Case Name: STATE ex rel. DOUGLAS v. KENNEDY et al.
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1908-05-11
Citations: 121 La. 757
Docket Number: No. 16,992
Parties: STATE ex rel. DOUGLAS v. KENNEDY et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 121
Pages: 758–762

Head Matter:
(46 South. 796.)
No. 16,992.
STATE ex rel. DOUGLAS v. KENNEDY et al.
(May 11, 1908.
Rehearing Denied June 22, 1908.)
On Motion to Dismiss.
1. Appeal and Ekrob — City Offices — Bonds —Mandamus.
The City of New Orleans has a right to appeal from a judgment in a mandamus suit against its treasurer, ordering the payment of money out of municipal funds. The exemption ■of the city from giving bond in judicial proceedings does not extend to its ministerial officers.
[Ed. Note. — Eor cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 2, Appeal and Error, §§ 943, 2005, 2010.]
On the Merits.
2. Mandamus — Payment of City Debts — Remedies of Creditor.
Section 1 -of Act No-. 5, p. 10, of 1870 (Extra Session) prohibits creditors of the city of New Orleans from enforcing the payment of claims out of the municipal treasury by mandamus proceedings directed against the city’s auditing and disbursing officers. The remedy of such creditors is by ordinary action against the corporation. The statute' directs how judgments shall be registered and paid, but the remedy of a judgment creditor to compel payment out of a particular budget appropriation need not be now decided.
3. Municipal Corporations — Appropriation of Funds;
The council of the city of New Orleans has no authority to divert the funds appropriated in an annual budget until all the expenditures provided for therein have been paid.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Appeal from Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans; Fred Durieve King, Judge.
Action by the state, on the relation of one Douglas, for a writ of mandamus to C. R. Kennedy, comptroller, and others. From a judgment making the writ peremptory, defendants appeal.
Reversed, and suit dismissed.
Henry Garland Dupré and St. Clair Adams, Asst. City Atty., for appellants. George Montgomery, for appellee.

Opinion:
LAND, J.
From a judgment making the writ peremptory, the defendants were allowed an appeal without giving bond, and the city of New Orleans made itself a party after judgment, and was granted an appeal without giving bond.
This is a mandamus proceeding to compel the city comptroller to warrant for, and the city treasurer to pay, certain paving certificates issued pursuant to a contract between the relator and the city of New Orleans.
Motion to Dismiss.
Relator bas moved to dismiss tbe appeals on tbe following grounds:
(1) That the original defendants have not furnished the appeal bond required by law.
(2) That the city of New Orleans is not a party to this suit, and is without interest to appeal as a third person.
The first proposition was sustained in State ex rel. George v. Mount, City Treasurer, 21 La. Ann. 177, on the ground that the defendant did not represent the city of New Orleans in the litigation, and that the exemption in favor of the city, being in derogation of the general law, cannot he extended to its officers. That ruling has never been reversed, nor has it been abrogated by subsequent .legislation. In tbe case of Insurance Co. v. Board of Assessors et al., 40 La. Ann. 371, 3 South. 891, a suit for the reduction of an assessment, the city of New .Orleans was made one of the defendants, and the ruling is applicable only to the State Tax Collector and the Board of Assessors, who represented the state In the litigation.
The second proposition was overruled in State ex rel. City of New Orleans v. Judge, 22 La. Ann. 120, where it was held that the city had a right to appeal from a judgment in a mandamus suit against the city treasurer.
We see no good reasons for disturbing either decision. The motion to dismiss is therefore overruled; the city of New Orleans being the only real party in interest.