Court Opinion

ID: 9832965
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 22:20:29.617998+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:56.711761
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Loving County in its motion for rehearing complains of the judgment of this Court in affirming the judgment of the District Court in sustaining appellee’s general demurrer to its petition, and that the judgment holds, in effect, that under no circumstances could Loving County recover from Reeves County “for the misapplication of its funds and property, and that Reeves County could rightfully profit to the amount of over $10,000.00 in .its management of th,e affairs of Loving County, all of which is contrary to the sound principles of law and equity.”
The above statement would have some force if the retention in the hands of Reeves County of the funds sued for was clearly a “misapplication” of the funds, and if the funds and property unmistakably belong to Loving County.
It is made to appear from the petition that Loving County had been an organized county, and had become disorganized, and that during the state of its disorganization it was attached to Reeves County for judicial and other purposes and its affairs had been placed with and were administered by Reeves County.
• The Act of the Legislature referred to in the opinion disorganizing Loving County shows all the facts necessary to be considered in passing upon the sufficiency of *92appellant’s petition as against a general demurrer. Loving County’s cause of action is necessarily determined by a proper construction of that Act.
The Act shows the purpose and the necessity of its disorganization,' the necessity for the assessment and collection of taxes, “for the payment of the outstanding indebtedness of said County”; shows the years for which no taxes had been assessed and the years for which none were collected; makes it the duty of Reeves County Commissioners to levy a sufficient annual tax “to liquidate the indebtedness now existing against said county.”
The Act provides for the giving of bonds by the Reeves County Assessor and Collector of Taxes and the Treasurer conditioned as required, reciting that they are given for the use of Loving County.
The Act clearly states the duty of the Reeves County officers in making the assessment and collection of the taxes, the • purpose and necessity for doing so, and states the disposition to be made of the taxes when collected. The moneys collected by Reeves County and for which Loving County sues, as shown by its petition, are the moneys collected under and by virtue of the Act pleaded; the moneys collected by Reeves County, and for which Loving County sues, could be no other than the moneys collected under the Act of the Legislature pleaded by appellant, and appellant does'not allege that the moneys were other than moneys collected under the legislative act, nor does appellant allege that the debts of Loving County remain unpaid. We think it necessarily follows that Reeves County used and disposed of the moneys collected as the legislative act directs. The petition does not allege that the moneys collected by Reeves County, and for which appellant sues, are moneys collected in excess of the debts owed by Loving County.
We are still of the opinion that the petition does not show that the moneys sued for belong to Loving County.
The motion for a rehearing is overruled.