State ex rel. Polson v. Hardcastle

Citations

• 68 Wash. 548
• 124 P. 110
• 1912 Wash. LEXIS 1329

Syllabus

<p>Municipal Cobpobations — Fiscal Management — Funds — Statutes — Constbuction. The act of 1897, page 222 (Rem. & Bal. Code, §5129 et seq.), creating in all cities of less than twenty thousand inhabitants a current “expense fund” and an “indebtedness fund,” supplanted former laws requiring moneys from the same sources to be paid into the “general fund.”</p> <p>Constitutional Law — Obligation of Contbacts. Where municipal indebtedness was incurred at a time when the law required all moneys received from licenses, fines, etc., to be paid into the general fund, and available to meet the indebtedness, it would be an impairment of the obligation of the contract to divert such revenue into a current expense fund, without making any provision for revenue to pay the past indebtedness.</p> <p>Same — Wabbants—Wbongful Divebsion op Revenue — Defenses. A city’s wrongful diversion to the current expense fund of revenue belonging to the indebtedness fund cannot be justified on the ground of necessity and that all funds diverted were needed to meet disbursements and save the existence of the city, where it appears that the city for years failed to make the maximum tax levies authorized by law to be made for either of such funds.</p> <p>Mandamus — When Lies — To City Oppicebs. Mandamus lies to compel a city to levy and collect the maximum tax for its indebtedness fund and to pay into such fund the revenue belonging thereto, where for years it had wrongfully diverted the revenue belonging to such fund and made no provision for the payment of its past indebtedness.</p> <p>Municipal Cobpobations — Wabbants — Obdee op Payment — Actions — Relief. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 3947, requiring city warrants to be paid in the order of their issuance, the holder of warrants suing to compel the city to provide funds for their payment cannot acquire any preference over other prior warrants of the same class, although the holders thereof had not made any efforts to obtain like relief. ■</p>