The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-03-08
TIE INVALID WARRANTS.


The supreme court of the state has
reversed the decision OF the court be-
low in the case of John A. Frifsch VS..
the board of county commissioners of
Salt Lake county, otherwise known as
! the county warrant case. The decision
invalidates all warrants issued in ex-
cess of the debt limit allowed by the
state constitution, amounting to many
thousands of dollars.
The case rested upon the proper con-
struction of section Of article II of
the state constitution, which says:
No debt in excess of the taxes for
the current year shall be created by
! any county in this state; I'M
less the proposition to create such debt
shall have been submitted to a vote of
! such qualified electors as shall have
paid property tax therein in the year
preceding such election, and a major
ity of those voting thereon shall have
voted in favor of mourning such debt
The court clearly points out the dis
tinction between what the law is and
the contention of the plaintiffs coun-
sci when it says The expression, No
debt in excess of the taxes of the cur
rent year. is used; not, No debt in ex-
cess of Ga debt equal to) the taxes for
the current year. Upon that express
sion hinged the whole question.
What is the result of the decision?
1t is that some $4,000 worth of war
rants of Salt Lake county are invalid
and there is no help for the matter.
1t is proposed by Commissioner Hall
70 o-I- ba
excess warrants. However willing the
legislature might be to do this; how
ever cheerfully the people might as
sumo the burden of paying them, the
legislature has no power to validate
them, for their invalidity does not arise
from any defect in any law but from
the violation of a provision of the con-
stitution, the very source of the au-
thority of the legislature itself. and
over which it has absolutely no con-
troll. An appeal to the legislature
would be futile even were it to pass
any law whose purpose was TO validate
these warrants.
All this is regrettable in the extreme.
1t will work an injury to the good
name of the county itself and it will
work an injury TO the holders of these
invalid warrants. But it was necessary
that a halt be called on the creation
of excess and unlawful debt some
where, and it is well that it has been
called before it has grown to greater
dimensions. The prohibition contained
in section 3 of article IA of the state
constitution either meant something or
it meant nothing. The supreme court
has said it meant something; the old
board of county commissioners that
created this invalid debt proceeded on
the theory that it meant nothing. The
fault was not altogether theirs as they
acted upon the advice Of the then eoun-
ty attorney, very poor advice to act
upon. A fundamental trouble with the
commissioners was that they proceeded
on the theory their powers were al
most unlimited unless limited in terms.
One thing this decision should do:
it should teach the people of Salt Lake
county TO elect none but the best law
yers to the position of county attorney;
electing mere office-seekers is entirely
too expensive. 1t also teaches that
they should elect as county commits
sioners only men who have a thorough
business training and who are inclined
to economy
The whole business is bad, looked at
from any point of view Nothing could
be worse for the county than repudia-
ton. yet that seems inevitable. If there
is any way in which it can be avoided
it should be searched out and repudi-
alton avoided.