The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1893-09-15
LINCOLN COUNTY LOSES.
Defendants Demurrer Sustain
ed by the Ruling Of Judge
Fullerton.

At the special term OF the circuit
court recently held in Corvallis, the
mandamus Case Was argued involving
Il claim of Lincoln county for a por-
ton of Benton county's school fund
arising from the tive-mlll tax OF 1877,
and possibly that from the school land
fund recently apportioned. Last Sat
| urday Judge Fullerton handed down
decision sustaining defendants demnr-
rer to the writ, which is in favor OF this
county. The decision saves to the
school fund of Benton about S4,500.
Whether our western nelShbors Will
aDpeal thc case remains to be seen.
As matters concerning the county's
school money are OF special Importance
to almost every citizen. a brief repeti-
ton of the history of the case may be
of interest to our readers. The basis
of Lincoln county's claim is section III
of the act creating The new county:
sit shall be the duty OF the superinten-
dent of schools for Benton county, within
90 davs, etc, and he shall also at the same
| time Of making the appointments OF the
| school fund for the year 1898, apportlon to
| the various school districts within Lincoln
county their pro rata proportion OF saId
| school fund the same as if said equity had
not been created and organized.
We also quote a portion OF section D:
"The county clerk of Benton county shall.
within thirty days after this act shall have
gone into operation, make out and deliver
uto the county clerk Of Lincoln county a
transcript Of all taxes assessed upon persons
and property within the said county of Lin
coin which was previously included within
the limits of Benton county, and all taxes
which shall remain unpaid upon the day
this act shall become law shall be raid to
the proper officers of Lincoln county"
Il will readily be seen that the law
contemplated the collection of taxes in
both counties for 1892 by the sheriff
of Benton. but 1t was assumed that
they would be collected by the usual
time. in which event it would have
been the duty of Denton's school super
intendent to apportlon the school fund
in accordance with the law. The COL
lection Of taxes, however, was post
poned by the retention Of the tax roll
an unusual time by the board OF equal
Hation and from other causes. When
the tax roll was returned to the cltrI;
of Benton the officers of Lincoln hnC
qualified and the time lad eXplrec
within wh ch the law required the
clerk OF Benton to make out and de
= liver the transcript Of taxes assessed
: The transcript was completed as soor
as possible and sent to the clerk o
} Lincoln before any taxes had beer
collected by the sheriff of Benton
The sheriff of Lincoln then proceeded
} to collect the taxes for his county
} including the tax for school purposes
: The school superintendent of Li'i-
! coin soon thereafter made demant
of Superintendent Bryan, of Benton
A for an apportionment, according to th'
terms of section / |, Of the school fun'
, arising from taxes on property within
. the new boundaries Of Benton, at til,
f same time retaining the fund from take
on property in the new county. Mr.
Bryan refused to comply with the de
| mand, and was reported to the count.
! court which at once authorized MI
Booth to institute mandamus proceed
lngs, in Lincoln, against Mr.. Bryan
The matter came before Judge FuI
lerton and was dismissed on the grount
, that the action against the snperln
/, tendent should have been brought il
the county in which he exercised tn
functions of his Office. Mr. Bryan
thereupon disbursed the funds on Ian'
to the districts in this county. An
s other writ of mandamus was sool
, afterward applied for in Benton county
The proceedings restrained Mr.. Bryan
| from apportioning school money whicl
' came into his hands from taxes col
Iected after the first apportionmen
e was made, and on account of which h'
f did not at once dis5urse the money
obtained from the state school lane
: fund. The merits of the case wer'
t argued before Judge Fullerton tht
first of August and resulted asstated
The defense argued that the writ die
| not state facts sufficient. to entitl'
: plaintiff to any relief; that it did no
+ show that Superintendent Booth, tht
= | i)ldiHlllt, ldt dh lillCiCo" iiA ItAS ii"te"'
, and therefore could not bring th,
action according to the general Law
which says that "Every action shall b'
,, prosecuted in the name of the rea
party in interest," Perhaps the argu-
ment which will be best understood by
the public is that an apportionmen
according to the view Of plaintiff
l. would not be in accordance with tht
general school law; that such distrl
button would give the children of Lin
coin larger percentage OF schoo
money than the children of Bentol
would receive that a law authorizln:
such apportiorment would be clas
legislation and therefore unconstitu
, tional.
1t may be proper to state that Lin
colin county claims that il full transcript
of the taxes of that county Was no
l 1oE