Farquharson v. Yeargin

Citations

• 24 Wash. 549
• 64 P. 717
• 1901 Wash. LEXIS 568

Syllabus

<p>CREATION OF NEW COUNTY-NECESSARY POPULATION-LEGISLATIVE DETERMINATION — PRESUMPTIONS.</p> <p>Where a new county has been set off from another county, under art. 11, § 3, of the constitution prohibiting the formation of new counties containing a less population than 2,000, the failure of the legislative records to recite the fact that such new county contains a population of not less than 2,000 would not render the creation of such county illegal, since the legal presumption is that this fact must have been proved to the satisfaction of the legislature and that the passage of the act itself is equivalent to a finding of the necessary facts.</p> <p>SAME-APPOINTMENT OF PROVISIONAL COUNTY OFFICERS.</p> <p>Although art. 11, § 5, of the constitution provides for a general and uniform law governing the elections of county officers, a provision in Laws 1899, p. .26, § 5, authorizing the governor to appoint the county commissioners in the newly created county of Ferry, and that they should fill by appointment all other county offices, is not unconstitutional, since the power to fill county offices provisionally in new counties is a necessary incident of the legislative power to create new counties.</p> <p>COUNTY INDEBTEDNESS CONSTITUTIONAL LIMIT ■ — ■ COMPULSORY OBLI- ' GATIONS-SALARIES.</p> <p>Warrants issued in payment of salaries of county officers, although in excess of the limit of one and one-half per cent, of the assessed valuation of property, are valid, on the ground of being compulsory obligations imposed upon the county by the constitution and laws of the state.</p> <p>SAME-CONSTRUCTION OF NEW COURT HOUSE.</p> <p>Warrants issued in payment for the construction of a county court house properly fall under the rule of compulsory obligations when it appears that, at the time such indebtedness was incurred, the county seat was a new mining camp composed of small frame cabins and tents, the town having been recently destroyed by fire; and that it was necessary, for t