is also provided that he shall not be held responsible for any loss of the county funds through the failure or negligence of any depository selected under the act. In short, by said law, all county funds are withdrawn from his control and keeping, but his right to disburse the same is continued, and as a consequence he is probably entitled to collect his statutory fees as' fixed by law or the commissioners’ court. However, the regular session of the Thirty-First Legislature (chapter 12, p. 17), under authority of a constitutional amendment, adopted by the people, passed an act amending an act of the Twenty-Ninth Legislature (chapter 124, p. 263), providing for a complete system of public free schools in Texas by which amendment the commissioners of each county in the state were authorized to subdivide their counties into convenient school districts, and were authorized after submitting same to the qualified voters of said district to issue sehoolhouse bonds for building schoolhouses in such common school districts. When these bonds were sold, the proceeds, by section 77 thereof, were to “be placed in the county treasury to the credit of said school district, and the money shall be disbursed upon warrants issued by the trustees of said district, approved by the county superintendent in payment of accounts legally contracted in buying, building, equipping or repairing the sehoolhouse or schoolhouses for such district or in the purchase of sites therefor.” By section 69 of the original act (chapter 124, Acts 29th Leg. § 69) the trustees of school districts are made a body politic and corporate in law, and as such may contract, ■ sue, and be sued, plead or be impleaded in any forum of competent jurisdiction, etc. Section 71 of the same act provides that these trustees shall manage the schools, employ teachers, subject to the rules of the county and state superintendents, approve all teachers’. vouchers, and all other claims against the school fund of their district. Section 154a of the amendment (page 22, Laws 31st Leg.) provides, in relation to common school districts, that “all funds of such districts shall be kept in the county treasury and paid out on order of the trustees approved by the county superintendent, provided that the terms, county treasurer and county treasury, as used in all provisions of law relating to school funds shall hereafter be construed to mean the county depository,” and that “the treasurer of the school funds shall be that person or corporation who offers satisfactory bond * * * and the best bid of interest * * * for the privilege of acting as such treasurer * * * provided that no commission shall hereafter be paid for receiving and disbursing school funds.”
Viewed from the standpoint of these several enactments of the Legislature, it is clear that it has been for some time the policy of the state to withdraw from the control of the various county treasurers the money held by them in the past. The reasons which gave rise to such policy are clear from the terms of the law itself. Much of the money held by county treasurers lay idle, and afforded no source of income to the county, while under the depository law the bank, corporation, or person who offers the most interest on the average daily deposit is. entitled to the county funds, and becomes the county depository. Such a course not only maintains and guards the *299 safety of the county funds, out aifords a return on the same not possible under the ■ old system. Pursuing this policy and for the purpose of further conserving and in- • creasing the school funds particularly, the amendment to the public free school laws was passed, by which the management and •control of the district schools were placed ■ squarely in the hands of the school trustees, including the disbursement of all funds raised by the issuance of bonds for the purchase of sites and the building of schools, with the additional provision that on the ■funds raised for such school purposes no ■ commission should be paid for receiving and disbursing same, for the obvious reason that since the safety of the fund was seeur- • ed by the depository, and the labor and duty of disbursing it rested with the school trustees, it would be a needless expense and but ■ curtail the school fund to pay an officer for receiving and disbursing same, when he was charged neither with its safe-keeping, nor liable for its loss or misappropriation.
Finding no reversible error in the record, the judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HORTON v. ROCKWALL COUNTY Et Al.
- Cited By
- 2 cases
- Status
- Published