STATE, EX REL. J. W. GILLESPIE, ET AL.,
v.
FRED WALSMA, MAYOR-COMMISSIONER, ET AL.
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
This case involves a mandamus action where bondholders sued city officials for failing to include provisions for bond and coupon payments in the city's budget and tax levy. The court affirmed the necessity of such provisions, even if the specific budget year needed adjustment.
The court held that a municipality's failure to make provisions for bond and coupon payments is not legally justifiable. It also held that mandamus can be used to compel such provisions, even if it necessitates amending the current budget to apply to the next fiscal year.
“A denial that relators are the joint owners, bearers or holders of municipal bonds as alleged and described in an alternative writ of mandamus, which writ requires simply [*728] that adequate provision pursuant to law be made for the payment of the same as and when due, is insufficient as a legal justification or excuse for a confessed failure of the obligor municipality to make any provision for payment thereof in advance of maturity, as the .statute under vffiich the bonds were issued enjoins and requires as part of the contractual obligation.”
Establishes that a denial of bond ownership is not a valid defense against a mandamus action to compel budget provisions for bond payments.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceRelators, holders of city bonds and coupons, alleged that the city officials failed to make any provision in the 1932 budget, appropriation ordinance,…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Tax Levy cases and more on FLexlaw
In this case an amended alternative writ of mandamus alleges that the respondents, city officials of Haines City, Florida, in preparing the city’s budget, appropriation ordinance and tax levy for the year 1932, failed and neglected to make therein any provision whatsoever for paying the amounts of principal and interest of certain of the city’s bonds and: coupons of which relators averred themselves to be the holders. The command of the alternative writ is for a revision of the 1932 'budget and appropriation ordinance of said Haines City so as to include therein a sufficient appropriation to be raised by taxation for the ensuing fiscal year, to pay the bonds and interest coupons of relators as described in the alternative writ. Commanded also is the levy of an appropriate and sufficient tax to meet the budget appropriation when made.
No defenses are presented by the return of the respondents herein other than such as have been repeatedly held by this Court to be insufficient in law to preclude a judicial requirement in the form of a peremptory writ of mandamus that the respondents take the necessary steps to appropriate funds and levy taxes to pay the obligations of the municipality of Haines City resting in the enforceable contract consummated by the issuance and s’ale of the bonds sued on as duly validated public securities of the City of Haines City.
A denial that relators are the joint owners, bearers or holders of municipal bonds as alleged and described in an alternative writ of mandamus, which writ requires simply *728that adequate provision pursuant to law be made for the payment of the same as and when due, is insufficient as a legal justification or excuse for a confessed failure of the obligor municipality to make any provision for payment thereof in advance of maturity, as the .statute under vffiich the bonds were issued enjoins and requires as part of the contractual obligation.
Under the statutes, and by the contract which a city enters into when it issues bonds and coupons as its general obligations payable to bearer, it is the duty of the duly constituted and authorized governing officials of the obligor municipality to make due provision for payment of the bonds and coupons upon presentation and surrender of the seT curities, regardless of who might happen to be the bearer at the time of such presentation and surrender. And this inescapable mandatory duty is enforceable by mandamus instituted at the instance of any person holding for the time being any of the affected unprovided for bonds or coupons. State ex rel. Rempsen v. Smith, 105 Fla. 368, 141 Sou. Rep. 318.
Neither is failure to make demand, presentation, nor offer to surrender the securities, in advance of the institution of the suit, necessary in such cases to entitle the holder to maintain such a. mandamus suit when the object of the mandamus is to have .mandatory duties performed which must be executed in advance of payment in order to make possible on the obligor’s part, such as the raising in a budget or by a special tax levy, of the funds necessary to be raised for the purpose of payment, either before or after maturity, when this is shown to be indispensable to be done for that purpose. State ex rel. Harris v. City of Fort Pierce, 111 Fla. 174, 149 Sou. Rep. 338; State ex rel. Rempsen v. Smith, supra; State ex rel. New York Life Ins. Co. v. Curry, 104 Fla. 242, 139 Sou. Rep. 891; Rountree v. State ex rel. *729Georgia Bond & Mtge. Co., 102 Fla. 246, 135 Sou. Rep. 888; Little River Bank & Trust Co. v. Johnson, 105 Fla. 212, 141 Sou. Rep. 141; State ex rel. Gillespie v. Baskin, 102 Fla. 329, 136 Sou. Rep. 262; Columbia County v. King, 13 Fla. 451.
The duty required to be performed in this proceeding being a continuing one under the law, the plea of disorder and confusion to be occasioned by the issuance of peremptory writ in the form prayed for, must, if sustained,simply result in the carrying over of the required appropriation and tax levy into the next ensuing current budgeted the respondent city, and not in a complete avoidance of the duty in its entirety. State ex rel. Klemm v. Baskin, 111 Fla. 517, 150 Sou. Rep. 517; State ex rel. Taliaferro v. Baskin, decided at the present term, opinion filed December 4, 1933 (not yet reported).
The motion for peremptory writ will- be granted upon condition that relator so amend the ■ alternative writ that the commands thereof will apply to the next ensuing budget and. appropriation ordinance of. the city, in order to avoid the disorder and confusion which would be otherwise occasioned by ordering the budget for the year 1932 to be revised and an additional tax for the tax roll of that year placed thereon.
■ Motion for peremptory writ of mandamus granted, subject to condition that alternative writ -be amended in a man7 ner not inconsistent with the holding of this opinion.
Whitfield, Ellis, Terrell, Brown and Buford, J. J.; concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
State v. Chillingworth, 122 Fla. 339 (Fla. 1936)…[*344] legislature to burden that contract with the further condition that he must do something else not contemplated by the contract before he can enforce the collection of taxes and the payment of his bond. See State, ex rel. Gillespie, v. Walsma, 113 Fla. 726, 152 Sou. 196. The legislative Act is also invalid because it is an unwarranted legislative invasion of the powers and provinces of the judiciary. The statute attempts to set up a, mandatory requirement that the Circuit Judge should enter an order…
-
Treat v. State, 118 Fla. 899 (Fla. 1935)…rel. Barrs v. Pritchard, 111 Fla. 122, 149 Sou. Rep. 58; State, ex rel. Supreme Forest Woodmen Circle v. Snow, 113 Fla. 241, 151 Sou. Rep. 393; State, ex rel. Gillespie v. Vickers, 110 Fla. 157, 148 Sou. Rep. 526; State, ex rel. Gillespie v. Walama, 113 Fla. 726, 152 Sou. Rep. 196. As will be observed from our decisions, the holder of a municipal bond, as to which a contract has been made in the bonds by the obligor, pursuant to statute, for the sea [*904] sonable raising of revenue with which to discharge…
-
State v. Vickers, 115 Fla. 661 (Fla. 1934)…motion, when that is shown to be necessary to protect the bonds from default in interest or non-payment at maturity, even though the relator may not be a holder of the bonds' when the time for payment arrives. See State, ex rel. Gillespie v. Walsma, 113 Fla. 726, 152 Sou. Rep. 196. Compare: Treat v. State, ex rel. Winters, 114 Fla. 195, 154 Sou. Rep. 157. Under the provisions of Chapter 10409, Special Acts of Florida, Laws of 1925, it is the official duty of respondents [*665] as members of the Board of Co…
Authorities Cited (11 total)
- Cnty. Comm'rs of Columbia Cnty. v. King, 13 Fla. 451 (Fla. 1869)
- Rountree v. State, 102 Fla. 246 (Fla. 1931)
- Little River Bank & Tr. Co. v. Johnson, 105 Fla. 212 (Fla. 1932)
- State v. Baskin, 111 Fla. 667 (Fla. 1933)
- State v. Baskin, 102 Fla. 329 (Fla. 1931)
- State v. Curry, 104 Fla. 242 (Fla. 1932)
- The Provident Life & Accident Ins. Co. v. Vines Atkins, 105 Fla. 368 (Fla. 1932)
- State v. Smith, 105 Fla. 368 (Fla. 1932)
- State v. City of Fort Pierce, 111 Fla. 174 (Fla. 1933)
- Columbia Cas. Co. v. Right Reverend Patrick Barry, 111 Fla. 517 (Fla. 1933)