State ex rel. Perea v. Board of Commissioners

Citations

• 25 N.M. 338
• 182 P. 865

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. A “ministerial act” is an act which an officer performs under a given state of facts, in a prescribed manner, in obedience to a mandate of legal authority, without regard to the exercise of his own judgment upon the propriety of the act being done. Held, that chapter 11, Laws 1917, requiring the board of loan commissioners to determine the amount of indebtedness owing by certain counties, from parts of which -a new county was created, and to apportion such debts between the new county and the old counties upon the basis of the assessed valuation which the property taken from the old county bore to the total assessed valuation in such old county, did not confer upon such board judicial powers. P. 340</p> <p>2. Sections 9, 10, and 11, c. 11, Laws 1917, construed. Held, that De Baca county was liable for its pro rata share of the total indebtedness of the counties from which it was cai'ved. ' P. 342</p> <p>3. The apportionment of debts and property between two counties, upon division, belongs exclusively to the Legislature. The legislative will in the matter is supreme in the absence of constitutional requirements. P. 342</p> <p>On Motion for Re-hearing.</p> <p>4. Section 10, article 9, of the Constitution, which limits the right Of a county to issue bonds, has no application to the right of the Legislature, in the creation of a new county, to fix the liability of a new county to the parent county and to require the new county to issue bonds therefor. P. 344</p>