Title: City of Jackson v. Capital Reporter Pub. Co., Inc.

State: mississippi

Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court

Document:

373 So. 2d 802 (1979) CITY OF JACKSON and Mississippi Publishers Corporation v. CAPITAL REPORTER PUBLISHING COMPANY, INCORPORATED. No. 51052. Supreme Court of Mississippi. July 25, 1979. Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes, W. Timothy Jones, Edmund L. Brunini, John E. Stone, R. David Kaufman, Howard C. Ross, Jr., Jackson, for appellant. Jean D. Muirhead, W.E. Gore, Jr., Robert G. Nichols, Jr., Jackson, for appellee. EN BANC. ROBERTSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: In its Petition for Rehearing, the Capital Reporter Publishing Company, Inc., called attention to the fact that the records in the Secretary of State's Office were in error in showing that the Capital Reporter was suspended from performing any right acquired by it by virtue of its being a corporation (a creature of statute), from August 9, 1977 to January 23, 1979, a period of more than *803 twelve months. Capital Reporter stated in its Petition that it was suspended as a corporation only from August 9, 1977 to August 17, 1977, and attached the affidavit of William A. Barnes, director of the revenue department of Mississippi State Tax Commission, wherein Barnes stated that the delinquent franchise tax was paid and credited to the Reporter's account on August 17, 1977, that the Reporter should have been reinstated on that date, but that, due to an error in its processing procedure, the Tax Commission inadvertently failed to cancel the suspension and notify the Secretary of State of the cancellation and the restoration of the Reporter to fill corporate status. Inasmuch as our opinion of March 28, 1979, reversing the judgment of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, in favor of the Reporter, and rendering judgment in favor of the City of Jackson and Mississippi Publishers Corporation, was based solely on the erroneous record in the Secretary of State's office showing the suspension of Capital Reporter for more than 12 months, the Petition for Rehearing is granted, the original opinion withdrawn, and the following opinion substituted therefor: Appellants, the City of Jackson and the Mississippi Publishers Corporation, appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, which reversed an order of the City Council of the City of Jackson awarding the contract for the publication of the City's legal notices, advertisements and ordinances for 1978 to Mississippi Publishers Corporation d/b/a Jackson Daily News and The Clarion Ledger, and entered judgment awarding said contract to Capital Reporter Publishing Company, Inc., d/b/a The Capital Reporter. The circuit court acted as an appellate court under this pertinent provision of Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-51-75 (1972): The Record in this case consisted of a Corrected Bill of Exceptions, approved and signed by the Mayor of the City of Jackson. The interrelated statutes, Mississippi Code Annotated section 13-3-31 (1978 Supp.) (detailing the tests to be applied to determine whether a newspaper is qualified), and section 21-39-3 (1972) (setting forth the procedure to be followed by municipalities), apply in this case. Section 13-3-31 provides in part: Section 21-39-3 provides: On November 29, 1977, the newly elected Jackson City Council entered an order authorizing and directing the City Clerk to issue an invitation for bids for legal publications, as required by section 21-39-3. The "Notice to Newspaper Publishers" closed with this sentence: The Clarion Ledger, the Jackson Daily News, The Capital Reporter, and "Steppin' Out" submitted bids which were opened at 3:30 P.M., December 14, 1977, in accordance with the notice. "Steppin' Out" was the low bidder, The Capital Reporter was next, and Mississippi Publishers Corporation doing business as The Clarion Ledger and Jackson Daily News, was next with the same bid for both of its daily newspapers. On December 20, 1977, the City attorney, at the instance of the City Council, wrote each of the four publishers submitting bids, requesting them to furnish the Council with the information required by section 13-3-31. The Clarion Ledger and Jackson Daily News submitted the information required and advised the City Council that the data submitted had been audited by an independent newspaper circulation auditing agency. The Capital Reporter submitted unaudited information through its editor, Wilson F. Minor. According to the Corrected Bill of Exceptions, the City Council continued the matter of awarding bids for its legal publications until January 10, 1978. The Corrected Bill of Exceptions states that Commissioner Cochran talked with Editor Minor as to how the previous administration had awarded bids for legal publications. Upon being advised by Mr. Minor that publications had been divided equally between The Clarion Ledger, Jackson Daily News, and The Capital Reporter, each receiving 1/3rd, the City Council entered this order on January 10, 1978: Deciding to appeal from this Order, The Capital Reporter on January 18, 1978, presented to the Mayor of the City of Jackson a proposed Bill of Exceptions and then an Amended Bill of Exceptions. The Mayor found the proposed Bill of Exceptions and Amended Bill of Exceptions incomplete, inaccurate and insufficient, and prepared, signed and filed a Corrected Bill of Exceptions which was accepted by the Court as the record in this case. *805 Subsequent proceedings of the City Council were then stated in the Corrected Bill of Exceptions: The Circuit Court reversed the January 24, 1978, Order of the City Council, being of the opinion that the Order of January 10, 1978, awarding the contract to the three *807 papers, of necessity included a finding that all three were qualified within the meaning of the statute; that the action of the Council on January 24, 1978, "withdrawing the awarding of the business to the Reporter was arbitrary, capricious, illegal and without basis;" and finally, "that the valid portions can be separated from the invalid portions and thus the acceptance of the Reporter's bid was valid and those portions of the January 10 ordinance accepting the bids of the Clarion Ledger and Daily News and directing a division of the publications were invalid and void." The Record (Corrected Bill of Exceptions) does not bear out nor support the judgment of the circuit court reversing the order of the City Council and awarding the entire publication contract to the Capital Reporter. In Thornton v. Wayne County Election Commission, 272 So. 2d 298 (Miss. 1973), this Court said: In Currie v. Ryan, 243 So. 2d 48 (Miss. 1971), we set forth the tests to be applied by an appellate court to the actions of municipal authorities: In Klyce v. Alcorn County, 192 Miss. 440, 6 So. 2d 298 (1942), this Court said: Sections 13-3-31 and 21-39-3 are interrelated and must be read together. The municipal authorities can not let a contract to publish legal notices to a newspaper not qualified under the law (section 13-3-31) whether it is the lowest bidder or not. The order of January 10, 1978, dividing the publication of legal notices equally among The Capital Reporter, The Clarion Ledger and Jackson Daily News was completely null and void, its parts were interdependent and not separable and the City Council was correct in setting it aside. See City of Grenada v. Wood, 81 Miss. 308, 33 So. 173 (1902). The validity of the Order of January 24, 1978, being fairly debatable and not being shown to be arbitrary, capricious, discriminatory, illegal or without substantial basis (Currie v. Ryan, supra), the circuit court was in error in setting aside the January 24, *808 1978, order of the City Council awarding the contract for its legal publications to The Clarion Ledger and Jackson Daily News, and also in attempting to amend the void January 10, 1978, Order so as to award the entire publications contract to the Capital Reporter. The order of the circuit court is, therefore, reversed and the order of the city council of January 24, 1978, is reinstated. REVERSED AND RENDERED. PATTERSON, C.J., SMITH, P.J., and SUGG, WALKER, BROOM and COFER, JJ., concur. LEE and BOWLING, JJ., take no part.