Guillory v. Avoyelles Railway Co.

Citations

• 104 La. 11

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. By the terms of the Statute (Act 106 of 1892) an election held to take the sense of property tax-payers, on a proposition to grant a tax in aid of a railway enterprise, may be contested by tax-payers in interest on grounds of “fraud, illegality and irregularity.”</p> <p>2. But the suit must be brought within three months after the promulgation, of the result of the election.</p> <p>3. The words “illegality and irregularity” are broad in their scope and embrace all matters preceding the election and leading up to it, as well as matters affecting the election itself.</p> <p>4. Thus, a suit contesting a special tax election, and seeking to avoid the tax levy predicated thereon, on the ground that the petition of property tax-payers addressed to the Police Jury, asking that body to order the special election, contained less than one-third of all the property taxpayers of the Parish, must be brought within three months from the promulgation of the result of the election.</p> <p>5. Only' those persons who are named in the record as parties plaintiff or defendant, or who made themselves parties thereto by intervention, are within the meaning of the term “parties to a suit.”</p> <p>6. The timely institution of a contesting suit by certain of the tax-payers which suit is compromised and discontinued, cannot have the effect of suspending the perscription or peremption of the statute in favor of other tax-payers who did not sue in time but bethought themselves to sue after-wards.</p> <p>7. Substantial compliance on part of the grantee with the terms and conditions of the grant suffices.</p>