{ "id": 11271251, "name": "J. G. BROWN et als. v. ROAD COMMISSIONERS OF NORTH COVE TOWNSHIP et als.", "name_abbreviation": "Brown v. Road Commissioners", "decision_date": "1917-05-23", "docket_number": "", "first_page": "598", "last_page": "602", "citations": [ { "type": "official", "cite": "173 N.C. 598" } ], "court": { "name_abbreviation": "N.C.", "id": 9292, "name": "Supreme Court of North Carolina" }, "jurisdiction": { "id": 5, "name_long": "North Carolina", "name": "N.C." }, "cites_to": [ { "cite": "11 Nev., 109", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Nev.", "case_ids": [ 4621126 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nev/11/0109-01" ] }, { "cite": "9 Nev., 212", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "Nev.", "case_ids": [ 4618112 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nev/9/0212-01" ] }, { "cite": "9 Pac. Rep., 855", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "P.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "43 Atl., 985", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "A.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "67 N. Y., 568", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.Y.", "case_ids": [ 2165021 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ny/67/0568-01" ] }, { "cite": "70 N. Y., 327", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.Y.", "case_ids": [ 2166435 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/ny/70/0327-01" ] }, { "cite": "49 N. E., 246", "category": "reporters:state_regional", "reporter": "N.E.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "125 N. C., 487", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "opinion_index": 0 }, { "cite": "134 N. C., 357", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 11273116 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/134/0357-01" ] }, { "cite": "126 N. C., 730", "category": "reporters:state", "reporter": "N.C.", "case_ids": [ 8661832 ], "opinion_index": 0, "case_paths": [ "/nc/126/0730-01" ] } ], "analysis": { "cardinality": 594, "char_count": 12123, "ocr_confidence": 0.46, "pagerank": { "raw": 6.223380287944424e-07, "percentile": 0.9572424878824982 }, "sha256": "1600054d7244ca42935057a3bd89adc0b59345d6d2c6cded82d207d7ed24b89c", "simhash": "1:9192ba5320c36b2b", "word_count": 2033 }, "last_updated": "2023-07-14T14:49:44.051040+00:00", "provenance": { "date_added": "2019-08-29", "source": "Harvard", "batch": "2018" }, "casebody": { "judges": [], "parties": [ "J. G. BROWN et als. v. ROAD COMMISSIONERS OF NORTH COVE TOWNSHIP et als." ], "opinions": [ { "text": "BeowN, J.\nPlaintiffs seek to enjoin the issue of bonds and levying special taxes under an act of General Assembly of 1917 duly ratified. 28 February, entitled \u201cAn Act to authorize the hoard of commissioners of McDowell County .to issue bonds for road purposes in North Cove Township in said, county.\u201d\nThe objections are: (1) That the bill was not read on three separate days in the House. (2) That it was amended in the Senate, - but -the amendment was not passed by the House by recording the ayes and noes, as required by the Constitution. (3) That the General Assembly was-without power to enact such law.\nThe record shows that the original bill, H. B. 711, passed first reading in the House of Representatives on 22 January and was referred to Judiciary Committee. On 1 February the committee reported a substitute for the original measure. The substitute with a slightly different caption, under legislative practice took the number of the original bill and was placed on the calendar. On 6th and 21st .February it passed second and third readings by yea and nay vote duly entered on the journal.\nThe substitute was only an amendment to the original bill, which -had' already passed first reading on 22 January. Consequently, when the substitute passed second and third readings on different days and the ayes and noes were duly entered on both said readings the requirements, of Art. II, Sec. 14, of the Constitution were duly complied with.\nIt is admitted the bill passed the Senate in accord with the Constitution, but it was amended, and the amendment was concurred in by the House without recording the ayes and noes. It was not necessary that the House observe the Constitutional requirement in concurring in the Senate amendment, as it was immaterial and consisted only in striking out the name of one commissioner and substituting another. The amend ment did not broaden the scope of the act or affect its financial features. Glenn v. Wray, 126 N. C., 730; Brown v. Stewart, 134 N. C., 357.\nThe third objection is more serious, but nevertheless we do not think it fatal. The recent amendment, now Article II, Sec. 29, of the Constitution, provides that \u201cThe General Assembly shall not pass any local, private, or special act or resolution . . . authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing of highways, streets, or alleys.\u201d\nAn analysis of the act shows that its primary purpose is to authorize the sale of bonds for road purposes in North Cove Township, and to require the levying of a tax to pay the interest and principal of the bonds. It appoints road commissioners to' contol the expenditure of the money and to supervise the work, the present road laws of the township remaining in force except where modified by the act.\nThe question presented is of necessity one of novel impression in this \u2022State, but we must conclude that the act is not of the character which the General Assembly is prohibited from enacting.\nIt contains no provision for laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing highways. It only provides the means for constructing and repairing them.\nCounties cannot issue bonds and levy special taxes to pay them in excess of the constitutional limitations without special legislative authority. Smathers v. Com., 125 N. C., 487; Connor and Cheshire on Const., p. 316.\nTownships have no power and no machinery to issue bonds or levy taxes for any purpose whatever except through the authority specially conferred by the General Assembly.\nIt is impossible to conceive that the purpose of the recent amendment was to deprive the General Assembly of the power absolutely necessary to aid counties and townhips in the construction and repair of their public roads.\nThe framers of the amendment no doubt intended to leave intact the long recognized and salutary power of the Legislature to supervise and control the financial affairs of the municipalities of the State.\nSimilar prohibitions as the one under consideration are to be found in other States, and they have not been construed so as to deprive the General Assembly of said powers.\nSuch provisions are construed not to destroy or weaken the power of the General Assembly in its necessary control over the subordinate divisions of the State Government, but to prevent cumbering the statute books with a mass of purely private and local legislation.\nIn a similar case the New York Court says: \u201cThe very purpose of the restriction upon the power of the Legislature was to remit to the local authorities such functions of government and administration as concerned the people of the locality, and which could be better determined and discharged by such authorities than by the central legislative body at the capital of the State. There was no reason why the Legislature should be permitted to deal with such a purely local question as the laying out or opening of a highway in a town, any more than the election of a supervisor. There was a general system of statute law under which highways, in the ordinary sense of the term, could be laid out and opened under the direction of local officers.\u201d In re Burns, 49 N. E., 246; N. Y. R. R., 70 N. Y., 327.\nIn People v. Banks, 67 N. Y., 568, an act entitled \u201cAn act in relation to that portion of the Great Western Turnpike Road commonly known as Western Avenue,\u201d etc., authorized a conveyance by a turnpike company, etc., and empowers the commissioners to Improve the same as an approach to Washington Park. It was objected that the act was in conflict with Article III, Sec. 18, of the New York Constitution, forbidding the passing by the Legislature of any private or local bill \u201claying out, opening, altering, working, or discontinuing roads, highways, or alleys.\u201d The Court says the provision was designed to prevent any interference with the highway system of the State or with the keeping of the ordinary highways and public roads in repair under that system, the supervision of the officers designated, and in the use of the means and the labor provided by law. \u201cThe act under review does not in any of its provisions provide for the altering, opening, or working of a highway in the sense which those terms were used in the statutes of the State regulating highways and public roads, or the constitutional provisions now invoked.\u201d Grading, paving, sewering, and ornamenting were even provided for in this act, since it could not be done by general law. It was held to be within the discretion of the Legislature.\nSpeaking of such legislation as affected by a constitutional provision similar to ours, the Pennsylvania Court, In re Sugar Notch, Burrough, 43 Atl., 985, says: \u201cThe restrictions of the Constitution upon legislation apply to direct legislation, not to the incidental operation of statutes, constitutional in themselves, upon other subjects than those with which they directly deal.\u201d So in this case, the bond issue being the direct legislation, the fact that it provides that the proceeds of the bonds are to be used for road purposes will not bring it within the prohibition of the constitutional amendment.\nThe case of S. v. Lytton (Nev.), 9 Pac. Rep., 855, resembles -this case more nearly in the facts and principles of law involved. In that case the constitutionality of an act authorizing a particular county to issue bonds to build a courthouse and jail was questioned under the provision of the Nevada Constitution, which inhibits local or special laws regulating county business and requiring the county government system to be uniform, and all laws to be general and of uniform operation throughout the State. It was held that the law in question was constitutional.\nSee, also, Young v. Hall, 9 Nev., 212; Bank v. Quillen, 11 Nev., 109.\nWe are of opinion that the injunction was properly dissolved.\nAffirmed.", "type": "majority", "author": "BeowN, J." }, { "text": "AileN, J.,\ndissenting: The act of the General Assembly now before us was ratified on 28 February, 1917, after the amendment of 1916 became a part of the Constitution of the State.\nIt provides for the issue of bonds in the sum of $50,000 for Hoad purposes\u201d in North Cove Township in McDowell County, and this term \u201croad purposes\u201d is comprehensive enough to include \u201cthe laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing highways.\u201d\nIf the money to be raised by the sale of bonds provided for in the act cannot be used for one of these purposes, how can it be expended ?\nAnd still the amendment to the Constitution says that \u201cThe General Assembly shall not pass any local, private or special act or resolution . . . authorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing of highways. . . . Any local, private, or special act or resolution passed in violation of the provision of this section shall be void.\u201d\nIt seems to me the act is in direct conflict with the amendment, and, in the language of the Constitution, is void.\nThis construction of the amendment, which, as I see it, is the only one that can be maintained, does not \u201cdeprive the General Assembly of the power absolutely necessary to aid counties and townships in the construction and repair of their public roads,\u201d as there is express provision in the amendment, now section 29 of article II of the Constitution, that \u201cThe General Assembly shall have power to pass general laws regulating matters set out in this section,\u201d and in obedience thereto the General Assembly at its last session passed an act (eh. 284, Laws 1917), under which any county, township, or road district may issue bonds for road purposes whenever a majority of the voters desire it.\nThe General Assembly evidently thought, as the power to pass special acts was withdrawn, it was well to substitute the safeguard of a popular vote in the place of the special approval of the General Assembly.", "type": "dissent", "author": "AileN, J.," } ], "attorneys": [ "W. T. Morgan for plaintiffs.", "W. M. McNairy, J. W. Pless, Cansler & Cansler, Clarkson & Taliar ferro for defendants." ], "corrections": "", "head_matter": "J. G. BROWN et als. v. ROAD COMMISSIONERS OF NORTH COVE TOWNSHIP et als.\n(Filed 23 May, 1917.)\n1. Constitutional Law \u2014 \u201cAye\u201d and \u201cWo\u201d Vote \u2014 Roll-call Bills \u2014 Committee Amendments \u2014 Bonds-\nA bill to authorize a county to issue bonds for highway improvements, read and referred to a committee which reported a substitute for the original measure, with a slightly different caption and retaining the number of the original bill, and put upon its second and third readings, on separate days, with \u201caye\u201d and \u201cno\u201d vote taken on each of them, duly entered, meets the requirements of Article II, section 14, of the Constitution.\n2. Constitutional Law \u2014 Immaterial Amendments \u2014 Roll Call \u2014 \u201cAye\u201d and \u201cWo\u201d Vote \u2014 Bonds.\nWhere a bill authorizing a county to issue bonds for highway improvements has passed both branches of the Legislature by a reading in each branch thereof on three separate days, with the \u201caye\u201d and \u201cno\u201d vote duly taken and entered, except as to an amendment in the second branch, substituting the name of a commissioner, such amendment does not broaden the scope of the act or affect its financial feature, and the failure in the first branch to comply with Article II, section 14, of the Constitution as to roll calls and separate readings will not alon\u00e9 affect its validity.\n3. Constitutional Law \u2014 Amendments\u2014Roads and Highways \u2014 Special Acts\u2014 Acts in Aid \u2014 Statutes.\nThe amendment of 1916 to our Constitution, Aft. II, sec. 29, prohibiting the passage by the General Assembly of local, private, or special acts \u201cauthorizing the laying out, opening, altering, maintaining, or discontinuing of highways, streets, or alleys,\u201d does not include within its meaning an act authorizing a county to issue bonds for the highways of. a township, and requiring the levying of the tax to pay the principal thereof and interest thereon; such being in aid to the laying out, construction, etc., of the local highways, and necessarily afforded by direct legislation, when the levy is in excess of the constitutional limitation.\nAllen, J., dissenting.\nCivil actioN, pending in tbe Superior Court of McDowell, be\u00e1rd by Carter, J., 27 April, 1917, upon motion to continue injunction to final hearing. Motion denied. Plaintiffs appealed.\nW. T. Morgan for plaintiffs.\nW. M. McNairy, J. W. Pless, Cansler & Cansler, Clarkson & Taliar ferro for defendants." }, "file_name": "0598-01", "first_page_order": 656, "last_page_order": 660 }