Court Opinion

ID: 9559405
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:28:38.378913+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:10:53.705334
License: Public Domain

PER CURIAM.
In a petition for rehearing it is suggested' that the opinion rendered herein cannot be reconciled with the opinion of this court in-the case of Borin v. City of Erick, 190 Okl. 519, 125 P.2d 768. With this we do not agree.
Under the facts in the Borin case,, the promised Federal Grant was a part of the official records of the municipality, upon the faith of which the electors were induced' to approve the bond proposition and the grant was withdrawn prior to delivery of the bonds. The municipal officials sought to sell the bonds notwithstanding. Under such circumstances, the conclusion was-there reached to enjoin the sale of the bonds.
Upon a promised grant of $50,000.00 the people there voted bonds for $60,000.00 on the overall plan and purpose to build a $110,000.00 power plant. When the $50,-000.00 grant was withdrawn the original1 plan and purpose was disrupted and it was reasoned in the opinion that the electors who voted the $60,000.00 bond issue to build a $110,000.00 power plant might not have been satisfied to vote $60,000.00 bond issue to build a $60,000.00 plant.
In the case at bar if a federal grant was anticipated, no harm was done, because the *957promised grant had not been withdrawn. Thus the facts clearly distinguish this case from the Borin case.
It is urged that if this opinion stands the Borin case should be expressly overruled, but we do not agree. It would be enough to reconsider the Borin case and adhere to it or overrule it when we have a case of the same facts. That is, when we have a case where a promised and anticipated grant is officially coupled with the bond issue and the grant is withdrawn and is of sufficient amount in relation to the amount of the bond issue to disrupt or vitally change the original plan. All these facts were present in the Borin case, but they are not all present here. Whatever part the promised grant played in this bond issue it was not withdrawn so as to cause any change in the original plans.
The scope of the Borin decision was discussed in Price v. Storms, 191 Okl. 410, 130 P.2d 523, and in Palmer v. Town of Skiatook, 203 Okl. 316, 220 P.2d 273, and in the latter decision we appropriately emphasized the fact that the grant was withdrawn in the Borin case.
Similar fact differences from the Borin case are easily observed in the Tettleton and Town of Nichols Hills cases cited in the majority opinion here.
It might well be that these cases, Price, Palmer, Tettleton, Town of Nichols Hills, and Sallisaw indicate a restriction of the Borin rule to apply only to cases of similar facts, but we find no occasion in this case to overrule Borin.
There the bonds being valid on their face, the Attorney General approved them, and Borin brought the action to enjoin sale and delivery of the bonds, and in reality there the decision was that under the circumstances shown, and the action being timely brought, it should be held to be illegal to sell and deliver the bonds.
Bond purchasers cannot be expected to go behind every bond proceedings transcript to ascertain what unofficial inducements were offered to the electors to ap-
prove bond issues. Reid v. City of Muskogee, 137 Okl. 44, 278 P. 339. If extraneous considerations are of sufficient import to make a sale of the bonds improper, taxpayers have the remedy of enjoining the delivery of the bonds during the 30-day period provided by 62 O.S.1961 § 13.
We adhere to our opinion promulgated herein and deny the petition for rehearing.
BLACKBIRD, C. J., and WELCH, DAVISON, JOHNSON, WILLIAMS, JACKSON, IRWIN and BERRY, JJ., concur.