State ex rel. Evers v. Byrne

Citations

• 32 Wash. 264
• 73 P. 394
• 1903 Wash. LEXIS 413

Syllabus

<p>MANDAMUS PARTIES •— OFFICIAL CAPACITY.</p> <p>A petition in which the averments relate to the appellants as county commissioners and the prayer is that, as such, they be required to make a tax levy, sufficiently brings them into court in their representative and not in their individual capacity.</p> <p>SAME-EMERGENCY FOR ALTERNATIVE WRIT.</p> <p>In an application for an alternative writ of mandamus to the county commissioners to levy a tax, sufficient emergency is shown by the fact that the tax levy must be decided at the session then being held and within one week; and the relator was not required to show why he did not make application sooner.</p> <p>SAME-DEMAND.</p> <p>Where the county commissioners are required by law to levy a tax to meet a certain charge, and have actual knowledge of the law, and admit knowledge of the essential facts, and deny that they are required to make the levy, and it is apparent from their course that a demand would have been useless, no demand is necessary prior to the issuance of an alternative writ, although the levy may serve a private interest.</p> <p>TAXATION-SCHOOL LEVY-STATUTES-REPEAL.</p> <p>Laws of 1889-90, p. 48, § 5, providing that school directors must ascertain and levy annually the tax necessary to pay interest on bonds issued under authority thereof, was repealed by Laws 1897, p. 356, which provides (p. 393, § 97) that the directors shall annually ascertain the necessary amount, and report the same to the county commissioners, and that the latter shall make the levy; and this changes the method of tax levies in the case of outstanding bonds issued under the earlier act, in the absence of the impairment of any contractual right.</p> <p>SAME.</p> <p>It is competent for the legislature to provide that the amount of a school tax shall be determined by the school board, and to require that the ministerial act of making the levy be performed by the board of county commissioners.</p> <p>MANDAMUS-INTEREST ON BONDS.</p> <p>Wh